When life gives you a recession: make beer

Sage — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:00:40 +0000

Economic stimulus in the making

The Wall Street Journal has an article today about the rise of craft brewing even as the rest of the economy is in the tank (or should I say fermenter?). Turns out a lot of folks who were laid off, downsized, or otherwise de-employed are tapping their inner entrepreneur and getting into the micro-brewing business.

Cool.

As a serial entrepreneur myself—I’ve started or worked at more than a dozen software/Internet start-ups in the past couple of decades—I’m very much in tune with the whole “f*** this, I’m going to do something I like” mentality.

It takes a particular type of personality to start with nothing more than an idea and risk it all to try to turn it into a profitable business. (It also requires an affinity for the adrenaline rush that comes with knowing that the whole thing could blow up in your face at any time.) I also think it’s this sort of independent-minded, risk-taking attitude that makes the U.S. economy the most vibrant in the world.

Forget Obama, Congress and the rest of the government yahoos who never created anything themselves. You want the economy to recover? Go to your favorite pub, liquor store, brewery, or whatever and buy a couple of pints of craft brew. Your $10 in support of your favorite small brewer will go a lot further toward righting the economy than any idiotic “stimulus package” bureaucrats can dream up.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal article: In Lean Times, a Stout Dream.

(PS: Oh, and hey, if you’re interested in GPGPU acceleration of cloud computing, my new start-up is looking for about $1.5 million of seed capital to get things rolling. Call me.)

My Beer Pix » craft brewing

When life gives you a recession: make beer