We were lucky to catch up with Haidar Hachem recently and have shared our conversation below.

Haidar , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

One thing we love to do at Shōjō Beer Co is giving back to the community. The way we do this (beyond working with Samurai Piggy & Friends, the 501(c)3 that we own) is by giving back to different non-profits every single time we do a new release with one of our beers.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Haidar Hachem and alongside my wife (Marilyn Orozco) opened Shōjō Beer Co back during the pandemic and it’s taken off ever since. Shōjō is a Lebanese, Nicaraguan & Cuban brewery/eatery with a Japanese aesthetic. I got into my industry thanks to Mari and never looked back after having had left the world of Civil Engineering. I think I’m most proud of the fact that we’re moving so fast and are close to opening a brick and mortar location from when we started our contract brewing model back in 2020.

The main thing that I was our guests to know and look forward to is all the great beer, food and sake that we will be dropping in the near future as soon as we open our doors.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my wife and business partner during a half marathon while I was running in a speedo.

I ran by, caught her attention and I dropped into her DMs when she said I was her man crush Monday for motivating her to finishing her first ever half marathon.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The biggest pivot I had to do was when I was diagnosed with cancer. I had been diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of 2 and then cancer back in 2012.

I had to look forward to the life I was living and to the future I had and realized that life was fleeting. I didn’t want to be sitting behind a desk for the rest of my life.

So I started traveling more and then after that instead of advancing in my career as a civil engineer, and again, thanks to my wife, decided to leave the world of civil engineering and chase the dream of becoming a brewer and opening my own brewery.

Contact Info:

• Website: HTTPS://shojo.beer
• Instagram: Www.instagram.com/shojobeerco
• Twitter: @samurai_piggy