We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Racine Gruberman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Racine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers.
Entrepreneurship is a wild ride, so much so that we made it literal. So off we drove: 24 states, 10,000 miles, and over 150 hours driving. It was our launch tour, we had our first products in hand and had 6 weeks to wait for the rest to arrive. The idea was to hand deliver Cooler Kegs to our first supporters and make it into a social media marketing blitz.
Cooler Kegs, portable draft systems built into a cooler, would be delivered all over the country and we would record amazing content, meet amazing people, and because of the universe connecting us with an autonomous delivery robot company, we’d end at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas to show off the worlds first draft beverage delivery robot.
We began driving north to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The first Cooler Keg ever delivered was to a lakeside community in Wisconsin, then we made another Wisconsin stop before delivering one to a hockey game parking lot for impromptu tailgating. Our journey then went south to Florida before cutting across the country to California. Meeting, relaxing with, and celebrating with Cooler Kegs first supporters in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and finally in California.
After deliveries on the west coast, we drove to Las Vegas. There, joined by the team from Ottonomy, we showed CES goers a Cooler Keg driven by and operated by an autonomous robot. A mobile draft vending machine for stadiums, golf courses, trade shows, airports, amusement parks, etc.
It was indeed a wild ride. Returning home, we received the full delivery and began the daunting task that all product-based small businesses must do: quality check all the first units. Truly a right of passage and it has led us here. Ready for the next wild ride as we begin marketing and selling Cooler Kegs.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Cooler Keg is a company born of necessity. The need to drink a draft beer while floating in a lake. The situation was dire, there we floated with mere cans and bottles of our favorite beverage. Alas, draft was not an option. Fast forward a year and at our next lake weekend with friends, we had a portable draft system built into a picnic cooler. The rest is history (and actually current day as well).
We have built and are just entering the market with a product all around epic parties and creating amazing memories. Our flagship product is everything you need to serve any beverage on draft, anywhere. We also sell extra kegs, ice packs, CO2, and other accessories.
The problem is that draft has only been available at bars, breweries, and from kegerators. Also, the options are almost always limited to beer. We aimed to change that. Real draft, but served anywhere and serving any beverage. Our product serves two different drinks on draft, is CO2 driven just like the bar or brewery, stays cold for 3 days with its custom ice packs, and everything fits inside the cooler for easy transport.
Our product is built in a stainless steel cooler, has been designed to be easy to use, and opens up non-beer drinkers to endless options on draft. Seltzer? No problem. Cider? We can do that. Mocktails / cocktails? Yep, we’ve done margaritas, cosmopolitans, aperol spritz, and rum and coke, just to name a few. So get ready for draft at home, in the backyard, on the boat, at the tailgate, or anywhere you want. Because this is your bar and you can bring it with you.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
We had our life-savings as our basis, but bringing a product to market is a daunting task, especially when it is novel. We did not know if the world would want our idea, so before we mortgaged away our retirement, we started with crowdfunding. Let the public decide in advance if they wanted the product. Although the crowdfunding campaign was a success, it came with strings attached. No money till you have a purchase order from the factory that will be making the product. So we were on our own to pay our way through tooling, molding, and sampling. Luckily, we were able to secure a local small business grant, but otherwise our life savings kept the lights on. Lastly, in order to purchase sufficient inventory, we were able to leverage our pre-sales and funds raised from crowdfunding to secure an SBA-backed business loan.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Let me just google search this: ‘A factory to make my product’. Well that did not go well. Who do I talk to? Who do I trust half way across the world? How do I tackle language barriers? The answer was an outsourcing partner. The risk of going it alone was too high, so as a small business, we pay a sourcing partner to reach out to their network of validated and trusted factory partners. In this way, we were able to evaluate multiple regions around the world, interview factories with our sourcing partners people on the call helping to translate, and find the right factory partner for us. After researching five possible outsourcing partners, we choose Gembah and have been very happy with the experience. One key lesson learned, do not believe anyone who says it will take 3-6 months. The process of bringing a new product to market will take over a year. Tooling, molds, samples, and revisions all take time and more than you expect.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thecoolerkeg.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecoolerkeg
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecoolerkeg
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecoolerkeg/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecoolerkeg
- Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecoolerkeg
- Other: https://ottobotbrew.com/