Hardware Podcasts

Live Episode! New Belgium Brewing Company: Kim Jordan

How I Built This · 10 Sept 2018 · 44m

What this episode covers

Kim Jordan, co-founder of New Belgium Brewing Company, recounts how she and her husband Jeff Lebesch started the brewery in their Fort Collins basement in 1991, financing it with a second mortgage and bootstrapping through manual labor. Jordan details the early struggles of securing bank loans, the decision to reject outside equity to maintain control, and the pivotal hiring of Belgian brewmaster Peter Buchard to specialize in Belgian-style beers. She explains the company's evolution into a quarter-billion-dollar enterprise and its unique culture, culminating in the decision to sell 100% of the company to its employees through an employee ownership trust.

Most relevant to

founders before launch, early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
New Belgium Brewing Company, U.S. Bank, American Express
Products
Fat Tire
Also
Jeff Lebesch, Peter Buchard, Great American Beer Festival

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