In 2007, Henry Schwartz won the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Award for his work owning and running a skateboard shop in Menomonie, Wisconsin. When he walked into the shop, he had been looking for a job, but it turned out the owner was selling the store. So, with his mom’s help, Schwartz got a loan to buy the Board to Death Skate Shop, obtained an interest-free credit card for inventory purchasing, and hung up flyers announcing a new-ownership sale.
“[That experience] solidified my entrepreneurial passion,” Schwartz says. “It’s a very difficult feat to achieve success as an entrepreneur, and to be recognized for that really puts confidence behind your efforts.”
Schwartz sold his shop’s inventory gradually while he was in college, but the small business ownership bug never left him. These days, he’s one of three founders of MobCraft, the world’s first completely crowdsourced brewery. Here’s how it works: Beer fans submit ideas for unique brews on the MobCraft website, and the brewers devise a recipe for making it. Once the recipe ideas are finalized each month, they’re put up for a vote on the website, and the one with the most pre-orders gets made.
The idea originally came about in 2012 during a business incubator, and Schwartz and his two cofounders were home brewing during their free time while taking business classes. They initially tried out crowdsourcing by making five-gallon recipes that friends and family suggested. The idea was a hit, so they bought a fermentation tank and began brewing at the House of Brews in Madison, Wisconsin.
As business grew, they realized they needed more space and sought investors so they could move to their own dedicated facility. In fact, their investment search even led them to Shark Tank, where they sought $400,000 for a 16 percent stake in the company. Although they didn’t end up getting a deal, Schwartz said it was a fun experience and knowing there were so many people watching the show and the potential for how many new customers they could be exposed to was exciting.
“Pitching investors is something I’ve been doing since 2012,” he says. “That was probably the 10th panel of investors that said no to investing in the company. So from that standpoint, it was another ‘no’ and we moved on to the next one and kept trucking until we were able to finance the project.”
They began construction on their 14,000-square-foot brewery in Milwaukee—with tasting room and outdoor patio—in November 2015, fully financed the project in January 2016, and opened in July 2016. The location is in Walker’s Point, a cool neighborhood that’s also home to the Iron Horse Hotel and Harley Davidson Museum.
Schwartz says Milwaukee, and Wisconsin overall, is a great place to do business.
“The thing I love the most about it is it seems like the attitudes everyone has are just so positive and supportive and in general excited,” he says. “The people here work so hard.”
