That’s how we’ve been rewarded for our hard work!

When we decided to spin DeskBeers out of Mint Digital - the digital product agency that incubated us for a year - we thought crowdfunding would be a great fit. Because we already had a "crowd" in our customer base, and because of the broad appeal of the concept (who doesn't love beer delivered to their desk?) we looked to crowdfunding as a way to raise money by leveraging these two assets. And it was a success! We blasted through our target and, since March, have been putting that cash to good use.

But what about the platform we used? Since founding in 2011, Crowdcube has established itself as the leading investment crowdfunding platform. They have funded more than 270 businesses and have over 190,000 investors on their books. More importantly, they have been a great DeskBeers customer since we launched UK delivery back in January 2015!

While funding on Crowdcube was no walk in the park (the team at Crowdcube will be the first to tell you how much work goes into running a successful campaign), the tools provided by the platform made it possible to reach a large number of potential investors, send those interested our business plan and answer any questions they had both publicly via the forum and privately via email.

As entrepreneurs themselves, the team at Crowdcube understand the difficulties of raising money in order to start and grow a business.

“We want to give entrepreneurs the opportunity to take control of raising finance from their own network of friends, family, customers and ‘the crowd’.” - Crowdcube

So how does DeskBeers fit in with the culture of this world-leading investment platform?

“Our ‘crowd culture’ is seriously enjoyable. We are serious about what we do and maintaining our position as the global leader in our sector and we get a great enjoyment out of it … what better way than to have DeskBeers on a Friday afternoon?” - Crowdcube

This week's highly tasty delivery from @deskbeers​ - @dazwest

When good news strikes, such as another company successfully hitting its funding targets, Crowdcube HQ has been known to erupt in celebration. Among the whoops and cheers (even an air-horn has been heard once or twice) you’ll find the revelry backed up by some delicious craft beer.

“…a social, celebratory craft beer is always a good motivation” - Crowdcube

Post Script:

Crowdcube take investing on their platform very seriously and asked me to include the following risk warning about investing in start-ups:

The internet, mobile apps, “technology” - apparently it’s going to be a big deal. We’re not convinced, but if you are you might want to consider learning to code and if you do, you probably want to talk to Alice from Steer.

Photo by @thedunnething​

Steer is a code school. They run classes in person from their classroom in Clerkenwell. Subjects covered include Front End development, Ruby on Rails, Javascript and iOS app development. All classes are taught by their team of professional developers, and all are completed in five days or less.

Aimed at designers, marketeers and entrepreneurs, Steer courses are an intense affair. The Steer team recognise that people are giving up a lot of time to improve themselves - time that could have been spent holidaying or at work - so a lot of effort goes into making the classroom an inspiring environment in which to learn. From the classroom itself to the snacks on offer, no small detail goes unnoticed.

“DeskBeers fits nicely into it because it’s more of a personal touch than just getting regular beer. I also think that in the tech industry, we take a lot of crazy ideas for granted. But when you’re new to the scene like a lot of our students are, it can be pretty inspiring to see that an entire business can be built around such a simple idea as weekly beer deliveries.”

Steer doesn’t run courses every week, nor is the demand for beer at the end of the courses consistent. In the winter, for example, Alice reduces the weekly order down from two boxes to just one. It’s dark by the time classes finish and some folks just want to brave the cold and get home. But come rain or shine, at the end of the week the whole Steer team joins the class, bringing with them their DeskBeers boxes:

“It's kind of like a celebration. On the courses there are two teachers but there are more of us on the team. It's nice for the rest of the team to meet the class and for them to meet some of the other teachers and chat about other areas of development that they might be interested in.”

Friday drinks, then, are an important way for the wider Steer team to interact with their students, and for their students to pick the brains of more than just their teachers. And this isn’t just paying lip service to supporting students and networking - more than one past student has gone on to become a member of the Steer team.

DeskBeers fits in at Steer by providing something a little special. It fits with Steer’s ethos of quality in teaching. The flexible subscription allows Steer to get the right amount of beer for their classes, and serving beer at the end of the week gives a focal point for socialising, networking and, for those with insatiable minds, more learning.

Last Friday we sat down with Noam from Mint Digital - a long time subscriber of DeskBeers - to find out a bit more about Mint and how DeskBeers fits into their lives. Noam is a Director at Mint, responsible for heading up the Agency side of the business. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.

Name: Noam Sohachevsky

Company: Mint Digital

Size: around 20 people (NY & LDN)

Customer since: late 2013

Subscription: 12 beers every week (+ extra on special occasions)

Please could you tell us a bit about Mint?

Mint is a hybrid agency and incubator of digital products. We turn ideas and insights into products people love. Mint has a bit of a niche in building products that straddle the physical and digital worlds where the customer is buying a physical thing, but it's got an intrinsic digital or personalised element to it. Things like Stickygram and Boomf, Foldable Me, Projecteo etc. I feel like most the digital world markets stuff and drives people to stuff rather than make things people actually want to have and hold. Mint is product focused - things we want people to buy.

It's really about taking the seeds of ideas and turning them into something real, and ultimately things that people love and want to use. It's all about trying to to it in a way that's de-risked and builds confidence in ideas. It has a lot of Lean elements to it in terms of being iterative and validating assumptions - building up to that final product that people love rather than assuming what people want.

How does DeskBeers work at Mint?

It tries to encourage people to stop work around five on a Friday and just relax and have more casual conversations. We put it in the calendar as an event so that we didn't miss it. We just found that we were getting too busy. Half the office would be too busy to stop. Inviting everyone to an event has helped.

There's a serendipity to it - sometimes everyone stops and it's a bit of a craic, sometimes not so much. Sometimes it leads on to a couple more beers at the pub. It leads to conversations that you might not have ordinarily had. One thing we've done, which is quite nice, is invite potential partners along - somewhere between a meeting and a social thing. It's been a nice thing to say "Hey, do you fancy joining us for DeskBeers on Friday?" It's quite casual, they get to meet more Mints... it's worked quite nicely.

We talk to Paul from Windsor and Eton Brewery today. They supplied us with an IPA called Kohinoor, which made up half of last weeks round. A brewery with a diverse range of beers and some exciting plans for the future, WeBrew are ones to watch.

Describe Webrew without using the words "brewery" "pub" or "beer".

Traditional, passionate business making the best product that people love.

Do you have any future events coming up?

We have open tours on the 1st Wednesday of every month as well as some Saturdays. Check it out www.webrew.co.uk/events

Do you have a favourite hop?

My personal favourite is Mandarina Bavaria - we use it to brew Mandarin, our Christmas Ale, it's light & refreshing & full of aroma - perfect with Christmas dinner.

What's the best perk of working for Webrew?

It is by far the friendliest place I've worked. Everyone loves their jobs and has real passion for what they do.

What beers are you thinking of making next?

Kieran, one of our younger brewers and son of our head brewer Paddy has just launched a new brewery brand called Uprising with his first beer, Treason, a West Coast IPA. Kieran has lots of ideas for quirky, craft keg beers so keep an eye out for them.

www.uprisingbrewery.co.uk

Who are some of your favourite breweries?

Personally I'm relatively new to the brewing industry but have a long background in the hospitality business. The rest of the team tend to rave about many of the London Brewers who form the London Brewers alliance (LBA)

Describe the Kohinoor in 10 words.

Classic pale, smooth IPA with Jaggery, Jasmine Petals, Cardamom & Coriander

Tell us more about your Knight Club.

Knight Club is our members club. Fans of the brewery can sign up to annual membership where they attend a host of evenings at the brewery with guests, where they can be amongst the first to try new beers and hear the latest news.

What are WeBrews plans for the future?

This week marks the first edition of "Meet the brewer". It's a new feature which helps you - the DeskBeers aficionado - get closer to the brewers of each batch of DeskBeers, every week. Helping us kick-start, last week's brewer - Wild Card - offered us a slice of their mind, showcasing just why they're so brilliant. Without further ado, here it is: 

Describe what Wild Card’s about without using the words ‘beer’, ‘brewery’ or ‘pub’.

Working hard to do something we love.

What made you want to start brewing as Wild Card?

A hobby that got out of control. Taking over first the shed and then our lives. We grew up in Nottingham where good beer was widely available. We started out very good at drinking beer and thought we’d have a crack at home brewing. It was once we had built our own equipment that we felt inspired to make a living from brewing.

What’s your favourite non-beery drink?

Tea. Yorkshire Gold Blend, specifically. Gets us up and going for the early morning brew schedules. Without tea bags, all manufacture would stop.

What’s the weirdest ingredient you’d like to see in your beers?

That would be telling. We’ve got something very interesting coming out in the Spring.

Favourite hop?

Any fresh wild hops, regardless of the variety. There’s some great ones on Walthamstow marshes. One of the team, Toby, who is a keen forager introduced us to some great spots nearby.

What’s the best part of being a small brewery?

Being in control of our own destiny, making the beer the way we want to and having a finished product that we can be proud of. We are all involved with every part of the process, whether it’s driving the van, washing the casks, brewing the beer, perfecting the recipes, we all do a bit of everything.

What beers are next after the IPA and red ale?

Our blonde beer, the King of Hearts, is out in bottles this week. It is brewed with lager malts and then dry hopped in the fermenter with Citra. This gives loads of great hop aroma without making the beer astringent. The result is really a really zesty and refreshing brew.

Next is a London Porter, called the Ace of Spades. We’re launching this on cask at a free halloween party at the brewery on Friday 31st October. The bottles will be out soon after this. We’re really happy with the recipe, it’s complex, but well rounded with great chocolate and roasted coffee notes.

Tell us about the events at Wild Card.

We took such a big risk when we threw everything at getting Wild Card Brewery off the ground. And it was thanks to the support of locals and beer enthusiasts that we have managed to get this far. It’s been great because we now have a platform to offer other start ups the chance to make a name for themselves. So recently we’ve had a local start up called the Choi Boys doing a food residency at the brewery. They make incredible Korean food and it means we can focus on making and serving great beer. We’ve also worked with up and coming bands. We recently had the Tigercats do a gig here. On Thursday 4th December the Firestations will be launching their new album at the brewery.

We’re really lucky in the brewery because we share the industrial estate with some great neighbours. Chris Bracey’s God’s Own Junkyard, Mother’s Ruin Gin Palace, Aura Rosa Cake are all next to us. As well as some great traditional businesses like Shiv Motors mechanics. We’ve all collaborated to do some really ambitious events. We even had Javier Zalba from Buena Vista Social Club playing in the industrial estate car park.

We’ve got some other great things lined up at the brewery soon, including: - A Halloween party and London Porter launch on Fri 31st October; - A Classic & Retro Car Boot Sale on Sunday 16th November - A winter beer festival Fri 21st November - Sun 23rd November - Firestations' album launch on Thursday 4th December - Flamenco Thief Thursday 18th December

What brewery would you like to do a collaboration with?

Mikkeller. We’re big fans.

Who are some of your favourite London breweries?

It’s always great to see other brewery start-ups who are making something from nothing and starting out with little capital and lots of hard work. Strawman Brewery in Peckham, Anspach & Hobsday are good examples.

Over in East and North London we have great neighbours as breweries, such as Beavertown, ELB, Hackney Brewery, Five Points, Brodies, Crate, Pressure Drop, Redchurch, Redemption… just to name a few. One of the great things about the brewing industry is that it is so collaborative. Rather than competing against each other we are working together to build excitement about good beer and win over drinkers from the bland, multinational breweries. What’s Wild Card’s next move for world domination?

In true DeskBeers fashion, last week's delivery brought in a series of firsts. It was the first time we used a 'guest brewer' in form of Newport's Tiny Rebel, and Anspach & Hobday's first ever DeskBeers round. We also affectionately dubbed our DeskBeers breweries "DeskBeers debutantes" for the first time...but we're not as sure on that one.

It was also our first delivery including a Porter - since May, anyway - so we made sure to include one of the best we'd tasted, Anspach & Hobday's Porter, with aromas of coffee and chocolate; self-indulgence never tasted so good. 

BEER NEWS

October marks the anniversary of London's 'beer flood' (which sounds like a terrible student night). In 1842, Tottenham Court road was flooded with over 600,000 litres of beer, spilling from one of Meux and Company's ruptured vats. Raise a bottle to beer's darker side.

Continuing the theme of gallons of beer moving around a city, Belgium have stepped aside from hosting NATO summits and mass-producing waffles and chocolate to focus on the larger issue at hand: beer transportation. Grasping this problem, Bruge's local council has approved plans for an underground beer pipeline to help ferry the good stuff around the city. Now how do we get this for London and Brighton? 

Another craft beer quandary has been dealt with, in the form of this video, calling out those who wouldn't even touch a craft beer with a barge pole If you know someone like this (we all know a few), send them to the video and set them right. 

Finally, if you're not convinced about DeskBeers, listen to these guys - 

Goddamnit I do love me a @deskbeers Friday.

— Paul Bowsher (@boffbowsh) October 3, 2014

Pretty cool @deskbeers today to accompany our end of week team sit down :) http://t.co/4c4UFhl7Ty

— Leto (@weareleto) October 3, 2014

It's this time of week! #thoughtworks #deskbeers #happyfriday #TWLondon #LifeAtTW pic.twitter.com/2hsGsAA2jW

— Jade Daubney (@JadeyDaubney) October 3, 2014

Have a great week,

 - Team DeskBeers