Kickstarter

Well, friends.....we made a valiant attempt.  And we can't thank you enough.  Your pledges raised a hell of a lot of money for the L.A. River Brewing Company.....unfortunately (barring someone going beer-crazy and pledging $40 grand in the next 6 hours), it doesn't look like our Kickstarter is going to be funded on this go-round.  But do not fret, fans of craft beer: it was certainly NOT all for naught.  The publicity we received due to our campaign, and due to the extraordinary generosity shown by all of our backers, has been more beneficial than we ever could have hoped: we started as a little-known group of brewers and friends who had a big dream, and we've finished our 60-day fundraising effort as an up-and-coming Los Angeles brewery that people are talking about and excited to follow.  Keep an eye on our Facebook page, our Twitter feed (follow us at @LARiverBrewCo), and our website; exciting things are happening, and we can't wait to share them with all of you.

We wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about our Kickstarter, and answer some questions that many of you have posed over the course of our 60-day campaign.  The first one, which is also the most-often asked and probably the most obvious, is "Why did you guys go for such a lofty fundraising goal at $75,000?"  There are really two parts to that answer.  The first one is simple: we were the first brewery project in Los Angeles to attempt a fundraising effort via Kickstarter.  We were testing the waters.  We'd seen successful brewery campaigns in much smaller markets raise $30-$40K, so we didn't feel that a $75K goal was out of reach here in the City of Angels.  There was really no barometer for a project of our scope....and since our personalities as brewers and friends has always been about taking chances and aiming high, we embraced the challenge of being the first L.A. brewery to try to raise a whole-damn-bunch of Kickstarter money.  But the second part of the answer is the much more important part: we wanted to ensure that if we met our fundraising goal, we could actually DO something with the money we'd raised.  Would it be great to cash in on the $35,000 worth of pledges our incredibly generous backers have put together on our behalf?  Of course it would.  $35,000 is still a whole-damn-bunch of money.  But the reality is that $35,000, based on our current business model and investment structure, wouldn't really do much toward actually opening the doors of the brewery and tap-room we've been working so hard to try to create in L.A.  We set out with the purpose of taking each and every dollar from each and every backer seriously, whether you pledged one dollar or thousands of them.  We felt, and still feel, like we owed it to you guys to ensure that if we took your money, we could show you a product.  We're pretty sure that darn near all of you would actually prefer that we were able to keep the money you've pledged, and we can't tell you how thankful we are - but we're passionate about you seeing a value in and return on your pledges.  $75K made sense in that regard - by the time Kickstarter and Amazon fees were taken out, and after we'd spent some of that pledge money to supply you with all of the rewards we'd promised, we felt that we'd still have enough between your pledges and our other fundraising efforts to make this thing happen.  We were (and still are) hopeful that we can do this on the big scale we've been aiming for, but we were (and still are) positive that we  could get going on a smaller scale with $75K if we decided to change course and go the bootstrap route.  It would give us the flexibility to evaluate our position and take some real steps toward bringing more great, local craft beer to Los Angeles.  Which leads to the second question:  What's next for the LARBC?

The answer is, a LOT.  The publicity we've gotten from our Kickstarter has been amazing, and it's opened a ton of doors for our company.  It's made us a visible brand.  It's generated interest from a number of potential investors.  It's gotten people talking about us, and even more importantly, it's helped push the conversation about craft beer and local product in L.A.  We can't make any guarantees about HOW you'll see us in the coming months.....but we can definitely guarantee that you WILL.

And the last question: "Have you guys thought about pivoting and trying to start on a smaller scale?"   The answer is Yes.  Absolutely.  We all love brewing and the world of craft beer so much, that our target up until this point has been to get out of our day-gigs and do this as a full-time endeavor.  We're still aiming for that.  But we're also so passionate about our product, and so eager to share it with all of you who have supported us (many of you without ever actually drinking a sip of LARBC beer), that we've definitely discussed scaling back the big plans in favor of being able to release the product sooner. So don't be surprised if you see another LARBC Kickstarter in the coming months - hopefully, we'll garner your support again if we decide to come at this thing from another angle.

In the meantime, like we mentioned before, become our Facebook friends if you haven't already.  Follow our Twitter.  Bookmark our website and read the blog.  And be on the lookout for weekly YouTube installments that should be coming soon.....

Oh....and DEFINITELY support our friends Kip and John from another upstart brewery called L.A. Aleworks - their Kickstarter should be launching mid-February.  They're incredibly nice guys and they make killer beer.  Meaning the beer is good....not that it will kill you.  They also write an awesome beer blog at www.bierkast.com - if you love craft beer and you're not reading it, you should be.

Thanks again to each and every one of you for supporting the L.A. River Brewing Company.  Here's to Local. Robust. Beer.

With overwhelming gratitude -

Ryan, Constance, Tanner, and Jessica

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/01/los_angeles_breweries.php

http://bierkast.com/2012/12/14/la-river-brewing-company/ 

http://laist.com/2013/01/28/q_a_with_la_river_brewing_company.php

http://www.foodgps.com/ride-the-river/

http://lawonders.net/2013/01/16/somethings-brewing/

https://happytoeat.jux.com/856968

http://www.beeroftomorrow.com/laweekly-6-to-watch/

http://www.girlswholikebeer.com/tag/la-river-breweing-company/

http://www.la-beer-blog.com/2012/12/another-day-another-brewery.html

Hi Backers.....

Well....this is it.  The final push.  The last hurrah.  The fourth quarter.  The homestretch.  We have 48 TINY LITTLE HOURS left to raise just a touch more money than we raised in our first 1,392 hours on Kickstarter.  But are we waving the white flag yet?  Are we daunted?  Are we scurrrrrred?  Heck, NO!  Why?  Because of this fantastic little thing called the Inter-web, and all of these great facts we just learned:

Over the next 48 hours, there will be 2,001,600,000 Facebook updates across the world.  TWO BILLION!  And even crazier than that?  More than 5 BILLION "likes!" There will also be almost 1 billion Tweets over the next two days, and almost 10 million images will be posted to Instagram!

Kinda makes 42,000 seem like a tiny little number, huh?

So yeah....we're asking one more time.  But it'll be the last time we ask during this campaign.  Please, please, please spread the word.  Re-post our link on your Facebook, and stress that there are (now) fewer than 48 hours left for our fundraising effort.  Tweet at all your tweeples.  Heck - tweet at anyone and everyone (we sure have been).  Visit our website and share our link.  Befriend our Facebook page, if you haven't already.  And, you know....anything else you can think of.  And for those of you who didn't see it, here's our latest, greatest publicity, courtesy of LAist:

http://laist.com/2013/01/28/q_a_with_la_river_brewing_company.php

Of course, thank you all, once again, for everything you've done to support the LARBC.  Win or lose, you'll see one more update from us before kickoff on Sunday, so keep your eyes peeled.  Now go socially network!!

R,T,C,J

Well, Backers.....

Here we are: two weeks left, and a pretty large mountain to climb for us to reach our funding goal.  We'd like to take this opportunity first to thank each and every one of you for all you've done so far for the L.A. River Brewing Company.....we've raised a heck of a lot of money in pledges, and we know that it's mostly due to all of you and the efforts you've put in on our behalf.  So THANK YOU!  Now...back to that two weeks and a whole lot of money left to raise....

Today we launched our GIVE US TEN campaign. Everyone has done a phenomenal job spreading the word on Facebook/Twitter, but now it is time to take it to the streets. Here's how the contest works:  on the LARBC Facebook page, you'll find our very clever "GIVE US TEN" graphic.  Copy it. Download it to your computer.  Then print it. You post it in a clever location where you think the most people will see it, then Facebook or Tweet us a photo showing your work. At the end of the Kickstarter effort we'll figure out whose image got the most views, and we'll reward that person with the $1000 dollar level reward from our Kickstarter page.  How about that for an incentive?!  And obviously, since most of you who are reading this update have already contributed to our fundraising campaign, that means that no matter what level you've pledged at, if you're the winner we'll bump you up to the $1000 level rewards!

If you're not our Facebook friend, you should be!  Here's the link (just in case any of you haven't figured out the "search" function on Facebook yet...)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/LA-River-Brewing-Company/114250248631107

We realize that it's going to be a huge uphill battle over the next 14 days for us to reach our funding goal...but with your help, we're still convinced that we can do it!  So let's go get all "guerrilla marketing" on this sucker and make it happen!  And just in case you need some added motivation (besides the "Rocky" theme song already swirling in your brain), here's some links to all the awesome publicity we've gotten over the past month thanks to ALL OF YOU!

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/01/los_angeles_breweries.php

http://bierkast.com/2012/12/14/la-river-brewing-company/

http://www.foodgps.com/ride-the-river/

http://lawonders.net/2013/01/16/somethings-brewing/

Go get 'em, Tigers!  We love you profoundly!

-Ryan, Tanner, Constance, and Jessica

Hi Friends and Backers!!

Just a quick note to let you all know how awesome you've been at helping us spread the word....here's proof: L.A. Weekly just named us one of "Six Breweries to Watch in 2013!"  Check out the story here:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/01/los_angeles_breweries.php

How awesome is that?!

27 days left.....now's the time to motivate everyone you know to jump on the LARBC wagon!

Thanks again for everything you guys do....we're so humbled and thankful for your support!!

-Ryan, Tanner, Constance, and Jessica

Hi Friends!

Just a quick update to let you know that today we hit our 25% funding mark!  Thank you again to all of our backers - we've known for a long time that Los Angeles needs more craft beer, and we're happy to see that you think so, too!

The flip-side of that 25%, of course, means that we have 29 remaining days to wrestle up 75% of our funding goal......the clock is ticking, and we need your help!  We'd hate to see everyone's generous pledges go unused....so please, please, please help us continue to get the word out!  Re-post us on your Facebook page.  Tweet out our link.  Send out a mass email, if that's your thing....whatever you can do to help us out is greatly appreciated!  We need to go viral in a hurry - so don't be shy about telling all of your friends how awesome the L.A. River Brewing Company is!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/larbc/la-river-brewing-company

Thanks again for everything all of you have done for us so far.  The Kickstarter campaign has been an incredible push of positive momentum, and we couldn't do any of it without you guys!

Here's to an amazing 2013 - for all of you and for the LARBC!!