Steve Hershberger – CEO & Co-Founder of SteadyServ; Solving a major problem within the beer industry; Using Big Data; Bringing Products to Market.
Segment 1: (Length :05:00) – General Updates; Introduction to Steve Hershberger and his journey as an entrepreneur thus far; Co-founding SteadyServ; Solving a major problem within the beer industry.
Steve’s finer points:
“I ran a company from 2003 to 2012 that was headquartered there in Chicago called Town Blue and we were early in the social space. In 2009, by accident, I founded a craft brewery that was based here in Indianapolis and people would say, ‘Why would you name a brewery Flat 12? That’s just a stupid name for a brewery.'”
“I would say, ‘What was the name again and they’d say Flat 12.’ Aha, so you remember the name.’ It was actually named after a car engine and Indianapolis is a racing town so there you go.“
“As part of this process, we stood this brewery up and started working with distributors. Brewing beer is an insanely tedious and repetitive task in which 90% is cleaning.”
“So, everyone says, ‘Oh wow! Being an entrepreneur, being in the beer business, how exciting and cool.’ No, it’s really not. (laughter)”
“To your point, guys, on social, it’s all about really understanding what your customers want. What is it that they need from us to make them happy and beer is like social glue.”
“Beer is like milk. It’s perishable. In a keg it only lasts 3 months and if it’s an IPA, it can actually start going bad after 2 weeks, a month.”
“Running a business with bad data is pretty much impossible. So we sought out to solve the problem just to see if we could, and ultimately we did solve it using the Internet of things technology.”
Segment 2: (Length :07:00) – Talking with Steve Hershberger; Data manipulation by the industry
Steve’s finer points:
“Site surveys are attempted but they never really get them done. So they get to the top 20 and then what they do, because they all have 90 to 130 accounts that they manage, they’ll stop at Starbucks and make it up. They’ll just write down the rest (of the information).“
“Then the distributor will take all that information and package it, and they’ll look at it and say, ‘Hmm, this doesn’t really tell the story we want it to the brewer so let’s change the spreadsheet around to make it a little more palatable.’ Then they give it to the brewer and that’s why its (the data) is off 30 to 150%.”
“So, we looked at that and said that’s craziness. We developed an Internet of things solution that solves the problem.”
Segment 3: (Length :07:00) – A changing industry; Appropriate way to bring products to market.
Steve’s finer points:
“Ten years ago craft beers started to explode across the U.S. In our industry, there’s this term called ‘Skumaggedon’, and it’s the unchecked growth of beer SKU’s. So, SteadyServ actually owns the world’s largest database of beer – about 62,000 SKUs.”
“Every single week we add between 700 and 900 beers from around the planet. Every single week. So all of those new beers are making their way to market.”
“The interesting thing about all these craft breweries is that they can sell whatever they want . . . so now all of a sudden, you’ve got all of these distributors managing all of these SKU’s. Twenty Five years ago, the average distributor managed 56 draft SKU’s. Today, it’s over 2,000. So it’s getting harder and harder and retailers don’t know what to put on tap.”
RE: Bringing a product to market – 1.) Is there a definitive need, and if so, then 2.) What’s the utility. If there’s a need and there’s a simple way to solve the problem, then forget how to solve it, but how could you theoretically solve it?, 3.) How long does it take for you to get to market and what are the steps?
The 3 Phase Gates: 1.) Does your system work consistently and does it measure economic value to our constituents? It’s either yes or no. 2.) Does the information you’re providing, is it 100% correct or close to 100% correct and is it actual? If it’s not, nobody is going to believe it. 3.) In some segment of your marketplace, can you be a standard.
Segment 4: (Length :03:00) – Hustler Thought of the Day:
“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.”
– James Cash Penney, founder of JC Penny
GENERAL NOTES:
Steve Hershberger – CEO & Co-Founder of SteadyServ
- Steve Hershberger is the co-founder and CEO of SteadyServ Technologies, a data-as-a-service company that delivers real-time performance intelligence on draft beer consumption and inventory.
- Prior SteadyServ, Hershberger co-founded and ran marketing agency Comblu, where he used his data analytics skills to build solutions that gave clients accurate metrics regarding word of mouth and ROI.
- As co-founder of four-year-old SteadyServ Technologies, Steve is disrupting the $200 beer industry with an Internet of Things solution that puts draft beer kegs online, helping restaurants and bars better stock, price and manage draft beer.
- The solution is comprised of hardware, software and a mobile app that tracks real-time keg levels and provides consumption data to retailers—and also distributors and breweries.
- The data is critical to this industry, which currently operates via speculation and manual processes. Shaking a keg to determine how much beer is left inside is common practice without this type of technology.
- SteadyServ is making an impact: the company now has more than 130 customers across the United States, a European presence and is on pace to both its employee and customer base this year.
- Steve is a three-time entrepreneur, who has raised more than 10 million for SteadyServ.
- An avid craft beer enthusiast, Hershberger also co-founded Indianapolis-based Flat12 Bierwerks in 2009. Check out his company at: http://steadyserv.com
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