Brewing the American Dream, Samuel Adams’ core philanthropic program, held its first-ever Pop-Up Pitch Room Competition in celebration of startups gathering in Austin for SXSW. The program offers micro-lending, coaching, and mentoring to food, beverage, and craft brewing small business owners around the country. And the winner is… Barbecue Wife Bloody Mary Mix! Stiles and the rest of the Barbecue Wife Bloody Mary team won a $10,000 business grant, a media package from Foursquare, and will receive extensive business mentorship from the team at Samuel Adams.
With such a lively food and beverage scene in Austin, it made sense that Samuel Adams implored drinkers at the event and nationwide to virtually vote on Facebook Live for the “People’s Choice Award,” a $5,000 prize which Stiles and the Barbecue Wife Bloody Mary Mix team also took home. Despite this being Samuel Adams’ first competition of the sort, their commitment to food and beverage startups is well documented. Brewing the American Dream launched in 2008 with the support of Accion, the nation’s leading nonprofit microlender. Through the support of Brewing the American Dream, Accion has lent more than $15.5 million to roughly 1,200 businesses nationwide. In addition, Samuel Adams has coached or mentored over 7,000 businesses and created or saved more than 4,900 jobs. Nearly $1 million of this capital has been lent to 40 U.S. brewers nationwide.
