Pilot Project Brewing

Celebrate #StPatricksDay weekend with great brews at Pilot Project Brewing, an InvestBev portfolio company! ???? From March 15-17, their Chicago tasting room is serving up drink and food specials, plus live music from DJ Aloe + Friends. Don’t miss out on the festivities—cheers to a lucky weekend! More details: https://lnkd.in/ecK43ENe

Our last new Board member, is Rich Bloomfield, Co-Founder and CEO of Funkytown Brewery, Rich will be serving as Treasurer of the Board. Rich Bloomfield grew up in Oak Park, IL and attended Grambling State University, an HBCU in Louisiana where he received a BS in Marketing. He has a broad skill-set with over 10 years of project management experience. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of Funkytown Brewery, a start-up Black-owned brewery in Chicago that launched October 2021. His previous role in education equity and now leading an award-winning brewery introducing underserved groups to craft beer; introducing a different culture into the beer world. "My top priorities are ensuring the organization’s books are clean for accounting, funds are budgeted and allocated for the most critical areas for organization and member growth, and that there is clear communication internally and externally with members and the public. I want to be involved in seeing this segment of the industry grow, and I have significant successes and mistakes that I can share to help build capacity for risk identification and strategic planning." #craftbeer #blackowned #brewingbusiness #blackisbeautiful #supportblackbrewers #nb2a #celebratediversity #beerwithpurpose#craftbeerculture #bringingculturetothecup #blackexcellence

We've worked our way into highest visibility retail channels in distribution at sporting venues (Bulls, Blackhawks, Bears, Cubs, White Sox) and O'Hare airport. We're also in the highest velocity channels for the beer segment (Whole Foods, Jewel-Osco, Binny's, Mariano's). We've crossed over into Indiana and Wisconsin territories -- in 3-years completely bootstrapped. To take the business to the next level, we've opened our $5M seed investment round to purchase our flagship facility, which will bring manufacturing and distribution operations in house, and significantly increase sales margins with retail (taproom sales). We're excited about the vision and the next stage of growth for the brand. Feel free to share the investment opportunity with your network and let's keep this rocket ship going! Shout out to Brandon Dupre at Crain's Chicago Business. Thank you for recognizing our efforts in the 2023 class of "40 under 40" and keeping up with our journey!