"Together Talks" #140: Cooler Keg and Anthony Bernas

Anything you want on draft. Anywhere. Meet The Cooler Keg! Real draft, just like at the bar. Portable, Accessible, Convenient, Delicious.

In this post, we cover our interview for our "Together Talks" campaign, with The Cooler Keg. We were joined by Anthony Bernas, Co-Founder, of the company. He took us through how the company started by accident, turned into a physical product, and now he and Racine Gruberman travel the country showing off their incredible invention. Check out the article below to find the first of it's kind, The Cooler Keg!

"Together Talks" feature #140: The Cooler Keg presented by KLS - Dedicated Logistic Services for Excellence -Driven Businesses In The USA

Story of how it was created?

We like to say by accident. We were not setting out to come up with an idea and do this. Racine and I are partners in crime in life and now in business. Her parents retired to a lake house in Michigan, and we would go out with our friends for the last decade plus. We would, for lack of a better phrase, ‘Go party it up on the lake.’ It was awesome.?

Every year that we went out to the lake, we got better at it. The first year we had a mismatch of floats. Some people had the donut shaped inner tubes. There was one guy floating on pool noodles. We just all brought whatever we had. For the next year we figured out which floats were the best and all got those. We then got a float for the cooler; no more beer runs into the house. We got an anchor so the cooler float would stop floating away. Then?carabiners and paracord for all of us to tie ourselves together so people would stop floating away. After a decade, the question was, what can we do better next year? What's going to be the thing?

And a friend of ours said, “next year, swim up bar.” I'm a handy guy, born on a farm, so?I asked, “what kind of bar do you want? An Irish pub?”?He replies, “I don't care what the bar looks like, so long as I can pour a draft out here in the middle of the lake.”

Wait, I can't just drag a kegerator onto the boat? I could probably swing that and figure it out. But it had to be in the water, so I figured it out. The next year, we had this thing made out of an old cooler and some PVC pipe from Home Depot. Being a homebrewer for over a decade,?I cobbled everything together with stuff I had.

It worked. and it was functional. It looked nice, but it by no means was ready for manufacturing.?

Regardless, our friends said, you just made something. And with that the Cooler Keg was created and we accidentally started a company.?

What separates your company from competition?

We view ourselves as Goldilocks. There are products out there that are smaller and products out there that are bigger. Basically you've got kegerators, but they're not portable. Jockey boxes that are portable, but are heavy, bulky, and typically use commercial kegs, so the drink options are limited. Then on the smaller side, there are products that only hold a growler, maybe 128 ounces, so that doesn't satisfy a group of people. ?

So what differentiates us is that it’s as portable as a picnic cooler. Its size, it holds 3.5 gallons. ?And, lastly, drink options, you can fill the kegs with anything.

What have been the biggest challenges?

Being a physical product. We were very lucky to be successful with crowdfunding and we had our personal life savings to help bootstrap us. But if we just went out there with this idea and tried to get investors, it would be very hard. Physical products are not everyone's favorite, they require inventory which is capital intensive. You have to sit on inventory and then there is warehousing, marketing, selling, it can't be very stressful.

Reflect on a goal you set and how it made you feel to accomplish it?

Early on you have an idea, you think it's awesome. Your friends and family will smile and and tell you how awesome it is and that it is the greatest thing; they will be supportive. But that also can create a lot of "yes men".?While it is great to have loving, supportive people along for the ride, the real test is when you first take it to market. Does the general public like it, that is the question. Are consumers willing to give money from their wallet to buy the product? When we had demand and people were willing to buy it, we knew there was a market need and we were onto something.?

Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?

We are out there going to every event we can get our hands on. We're going to hunting shows, camping shows, boating shows, home shows, even music festivals.?I remember reading about Coca Cola. They sold 26 bottles their first year. Nobody knew they existed. ?So that is our goal, to get people to know we exist.?

When people see this product, they see a fancy cooler, they see a jockey box, they see a kegerator. ?But our product is not that, it’s portable, it’s draft, and it serves anything.?A 10 second ad doesn't explain our product well enough to convey what exactly it can do and that it’s easy to use. ?So our goal for the next year is to improve and optimize marketing.?

What have you learned from being an entrepreneur?

We both came from entrepreneurial families. Her family had a retail business. My family had a restaurant. We were not afraid of starting our own business. We had experienced it. We were born and raised in it. But getting out there and doing it? It’s different and everyone needs help. ?You have to be willing to talk to people.

Everybody has an idea. And it is the best thing since sliced bread. And everyone out there is going to steal it from you. WRONG. Nobody wants your idea. It seems like a harsh thing to say, but everybody is so busy. And everyone that's been there done that, they know the risk of starting from scratch. Watch Shark Tank, they don't want to invest in the idea, they want the success. They are after a proven track record.

As an entrepreneur you have to go out there and take all the risk, all your time, and all your money and dump it into this to prove it’s viable. Then the investors will come, then the interest will come.?

Until then talk to people because if you have an idea and you can meet somebody that can actually help you it can be pivotal. There's all these people out there that are willing to help you because ‘you don't know what you don't know.‘ That is the phrase of all entrepreneurs. So go talk to other entrepreneurs because trust me, they are so busy with their own thing and they know the risk of turning an idea into a business, they won’t take your idea and run.

What is the next thing you need to develop as a leader?

I'll keep it simple, sales. I'm really good at making a cooler keg. I was previously an ER nurse through Covid. I'm really good at a number of things, but I have a lot of respect for people who can sell. It’s an art.?

What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?

That it's up to you. You can hustle and you can work and you can put in more hours than anyone else is going to. ?But then when you're tired and you're burnt out and you need a break, you can't. One of the biggest struggles of being an entrepreneur is letting yourself relax.?Giving yourself permission to take time off is difficult, because you feel guilty. So then your procrastinate and you're not really working, because you never took the break you needed. ?You end up not working as efficiently, you're constantly distracted, and looking for the relaxation you should have given yourself

Share a mistake and what you learned from that experience?

We started with a prototype. Then we worked with a guy that does 3D rendering to create the parts of the product that didn’t exist. He made them appear on a computer screen and then we could have them 3D printed so we could really bring the product to life. So?we went into crowdfunding where we presold 350 units. ?It wasn’t till after the campaign ended that we started manufacturing. When I say we started manufacturing, we started the process of finding a manufacturer.

We had done some legwork here and there, but nowhere near the amount that was, in hindsight, required. We needed to find our sourcing company, do a vendor search, find the factory, interview them, start the process reviewing the designs for the tooling, molding, and then sampling. The cost associated with that entire process was not as overwhelming as keeping everyone who preordered waiting. So it was a mistake to not start the manufacturing process earlier.?

What is your why?

The reactions people have. When people see this product they're like “what is this” with a big smile. Because again, they just see a tap tower coming out of the top of a stainless steel cooler, but then you open the lid and the magic happens. When we demonstrate it, people are always shocked and amazed.?

We mentioned earlier talking about what differentiates this product and I said it was the portability of draft. The other differentiating factor is the flexibility of what you can put on draft. Historically when you get a kegerator you have to go to the store see what's available in a keg, buy a keg and you put it in your kegerator. You use it till it's empty, return the keg for a deposit, and get something else. With this the kegs come with it and they have wide mouth openings. Fill them with anything: fill them like a growler at the brewery, cans / bottles, mixed drinks, warm drinks, anything. And the reactions people have when they find out you can have two different beverages at the same time is classic.

Sometimes we are told, “I don't want that I don't drink beer”, it is my favorite because then I get to play bartender. I start naming options: margaritas, rum and coke, mimosas, vodka / soda; once I name a drink they like, their eyes light up.

Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?

When we had to quality check our first batch, we had to lay eyes on every single product because they have to be just right. But we stepped back and realized, we actually made something pretty cool. Inside there's a foam insert that has all the pieces laid out, it's not just cobbled together and thrown in, we took the time to create a quality product that is packaged and designed well/

Piece of Advice

Specific to entrepreneurship and starting any kind of endeavor, you'll hear everyone talk about cash flow. Early on you know money is important, but dig deeper into that. Cashflow is quickly going to become your bread and butter.?Understand your runway, how much money you have, how much is coming in, how much is going out, stay on top of bookkeeping, stay on top of your numbers and have a very clear picture of the health of your business.

But most importantly, have fun. ?Cheers!?

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In Closing

KLS wants to thank The Cooler Keg and Co-Founder, Anthony Bernas, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!

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