The greatest ideas are often those written on napkins, coming into fruition over the course of a night with a seemingly endless supply of cold beer. The idea of Beau’s All Natural Brewing is no different.
“I stopped and thought for a minute and said, ‘well if you’re serious, dad, I will sell my house and quit my job, fold up the record label, and I’ll start a brewery with you.’ And we spent the rest of the day dreaming up this brewery we were going to open.”
Steve Beauchesne is the CEO and co-founder of Beau’s All Natural Brewing. Beau’s is a family-run, employee-owned and totally independent Canadian craft brewery that has seen 500 percent growth in the past five years.
Since it started in 2006, Beau’s has won more than 85 national and international awards for beer-making, marketing, sustainability, and has raised more than $1 million for charity. Beauchesne certified Beau’s as Canada’s first-ever B-Corp brewery, founded February 1 as International Gruit Day and successfully lobbied to have some of Canada’s old beer laws changed to recognize the rights of craft brewers.
In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Steve about his journey into B-Corp beer-preneurship and how Beau’s integrates giving back into its business model.
The Startup Canada Podcast Show is a production of Startup Canada, a grassroots, entrepreneur-led movement to bring together, celebrate, and give a voice to Canada’s entrepreneurship community. On the podcast, award-winning entrepreneur host Rivers Corbett speaks with the movers and shakers of Canada’s entrepreneurship community to give a glimpse into the future of business, and share insights on everything from social innovation to the future of work, investing, and why we need to think bigger to take our businesses global. Join Rivers Corbett for new episodes every Tuesday airing at 10 AM ET for lessons, trends, and opportunities in entrepreneurship from Vancouver to Fredericton; and Israel to Peru.
You can find every episode of The Startup Canada Podcast Show at www.startupcan.ca/podcasts/.