When two Upper Peninsula businesses were looking to get up and running, they simply went to the web for a little kick.
Brickside Brewery, a micro-brewery at 64 Gratiot in Copper Harbor that is shooting for a Memorial Day opening date, and
Algomah Acres Honey Farm, a honey-making facility in Greenland that has expanded and created a wine-making meadery at its site, each used Kickstarter to help fund the projects. Algomah Acres raised $9,300 in 60 days using Kickstarter, and Brickside Brewery gathered $20,000 in 45 days.
Kickstarter is an online funding platform that offers clients a place to pitch ideas for art, food, small business and other creative projects. Filmmakers, musicians, artists, designers and business owners can have complete control and responsibility over their own projects on Kickstarter. They spend weeks building their own project pages and shooting their own videos so they can solicit visitors to
kickstarter.com to invest in their idea.
"The whole Kickstarter experience was great for us," says Melissa Hronkin, who owns Algomah Acres, along with husband John Hersman. "It really was a humbling experience to realize that people you will never meet see your idea and believe in it enough to give some of their money to you to get it started."
Jason Robinson, 33, will soon open Brickside Brewery, and he also calls his experience with Kickstarter "humbling and exhilarating."
"It also was a bit nail-biting," he says. "Because the thing of it is, if you don't meet your fund-raising goal in the allotted time, you don't get any of the money that was pledged. So it's pretty nerve-wracking."
Here's the way Kickstarter works. First, you pitch your idea to Kickstarter, convincing the owners it is unique and has the potential to offer something new and interesting. In addition, the owners must be convinced it has a chance to draw enough interest from backers to get them to invest in your project.
"It can't be some mass-produced mega-business," Robinson says. "You have to be different. In my case, I'm using local ingredients, with very little automation. In a way, they're looking to help the 'little guy,' I guess you could say.
If Kickstarter deems your project worthy, then the work begins. You prepare a presentation for the site, making your idea as attractive as possible for potential investors. You set a fundraising goal and a specific timeframe in which to meet that goal.
Also, you offer rewards to those who invest. It works much like donations to public television. For instance, those who donated $50 to Algomah Acres were rewarded with a 4-ounce jar of honey and a logo T-shirt.
"Obviously, getting the funding is the big benefit, but using Kickstarter is also a great way to advertise, to spread the word about your business," says Hronkin, whose business is located in the old Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Greenland, which was built in the 1930s and closed in 1995.
Brickside Brewery's pitch to Kickstarter was accepted the first time through, in April 2011. Brickside put its presentation together, and then began its 45-day presence on the site. Robinson met his $20,000 goal by July 9, 2011 as backers pledged amounts like $25 or $100 each. He also has taken out a $58,000 bank loan and is using $10,000 of his own funds to start his business, but says the Kickstarter money was instrumental.
"We started out slow, then really took off about two-thirds of the way through," Robinson says. "Once we realized we were going to make our goal, it obviously was a thrill."
Algomah's first pitch to Kickstarter was simply for a renovation of its facility, but was rejected. When Hersman and Hronkin later came back to Kickstarter with the idea to add a honey-wine making meadery to the site, Kickstarter gave the OK. Then, the fund-raising effort took place from July 17, 2011 to Sept. 17, 2011. After reaching its goal, Algomah Acres received the $9,300 to create the meadery.
Thanks to Kickstarter, the U.P. now has two new niche businesses to enjoy. Algomah Acres already existed as a honey house that the pair of beekeepers used to hold events to sell honey in various forms. Mead, or honey wine, is the latest addition.
Mead goes back some 20,000 years, compared to 6,000 years of wine history. Mead's origin lies in Africa, and it requires much more hand labor, but it does not need irrigation, fertilizers or toxic pesticides.
As for Brickside Brewery, it will be a small microbrewery making a solid core of unusual beers made from local ingredients. Included in the out-of-the-ordinary plans are a thimbleberry stout and rhubarb amber.
To show you just how local Robinson's plans are for Copper Harbor's first microbrewery, he grows some of his hops in his own back yard.
How's that for a kick?
Jeff Barr is a freelance writer who has lived in Michigan for 47 years. He has covered every part of the state, including the Upper Peninsula. You can reach Jeff at barrj88@gmail.com