Orange Bikers (from left): mentor and business advisor Ryan D’Wolff Munro, head brewer Jason Kissinger, operations manager Caroline Cutter and founder/CEO Tom Ruff. photo/Tom Major
When a new brewery opens, there are a few tropes everyone expects to hear from the owner. First, they say they were inspired to make something unique. With all due respect, all breweries are special the same way all children are special — i.e., to their parents.
When Orange Bike Brewing opened in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood last November, owner Tom Ruff proudly noted that it was Portland’s first dedicated gluten-free brewery, but he acknowledged that Lucky Pigeon Brewing Co. in Biddeford had been brewing gluten-free beer for three years. He added that only 22 of the 9,700 U.S. breweries are dedicated gluten-free facilities. Ruff doesn’t claim his company is unique, but he emphasizes that it shares a fast-growing niche with very few others.
Most brewery owners also say they want their tasting room to be open and inclusive, a community hub where people feel comfortable gathering. This is in contrast, I suppose, to those who announce, “I want my tap room to be a hostile environment where people feel uncomfortable, gulp their beer down and flee as quickly as possible.” Said no one, ever.
But here again, Ruff can point to more than a poster declaring “Everyone’s welcome!” Observing Orange Bike’s tasting room on a recent Saturday, he noted that 18 of the 24 customers were women. On the Friday afternoon when I interviewed him, there were 10 infants with their parents there. One customer joked that “Babies & Brews” might not be a great marketing slogan, but it was nice to see a spot where new parents can relax.
Most new brewery owners will say they want to give back to the community, how they look forward to working with non-profit groups to help raise funds for worthy causes. But entrepreneurs launch businesses to make money, so the depth of their commitment can be tough to gauge.
Even in the planning stage, Ruff was demonstrating his commitment to use his company as a force for good. Orange Bike’s business plan called for an investment of $1.25 million to make the brewery a reality, but Ruff’s commitment to inclusion led him to a different, untraditional path.
“We initially had some big money come at us,” he recalled. “But things didn’t align value-wise, so I declined to move forward with taking that investment. Instead of having three wealthy individuals invest, our team decided to lower the minimum investment amount and to bring in a much broader, more diverse and eclectic investor group. … We were able to bring in a lot more people that would not normally be able to participate in investment.”
Forty-four equity partners make a more inclusive group, but it’s still just wealthy people pooling their money for a project, right? After all, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that anyone investing in the seed-money round of a start-up company this size be an accredited investor, meaning they have a net worth of $1 million (excluding their primary residence) and earned $200,000 in income the previous two years.
Recognizing this limitation, Ruff worked with Mainvest, a Boston-based crowdfunding investment firm. Instead of offering branded merchandise or a mug club membership, Mainvest permits non-accredited investors to own part of a revenue-share note, so there’s a real return on their seed money. With Mainvest, which sets the minimum investment at $100, Ruff was able to raise $124,000 from 129 people, a tenth of the total he needed.
Ruff didn’t wait to be profitable (or even open for business) before using Orange Bike as a force for good. He and his wife hosted their investor group at their home to hear a presentation about the Quality Housing Coalition, a local nonprofit that’s providing financial support to 20 women-led families in the area, many of whom have experienced homelessness. The Orange Bike investors collectively donated $118,000 that night, a gesture that inspired a couple other philanthropic people to match the contribution.
Orange Bike is on track to earn B Corp certification by its first anniversary, an achievement that only the most socially and environmentally conscious companies can claim. There are other B Corp breweries in Maine, but none opened with such an ambitious schedule for certification.
So when Tom Ruff tells you his brewery is special, you can believe him. Check it out for yourself, and BYOB (bring your own baby).
Tom Major can’t decide if he’s a sports writer or a beer writer. Send you thoughts to leagueofbollards@gmail.com.
