If you’re like me and you LOVE craft beer, you gotta check out HOPii. No joke!
I was browsing the hardware section of Kickstarter the other day and discovered that this campaign is currently trending (and has the exclusive “project we love” status).
They’re in the top 10 of this category, having surpassed $300k in funding within their first week.
Wow!
I gotta be honest, the project looks like magic. It’s kind of like a Keurig… except for craft beer. It’s hard to describe. This is what the home brewing device looks like.
Pretty cool, huh?
Personally, I feel like we’re in a craft beer revolution. You have all of these mainstream brands that are losing customers to smaller breweries that are far more dedicated to giving beer a rich taste instead of a dull “standardized flavor.”
What’s more, as technology improves, you’re able to live out that teenage dream of being able to brew YOUR OWN beer from the comfort of your own home.
According to the campaign, “With HOPii, there is no extra fermenters or kegs needed. Just plug HOPii into an outlet, put in the bottle and ingredient pack and press START. HOPii will take care of the rest!”
The Entrepreneurial Bug
I actually first met the HOPii team a while back, when they enrolled in my first course, Smash Your Kickstarter Goal.
From the very start, they had a ridiculous level of dedication to the project. I was surprised at their hunger to learn and master the craft of crowdfunding.
During the months leading up to the launch of the Kickstarter campaign, I talked multiple times with Jong during our mentoring sessions. He also participated in my latest course, the Complete Crowdfunding PR System.
Each time we talked, the team was making leaps and strides towards finally bringing this project to the crowd. I was very impressed.
To be quite candid, as much as I love craft beer, I wouldn’t have the discipline to build an entire brewing system for it… but that’s exactly what they did.
“We are craft beer lovers just like you!,” says the HOPii team. “One day, we went to a pub that was one of the most well known. When we ordered and drank their beer, however, the taste was so horrible that we literally shouted out, ‘Oh my god! This beer is horrible!’.
(haha – that’s also happened to me before)
“The brewmaster heard us and took us to the backstage where the craft beers were being made. He poured a glass right from the tank and gave to us to drink.
We said, ‘Wow, this craft beer tastes amazing! What is it?’
That was when he said, ‘It’s the same beer that you had outside, but this one is fresh right out of the tank. We just made it today.'”
Every successful entrepreneur stumbles on a problem that’s just darn frustrating! They can’t fall asleep at night and they struggle to pay attention during the day without thinking about the problem.
The HOPii team had come face to face with their problem.
Freshness matters! If you want the delicious taste of quality craft beer, you need to get it straight from the tank.
Working Around the Clock For a Solution
As I’m sure you’ve heard on my podcast time and time again, it’s not enough just to have a great idea.
Creating a personal microbrewery would be awesome, but how do you actually go about that?
It was time to get to work.
All well-designed products go through an iterative process, including mock-ups, drawings, prototypes, and more. Here’s a few examples of the HOPii design process.
Slowly, the project started to come together. The biggest challenge was fitting all of this high-functioning technology into a small form-factor.
After all, who wants a massive brewery in their kitchen?
If the product was going succeed, it would need to be small, elegant, and sexy.
There were many, many difficulties and micro-problems to solve (no pun intended).
The team ended up going through five different prototyping phases until they ironed out all the kinks and developed a solution.
In 2017, they unveiled their solution…
The HOPii brewing system comes with the core machine plus a “beer kit” which makes 3L (approx. 8-10 ‘big pub beer’ glasses) of the freshest tasting craft beer.
As you can see, it’s small enough to easily fit on your kitchen table. It’s also well-designed and fits in with the rest of your kitchen appliances.
Having finally created a complete craft beer brewing solution, the team began to reach out to conferences and events.
Soon, they were invited to join the prestigious HAX Accelerator.
It’s clear that many other beer lovers experienced the same pain point as the HOPii team.
Frankly, as much as we’d all love to drink beer straight from the tank, that’s not possible. Brewing a new batch in a brewery can typically take 21 days.
HOPii changes all of that. You can brew a batch within 4-7 days. Then, you can instantly drink craft beer right from the micro-brew machine. Or, you can bottle it, and drink it later.
Finally, HOPii is Now Available!
It’s taken over a year of countless man-hours and continual investment to get the product to this point.
Until November 2, 2017 you’ll be able to pre-order your own personal micro-brewery (early-bird specials still available)
When you back HOPii at the early bird reward tier, you’re going to gain access to:
- 1 HOPii unit
- 1 HOPii Beer Kit
- Your name added to “Hall of Cheers!” in our website
- A special Thank You email from the CEO
- Access to all our updates, contents and videos
- Be one of the first people to get a HOPii unit
This a TON of value for the discounted price.
The project is already gaining the attention of super backers on the platform.
In addition, the mainstream media has grabbed hold of this product, with some bloggers discussing the self-cleaning nature of the product.
“Low and behold — the HOPii Beer Brewing System is actually self-cleaning. Not like my self-cleaning oven. I still have to exert some energy to get that really clean.
But with HOPii you just add water and the cleaning solution that is included in each brewing kit, press START and you have a fully sanitized machine ready to go for your next recipe. (I think Jong should revolutionize juicers for his next project).” – This Scattered Life.
I’m excited to see how this campaign progresses, considering it’s already gotten on a ton of media publications.
What Do You Think?
If you decide to become a part of the HOPii community, leave a comment on the project and let Jong know what you think of the campaign.
Over the last few months, he’s been an incredibly “coachable” student, taking my advice to heart.
However, in no way do I take personal responsibility for this success. This is the result of the hard work of him and his team.
You can click here to learn more about the HOPii Kickstarter campaign.
