Being Right Can Be Lonely (For a While)

Guy Raz Newsletter – November 21, 2024

You know what’s really hard in business?

Trying to introduce an unfamiliar product into the market.

I’ve told those stories with brands like Vitacoco, Guayaki Yerba Mate…even Healthade Kombucha…

But you know what’s even harder?

Launching a product that is vaguely familiar but also widely disliked—even disparaged.

This was the challenge Bill Shufelt faced in 2017.

Because the thing he wanted to make?

Was non-alcoholic beer.

This is a beverage that had been banished to the lowest, most remote shelf on the beer aisle. At the time, it accounted for less than half of one percent of the entire beer market.

No self-respecting brewer gave non-alcoholic beer the time of day.

But Bill wanted to do for non-alcoholic beer what Jim Koch did for American craft beer back in the 1980s when he lanched Samuel Adams lager.

He wanted to change perceptions.

But at every stage—and I do mean every stage—Bill got major pushback.

No manufacturer wanted to make the beer for him.

Very few people wanted to invest.

And even aft…