Matt Fleischer isn’t trying to toot his own horn, but the creator of Hook & Ladder Brewing Company can’t help but recall his popularity as a graduate student in the university’s business school several years back.
“Everyone wanted to be a part of my group when we did group projects,” Matt said from his craft beer company’s Silver Spring headquarters.
If the 2005 master’s of business recipient, along with the help of his brewer brother, Rich Fleischer, has his way and Hook & Ladder continues to grow, those classmates might soon regret not latching on to Matt’s business model as it comes to fruition outside the classroom.
Hook & Ladder currently distributes three beers – all brewed in Rochester, N.Y. – to 21 states and 85 wholesalers, as is prominently displayed on a massive distribution map on a wall inside the headquarters.
Matt’s original plan – to distribute a high quality beer while donating a percentage of his profits to firefighter charities and hospital burn units – was conceived in 1999 when the brothers served the beer to friends at parties they hosted in Northern California.
“People would come over and go, ‘Wow, this is really good stuff,'” Matt said.
The brothers began selling the beer around the San Francisco Bay Area for a few years, but something compelled Matt to return to his home state of Maryland in 2003 to fine-tune his business skills.
“We realized this concept was extremely powerful,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to go back to business school.”
With Rich working toward his master’s degree at the university’s public policy school, Matt entered the business school knowing exactly what he needed to accomplish.
“From the onset, I knew what I wanted out of business school: to refine my business model and get my business launched as soon as I finished,” Matt said.
The business school provided him with resources and training he continues to apply today, he said. Finance classes taught him “the huge spectrum of types of financing,” and the university’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship supported him with research, mentoring and even funding, investing $10,000 in Hook & Ladder.
Asher Epstein, managing director of the Dingman Center, said he was impressed with Matt from the beginning of their relationship.
“Matt walked into my office from day one and said, ‘Here’s the company I want to build,'” Epstein said. “Now he’s got a company that’s going to do a few million dollars or more in revenue this year.”
But perhaps more important than helping him start his business, Matt credits the business school with teaching him to prevent it from collapsing.
“Going to business school helped tremendously preparing for the challenges,” he said, citing rising prices of raw ingredients and shipping as chief among those obstacles.
Rich ventured to a university graduate program with the intention of pursuing a side interest in homeland security, but after receiving his master’s degree in 2006, the former firefighter remains with Hook & Ladder, in an office just down the hall from his brother.
“I’m telling my parents I’m finally putting my biology undergraduate degree to good use – to create beer,” he joked.
Hook & Ladder’s three beers – Golden Ale, which once received a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival; the heavier, maltier Backdraft Brown; and LIGHTER, designed for the calorie-conscious beer guzzler – come from years of trial and error in the garage back in California and represent a combination of what Rich enjoys drinking.
“It’s kind of like cooking – you do things to make them your own,” he said.
And Rich will continue to develop more recipes, both in preparation for an upcoming fall variety pack and for seasonal beers to be served on tap at the company’s upcoming flagship restaurant.
Though Matt invests most of his energy in increasing the number of stars on the distribution map, his company purchased an old firehouse, also in Silver Spring, and will begin construction next month to turn the building into a microbrewery and restaurant Matt hopes to open by early 2009.
It is still too early to determine if Hook & Ladder will become a smashing success, but Matt summed up his confidence in his concept’s potential not by crediting his astute business mind, his brother’s discerning beer palette or his classroom training in College Park.
Rather, Matt simply let the beer speak for itself: “They’re just good.”
Epstein echoed that sentiment, helping to explain why both Matt’s former peers and beer fans have been drawn to Hook & Ladder.
“He’s got a great name and a great brand,” he said. “He’s a driven and focused entrepreneur. People like to be associated with a winner.”
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