Americans have a growing thirst for beer, and a student from the University of Richmond is tapping into that trend with a new app which has already earned him $3.500.
Americans adore their beer, and something big is happening to the business of brews. Overall sales last year were down nearly two percent, but consumption of craft beers – made by small, local breweries – rose more than 17%. University of Richmond senior Nick Creegan is a craft beer fan.
“We’re moving away from the macro breweries of the past and the brand loyalty that we saw previously and more to sort of an exploratory phase through a new generation of people who are just looking to try something.”
But reading up on new beers, he found it difficult to assess whether he’d actually like the brew. A critic might, for example, describe a beverage as effervescent.
“When I go into the store, I’m not personally looking for an effervescent beer. I might be looking for a light beer. I might be looking for a heavy beer. I might just be looking for a beer that’s good to drink on the beach.”
So Creegan and a friend from the University of Connecticut decided to launch a new app allowing craft beer lovers to rate and describe products in a whole new way – using language that isn’t intimidating or confusing. The two hope to rollout their crowd sourced site called TAPS by the end of the year, going from one city to the next.
“What we can initially do is become a guide to the beers that are coming out of that city, made by the people who know those beers best. It can be geographically based, because there are a lot of beers that are only sold within a certain radius, but the fact is right now, with 3,000 breweries plus in the United States alone and that number only growing, it’s something that we need, even when we go to our local supermarket."
This month their embryonic business got a bump – winning the top prize, $3,500, in the University of Richmond’s Business Pitch Competition.
Second place and $1,000 went to Eliza Breed and Brooke Wilson. Who proposed an online dating app designed from “a woman’s point of view.” Rather than bombarding users with lots of photographs, it selects a few prospects from the same school and provides detailed information about each.
“And then they also have this interesting aspect – part of their website called Guy Code and Girl Code where girls and guys can chat about dating and get a feel for what dating is like on a particular campus.”
Susan Cohen teaches entrepreneurship at the University. She says the third place winner, Killian McGiboney, plans to start a company using drones to shoot video of high school athletes in action. They, then, can use the images to boost their prospects for winning college admission and scholarships. Cohen says her students did a great job of making their eight minute pitches – having studied the art on ABC’s popular TV show, Shark Tank.
