“We looked at a lot of the industries that had been disrupted, changed and modernized in the 2010s, so companies like Airbnb or Uber that had gone into industries with arcane regulatory fetters and really helped modernize them. “Next Glass was founded in 2013 to really modernize the software experience between the three tiers and the consumer,” explained Smith.

In 2021, it wants to change the way craft breweries do business. Combined, it’s an impressive network of online communities, media outlets, event services, marketing offerings, sales systems and alcohol software solutions.Īs the American craft beer community adopted digital solutions last year, Next Glass built a one-stop shop to serve them. To complement that trio, Next Glass already owned Untappd and Untappd for Business. Next Glass is the umbrella company that netted three whales in the digital beer and beverage alcohol space last year - BeerAdvocate, Hop Culture and Oznr (formerly CraftCellr). “There was 10 years of e-commerce adoption in the first eight weeks at the beginning of COVID,” said Trace Smith, CEO of Next Glass.ĭoesn’t ring a bell? It should.

Consider Uber just bought America’s biggest alcohol delivery service Drizly for $1.1 billion in early February. On the sales and distribution side, enormous moves are still being made to capitalize on online alcohol retail and delivery as regulatory restrictions are laxing (depending on your state). With our new COVID economy, small breweries have been forced to revamp the classic on-premise business model with new digital tools - easy app POS systems, online DTC sales, contactless tablet ordering, virtual events, almost an entire rethink of the traditional indie brewery experience. Let’s look on the bright side: The pandemic has made us all a lot techier.

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