A Conversation with Caitlin Landesberg
Creative writer and marketer turned beer brewer and entrepreneur
In 2015, long-distance trail runner Caitlin Landesberg founded Sufferfest Beer Company as a B-Corporation after years of searching for the perfect post-race beverage. Nothing out there at the time had the perfect balance of flavor and nutrients, nor also marked the low-alcohol and gluten-free boxes. To fulfill her quest, she left a director role at Strava to learn the fundamentals of brewing. Only a few years later, beer giant Sierra Nevada Brewing Company took notice.
In this interview, Caitlin shares about the joys and pains of the startup life, what it was like to eventually give her business baby away to a parent corporation, a flavor that didn’t make the cut, and her new favorite running partner, a donkey named Lucy.
You’re the founder of a beer company. But how do you describe your craft?
I wouldn’t say that I’m a brewer anymore. I’ve really come to terms with the fact that I’m an entrepreneur. I was resisting that term because it’s actually quite intimidating and I don’t really know exactly what that means, but I guess that’s probably the most accurate term. I was hungry enough, and probably naive and curious enough, to learn the fundamentals of brewing, take brewing courses, get into food science, and put on the brewer hat so I could develop my early recipes and understand how to talk the appropriate talk. I really identified myself as an athlete in my early 20s before I identified as a wife or a mom. It’s an ever-evolving title. But I think it was me being an entrepreneur that forced me to say sure, let’s be a brewer for a year and figure that out.
As you were getting off the ground, how did you learn what you know?
My boyfriend at the time who’s now my husband got me a 19-liter home brewer kit and a certificate to learn how to brew beer at a local workshop in San Francisco. There, I went through a whole course during the winter of 2013 and made my first official beer at the facility. I got a barley replacement or adjunct called sorghum so I could make a completely gluten-free beer. I was able to get some mentorship for the first time. The person who helped me make more sophisticated, less harsh beers really became my founding board and friend. I wasn’t trying to go for a great taste; I was trying to figure out the science and the patience of it all. I was looking at beer making through the lens of an athlete, not as someone who wanted to become a craft brewer.
It wasn’t until I actually had a good grasp of brewing 101 that I started taking classes the University of California, Davis in food science. I would take those over spring break and during summer sessions when they offered coursework for adults in continued learning. That’s where my home beer stuff expanded, but it felt more manageable and everything was a bit tastier. To this day, I have my original bottles of beer, which of course you should never drink. They’re still back in my fridge with my notes on my first British ale and my first oat beers.
(“I’m doing a lot of tasting and sampling to be a master taster again and refine my palette,” says Caitlin, who lives in Northern California.)
What was money like at the beginning?
If you’re going to bootstrap it, it is not a pleasant lifestyle. I was bringing in an income that made us feel safe and all of a sudden I cut that off. I didn’t have that parachute and I didn’t have a lot of savings. But I crunched the numbers and gave myself and my family six months to hit a couple of milestones. I had very specific goals that would showcase proof of concept, revenue stream, and a forecast for the following year. If I could hit those, then that would give us some confidence that I could keep going on this route. For the duration of my Sufferfest experience, I never took one dollar. To be very honest, that was really hard for me and I was resentful. I would hire all these people around me and pay them first because they believed in the business. That was just my philosophy. Quarter after quarter, I would look into the whites of my spouse’s eyes and ask, “Can we go another bit longer without me drawing a salary?” It was so important for me to make those sacrifices early on for the long-term betterment of the business. Thank god it worked out and I was able to rationalize the fact that I didn’t take a salary for years because I was able to be paid back during our acquisition. That felt really good and gratifying, but it ultimately didn’t play into the decision to be acquired by Sierra Nevada.
How did it feel to eventually hand over that power?
Because we were pioneering a new category, we definitely drew some attention early on that I wasn’t expecting. I was lucky enough to get a sense for some other partners. When I went down those explorations, it was very financially driven. It was very focused on a deal structure where we would bust our butts trying to hit really crazy numbers and goals in order for us to hit that next rung. It really felt dangerous to us. So when I first met Sierra Nevada, I had actually decided not to sell my business. I thought, they will be there in a year, they know where to find us. We’ve got to keep our heads down and grow what we’d been growing. It was just by happenstance that I met the CEO, Jeff White, of Sierra Nevada at a conference. We were both presenting and we didn’t know who each other were until the end of the day. We connected and exchanged cards. I was like, “Gosh, I really loved what you said and I could really use some tips here with distribution.” Sierra Nevada was like, “We loved what you said, we could use some tips on creative marketing and this type of category.” There was a little bit of energy between us. Very quickly, Jeff and I realized what an amazing partnership could look like. The conversations we were having were about the people and the values and being a B-corp. My obligation felt like it was more to my employees than it was to anyone else. I didn’t want to pull the rug out from under their feet. The conversations were very different from the ones I had had previously. It made me feel much more comfortable that my baby was potentially going to a parent that could love it and nurture it. I do mean that genuinely.
There’s definitely some melancholy there, right? I am so grateful and proud of myself that I took a company around the sun. At the same time, there are those woulda-shoulda-coulda moments that I always think about had I done something different or had different priorities in my life. I think that’s the rub and reality of the female mind and body and the world we live in. In my business-building years, I tried not to acknowledge the fact that I was pregnant. I tried to pretend it wasn’t part of business and I could completely compartmentalize it. In hindsight, I wish I had embraced that narrative with my investors and talked more about what drove me and what the motivation was behind the business. I think by keeping that conversation at the forefront of so many decisions, we can continue to make it less taboo when it comes to hiring and what it looks like to be a female professional.
(Sufferfest is doing more direct-to-consumer business through its website. Right now, delivery is only available to California residents.)
Is there a beer that didn’t make the cut? What happened and what did you learn?
As we develop final batches, we’ll do focus groups and sensory sippings where we’re scrutinizing the viscosity, the mouth feel, and the aromas. Our Shred Kolsch is a good example of a beer that’s gone through a couple of iterations. We made it famously with bee pollen, which has lots of interesting qualities that I’ve always been drawn to. But for a variety of reasons, the nose over time becomes a very rotten-egg-like experience. If you’re drinking it out of a can, no one knows the difference because there’s such a small area for you to waft from. But if you’re trying to pour it into a glass and experience the sipping, you want to get right past the nose and into the liquid because the liquid is so much more delicious than the smell.
It’s an award winner, but in the background we’ve been trying to make sure it stands the test of time. Ultimately, we took bee pollen out for shelf stability and the aroma. We decided to change it into more of a cleansing beer and added cayenne and honey. I really like spice and I wanted to go deep on the cayenne. I remember being around my team as we were tasting and half the room was sweating. They were like, we love it. But you really have to think objectively. Is this pleasing? Is this balanced? Will it stand the test of time? We had to do a bunch of iterations to find the balance of a little bit of heat with that sweetness. I think we all wanted it to work, but we tend to have to edit and scale back our own preferences for the betterment of the masses.
In what ways do you get to be creative in your role?
That’s been the most joyful part in this whole transition. I get to focus wholeheartedly on the Sufferfest brand’s heartbeat again. I love being the creative director of sorts. My days now are focused on collaborating and storytelling with runners and cyclists and surfers and swimmers and other athletes all over the world who’ve been aspirational to this brand. I’m also working on product innovation, which means I’m doing a lot of tasting and sampling to be a master taster again and refine my palette. We look at non-alcoholic drinks and hot teas and all types of concoctions that we think are meaningful to our consumer that are relevant to that occasion of celebrating and earning your beverage. I started with beer because that feels like the most traditional beverage that you receive at the finish line, but then what’s that beverage before you drive home when you need to be sober? And what’s that beverage that you have to unwind and relax because you’re tapering for an event?
(Caitlin and Lucy are training together for a burro race. The 2020 race was cancelled due to COVID, so they’re hoping to compete in a 2021 race.)
Tell me more about your donkey, Lucy!
My parents live in Windsor, which is just south of Healdsburg in Sonoma County, California. Three fires ago, a lot of animals got displaced. My parents have a big pasture in the front of their home that was just empty and they ended up taking in a bunch of animals. Some got picked up after the fires, but some were left. We became foster parents and adoptees to four donkeys. My dad started getting into these really lovely animals and he has become part of the donkey community. Very hippie Sonoma. A woman at a nearby farm has donkeys and she was complaining about one in particular that was acting out. She was bolting and not behaving. I had just finished the book Running with Sherman written by Christopher McDougall about annual donkey races in Colorado. I’ve always wanted to try it. I kept on hearing about Lucy—short for Lucifer—this little donkey who kept running away. And I was like, running? Was she fast? How fast was she going? Ultimately, I ended up connecting with Lucy and taking her on some runs. And sure enough, she was a misbehaved, fast little thing. But she was misunderstood and didn’t have a home. I ultimately took her in. We spend lots of time together getting ready for our burro race. It’s definitely given me some humor and new drama. I got burned out from racing and she’s inspired me to try running in a different way. I think we both needed each other.
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Before you go…
Register for the free virtual safety adventure tour happening this weekend (Mammut x The Lady Alliance)
One of my favorite newsletters about women (and other things) in the outdoors (Sticks & Stones by Abigail Wise)
Kamala Harris Makes History (The New Yorker)