Pilot Project Brewing - The Incubator That's Launching the Next Big Beverage Brands

The Story of a Brand

Ramon Vela

Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 145 Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, I sit down with Dan Abel, Co-founder and CEO of Pilot Project Brewing, a first-of-its-kind beverage incubator helping brands navigate one of the most competitive and complex CPG categories: beverages.

From launching home-brew experiments in his garage to opening multi-location tasting rooms and scaling more than 20 innovative brands, Dan shares the real story behind building an incubator that acts more like a record label than a traditional brewery.

We discuss how Pilot Project removes barriers for founders, democratizes access to manufacturing and distribution, and gathers real-time consumer data to help determine which brands will succeed. Dan also shares lessons on entrepreneurship, brand validation, and why beverage founders shouldn’t go it alone.

Key Moments in This Episode:

* How Pilot Project Brewing was inspired by the music industry’s support system for creatives

* Why real product validation means gathering comparative data, not just compliments

* What founders need to know about packaging, shelf presence, and customer experience

* The trends Dan sees emerging from over 1,200 brand applications (including what’s next)

* How this incubator helped a non-alcoholic brand scale and get acquired in under two years

Join me, Ramon Vela, in listening to this episode for a deep look into how smart support systems and shared resources are reshaping the beverage world. Whether you’re a founder or a fan of what’s next, this one’s for you.

For more on Pilot Project Brewing, visit: https://www.pilotprojectbrewing.com/

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Today’s Sponsors:

Compass Rose Ventures - Advisor for CPG Brands: https://compassroseventures.com/contact/

Compass Rose Ventures can help your CPG brand increase customer lifetime value, expand into the US market, create an omnipresent omnichannel footprint, optimize customer journeys, build brand communities, and more. Visit the link above to learn more.

Color More Lines: https://www.colormorelines.com/get-started

Color More Lines is a team of ex-Amazonians and e-commerce operators who help brands grow faster on Amazon and Walmart. With a performance-based pricing model and flexible contracts, they’ve generated triple-digit year-over-year growth for established sellers doing over $5 million per year.

Use code "STORY OF A BRAND” and receive a complimentary market opportunity assessment of your e-commerce brand and marketplace positioning.

Transcript

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0:00.0	These themes were just coming out of money being one of them, not knowing that you have to be a business leader and an engineer and a lawyer and a brand builder and all these different things at once.
0:14.5	Maybe they had one or two of those areas of expertise in spades, but they certainly didn't have the others. And so we just started
0:22.7	seeing all these pieces of the puzzle constantly becoming problems for all these different brands.
0:29.9	And so conceptually, we said, okay, well, all of these people have had to forge their own river,
0:35.8	but they did it. And there were, you know, the river was ripe with rocks, right?
0:40.6	So we knew that there was something that we could help with in that space.
1:00.7	Hey, everyone, this is Ramon Vela and this is another episode of the story of a brand.
1:04.8	Like always, we have an amazing guest and brand that we're going to feature on today's show.
1:13.3	But before we do, hi, I speak to hundreds of founders and CEOs of consumer brands each year, and they are facing unprecedented challenges.
1:15.6	That's why the story of a brand has worked with the Compass Rose team, my strategic partner,
1:21.8	to provide relief.
1:24.0	We are offering a no-cost solution exclusively for consumer brand founders and CEOs featured on the story of a brand show, as well as listeners, whether it's to help you map out your brand's growth trajectory or prepare your brand in financials for investors or acquisition or more.
1:44.8	Simply book a one-on-one call with Rose Hamilton, the founder of the Compass Rose team.
1:50.8	This is a $500 value.
1:53.4	The calendar is limited, so book your time now.
1:56.6	Simply visit CompassroseVentures.com forward slash Ramone, Compassrose ventures.com forward slash Ramon compass rose ventures.com
2:05.4	forward slash Ramon. Welcome back, everyone. This is Ramon Vela. We have an amazing show today.
2:12.3	I have with me, I guess, that I can't wait to dive into this because this is something that's near
2:17.2	and dirt in my heart, a company, a brand that helps other brands.
2:21.1	And I really want to dive into this.
2:22.6	So let's just get started.
2:25.4	I have with me, Dan Abel, who was co-founder and CEO of Pilot Project Brewing.
	...

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