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Zero alcohol, zero carb, zero taste beer ๐Ÿบ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ
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Zero alcohol, zero carb, zero taste beer ๐Ÿบ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

I interviewed Dillon Dandurand, the founder of Not Beer.

Emily Sundberg's avatar
Emily Sundberg
Apr 13, 2024
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Good morning everybody.

Last week I got an email with a subject line, โ€œNot Beer introduction.โ€ It was pitching me on a new canned seltzer brand called Not Beer. I liked the way the email was written, so many brand pitches I get look like they were written by AI or taken from a template. So my first thought, before I even opened the deck they attached, was that smart people with a good sense of humor work at this startup.

The email Not Beerโ€™s team sent me on their launch day.

Shortly after I opened the email,

Snaxshot
tweeted about the brand and it got a tremendous amount of traction. Itโ€™s impossible to suggest this brand wasnโ€™t inspired by Liquid Death (which now has a billion-dollar valuation), but theyโ€™re trying to tell customers to โ€œhave this whenever you want a beer.โ€ Which is also what nonalcoholic beer brand Athletic Brewing says โ€”and they actually taste like beer.

Here are some observations about Not Beer:

  • They mention terrorism too many times on their site. Itโ€™s not in an earnest way, itโ€™s in a very JibJab 2006 Bush administration AMERICA way.

  • Thereโ€™s a line in the FAQ section about drinking Not Beer to โ€œmake your father proud.โ€ This is a very preppy fratty guy who is knowing and self-conscious about having bad relationships with family, domineering father, commitment issues with women, thing to say. When I see copy like that I think Friday Beers or Barstool shouldโ€™ve launched this with Dillon.

  • Which is to say the branding is very uncanny valley patriotic bro. Itโ€™s like someone asked ChatGPT to make a patriotic bro brand. And thatโ€™s not to say it looks BAD, itโ€™s just a little too on the nose for me. Itโ€™s too expensive to look bad, some effort went into it. Same for the photoshoot. Itโ€™s just a case of โ€œnot coming togetherโ€ for me.

This is a little diagram I made to show some of the elements that should make the brand work, but itโ€™s almost working TOO well.

I wrote about Not Beer in a letter last week, which turned my comment section into a minefield โ€” Iโ€™d take a bullet for my readers.

Dillon Dandurand, the founder of Not Beer bravely agreed to an interview for this special Saturday edition of Feed Me. I want to take a second to applaud him for creating a different and memorable brand that a few corners of the internet are talking about. That kind of conversation is the dream for entrepreneurs during their launch week. And when you read the interview, youโ€™ll see he makes a compelling case for the brand!! As I edit this letter, albeit hungover, I am wishing I drank some Not Beers instead of sake martinis last night.

The nonalcoholic space is weird and oddly emotional โ€” you can find plenty of threads about this all over the internet. Men are a difficult audience to market to, and heโ€™s doing it anyway. And lastly, he agreed to this interview. Iโ€™ll check back in a few months to see how many units heโ€™s moving and to see if SEC schools are cracking these open at tailgates, but in the meantime, I present to you:


An interview with Dillon Dandurand, founder of Not Beer:

I want to know more about your background. How did you end up starting Not Beer?

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