Zero alcohol, zero carb, zero taste beer 🍺🇺🇸

I interviewed Dillon Dandurand, the founder of Not Beer.

Good morning everybody.

Last week I got an email with a subject line, “Not Beer introduction.” 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 Beer’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. It’s impossible to suggest this brand wasn’t inspired by Liquid Death (which now has a billion-dollar valuation), but they’re trying to tell customers to “have this whenever you want a beer.” Which is also what nonalcoholic beer brand Athletic Brewing says —and they actually taste like beer.

Here are some observations about Not Beer:

• They mention terrorism too many times on their site. It’s not in an earnest way, it’s in a very JibJab 2006 Bush administration AMERICA way.

• There’s a line in the FAQ section about drinking Not Beer to “make your father proud.” 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 should’ve launched this with Dillon.

• Which is to say the branding is very uncanny valley patriotic bro. It’s like someone asked ChatGPT to make a patriotic bro brand. And that’s not to say it looks BAD, it’s just a little too on the nose for me. It’s too expensive to look bad, some effort went into it. Same for the photoshoot. It’s just a case of “not coming together” for me.

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

I wrote about Not Beer in a letter last week, which turned my comment section into a minefield — I’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, you’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 — you can find plenty of threads about this all over the internet. Men are a difficult audience to market to, and he’s doing it anyway. And lastly, he agreed to this interview. I’ll check back in a few months to see how many units he’s moving and to see if SEC schools are cracking these open at tailgates, but in the meantime, I present to you:

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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?