Modern Times To Become First Fan & Employee-Owned Brewery in the World

Modern Times announced today a crowd equity initiative that allows fans to become investors / co-owners. The San Diego-based company is one of the fastest growing independent craft breweries in the United States and is currently 30% employee-owned.

Modern Times began as a 30bbl production brewery and tasting room in the Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego. Founded by Jacob McKean, a Stone Brewing alum, the brewery boasts double-digit growth for each of the last four years and projects $37 million in revenue for 2019.

Modern Times Revenue Chart

Said Jacob McKean, Founder / CEO Modern Times, “In 2013, we opened a 30bbl production brewery and tasting room in San Diego. Since then, we’ve posted high double-digit growth every year, pulling in $30.5M in revenue in 2018, with $37M projected for 2019. We’re one of the most successful & fastest growing breweries in the nation, with an avid following in 7 states. We currently have 5 tasting rooms in San Diego, LA, and Portland, with 3 more CA locations in construction. This raise will help take us through this next critical stage of growth.”

The Modern Times WeFunder campaign for fan equity opens to the public at 8pm EST on April 22nd.

CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE

We are tremendously proud of what we’ve built at Modern Times over the last six years. We’ve become a multi-state juggernaut in our industry, with production north of 68,000 barrels in 2018—over 800% of what we’d initially projected to produce in our 5th year, which is, to use a technical term, bonkers. In short, we’ve reached a scale that requires a new approach, and—rather than involve traditional private equity or other large investors—we’re choosing to give our fans a chance to invest in the company that they’ve done so much to help build.

We’re super excited about crowd equity, for a couple reasons. Firstly, we can’t think of a better long-term, sustainable business model than a brewery owned by its employees and fans, both of whom already play critical roles in shaping our beer, coffee, and company culture. Giving our fans—who already champion the brewery, frequent its establishments, and cheerlead its efforts—a chance to share in the potential upside of the company’s success seems like both a rad thing to do and a chance to have the most pro-active, engaged investor group on the planet.

Modern Times WeFunder CampaignToday, our company is 30% employee-owned. Now we’re inviting our customers and fans to be owners too.

Given our current structure, it’s also important to note that this new equity raise will actually accelerate our progress toward an increased percentage of employee-ownership. We anticipate that the added capital and anticipated growth from the use of that capital will allow us to advance the timeline of buying back shares for our employee-owners, while simultaneously growing the company. We also project that it will make our beer, coffee, and food more delicious, more available, and allow us to unleash the full potential of our visual magicians in creating some eye-poppingly luxurious environments in which to serve them. In short: This isn’t even our final form.

As a first step in this project, we’re going to be launching what’s called a Regulation CF Raise on the WeFunder platform, potentially followed by a more substantial capital raise later this year. We can only accept up to $1,070,000 under Regulation CF, but we may accept additional funds under other securities law exemptions related to accredited investors. This initial opportunity for investment will go live at 8pm on 4/22/19 on our crowd-funding page at https://wefunder.com/modern.times.beer. We are immensely excited for this next step, and hope that our fans and friends will join us on the next leg of this already-epic adventure.

If you’d like to invest, or just get more details on the whole thing, they’re all on our WeFunder page which, again, is right here: https://wefunder.com/modern.times.beer