Making Small Business a Cause – "Brewing the American Dream"

Speed coaching is one element of "Brewing the American Dream," http://btad.samueladams.com/ a program Boston Beer established with a microlender, Accion, to help small businesses.

Mr. Koch, who started brewing Samuel Adams Boston Lager at his house in 1984, remains central to these efforts even as he presides over a company with a market capitalization of $1.4 billion and annual revenue of more than $500 million. He said he had not forgotten his early days, when he struggled to find capital, get his beer into distribution networks and expand.

In six sessions that August evening, Mr. Koch spoke with perhaps a dozen entrepreneurs and then stayed another hour to visit with six or eight more. This year, Boston Beer and Accion are staging 12 speed-coaching events in 11 cities, and Mr. Koch expects to attend about half of them.

By ROBB MANDELBAUM

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/business/smallbusiness/samuel-adams-brewer-counsels-small-businesses.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Many thanks to Michael Braun for sharing this article.