The secret to brewing up a $3 billion business idea: a beloved family recipe, a bootstrapped business plan, and a briefcase full of beer.
Those are just some of the ingredients Samuel Adams founder Jim Koch used to launch his Boston-based beer brand in 1984. The then-34-year-old aspiring entrepreneur had just quit his six-figure gig at Boston Consulting Group—a decision his brewmaster father referred to as one of the "stupidest" things he had ever done—with a dream of launching a great American beer company.
"You'll never be very big, but you'll probably stay out of the welfare line," Koch recalled his father saying in an interview with Fortune. Read the full story.
