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  • June 2022
  • Teaching Note
  • HBS Case Collection

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:25
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Abstract

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-419. On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. The technology dramatically reduced the time, cost, and environmental impact (it required less energy and less wood) of making whiskey. At the same time, the technology could also be used to enhance a whiskey’s taste profile which could allow producers to charge more for their products. To date, entrepreneurs Stu Aaron and Martin Janousek had proven they could produce whiskey at scale and with desired properties. Having validated the concept, they now had to decide whether to continue making whiskey themselves or use their technology to process it for others. In short, they had to decide whether to be a product-based, B2C company or a service-based, B2B company, or both? If they decided to be a service business, should they emphasis the Maturation-as-a-Service (MaaS, faster and lower cost production) or the Customization-as-a-Service (CaaS, creation of customized products with unique taste profiles) business in the short term?

Keywords

B2B Vs. B2C; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Cost Management; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry

Citation

Esty, Benjamin C., and Daniel Fisher. "Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 722-457, June 2022.
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About The Author

Benjamin C. Esty

Finance
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