That old saw about building a better mousetrap surely applies to Dylan Jacob, founder and “chief drinking officer” of BruMate, whose mousetrap turned out to be a container that keeps your beer or wine at the perfect temperature while you’re on the go.
Dylan Jacob owns 100 percent of BruMate, the company he founded in 2016.
“When I first turned 21, I discovered that warm alcohol was the worst, setting off on a journey to find a solution for keeping my favorite adult beverages at the perfect temperature,” Jacob writes on the BruMate website. “With just an idea and a dream, I concocted a plant to shake up the drinkware industry and change the way you enjoy your favorite adult beverages for the better.”
To get an idea of just how good a mousetrap Jacob built, consider his sales numbers since starting his company in 2016 in Denver. That year he did $270,000, but bear in mind that was in two months because he launched in November. In 2017, BruMate did $2.1 million. In 2018, it did almost $20 million, and last year BruMate brought in $36 million.
Even better, Jacob, 25, owns the company 100 percent, although he’s getting ready to raise $10 million in venture capital as part of a planned global expansion. All from what amounts to a fancy stainless steel insulated beer cozy, although the line has since expanded exponentially into wine and spirits.
“We don’t do water bottles or coffee mugs,” Jacob said. “Everything is crafted around building a better drinking experience. That’s what allowed us to grow so quickly. No one else makes what we do.”
Dylan Jacob demonstrates the product.
It’s also easier to get people to spend money on something that keeps their beer cold than something that keeps their water cold, Jacob adds.
Jacob grew up in Greenwood, Indiana, a small town south of Indianapolis. His parents divorced when he was in the 4th grade, and his mother raised him and two siblings on a minimum wage job.
“I found odds and ends, ways to pick up the slack and buy school clothes,” Jacob said.
He mowed the neighbors’ laws, raked their leaves and cleared their driveways of snow.
“We lived in an elderly neighborhood,” Jacob explained.
Jacob’s grandfather had an electronics repair shop for televisions, VCRs and DVDs and Jacob said he grew up working in the shop. In high school he began buying his friends’ broken cell phones, repairing them and selling the on eBay as refurbished.
“By freshman year I had a pretty significant business, doing $20,000 a year,” Jacob said. “As a 15-year-old I felt like a millionaire. It was a good side hustle.”
But then cell phone repair shops started popping up and overnight Jacob was out of business. Not one to stay down long, be began sourcing spare parts for the cell phone repair shops and started selling to them. By his senior year he was working with about 150 shops around the United States, doing $300,000 in sales.
“At that time I thought, ‘This is great, but what’s my life plan?’” Jacob said. “I wanted to be an engineer.”
Jacob enrolled at Purdue University and landed an engineering internship at Rolls Royce in downtown Indianapolis.
“I absolutely hated it,” Jacob said.
Dylan Jacob, founder of BruMate, likes taking risks, and it has paid off.
All the while, Jacob was still running his cell phone spare parts business. In 2014 he sold it for $100,000 and dropped out of school. He started another company in Indianapolis, Vicci Design, selling glass tiles, which his father later bought.
“My dream was to create a product from scratch, concept to development,” Jacob said. “Cell phone parts and kitchen backsplashes weren’t cutting it. I shifted my mindset to look at the world differently.”
Jacob began keeping a journal. Everywhere he went and everything he touched he thought about how things could be improved.
“I did that for a year and didn’t come up with anything I was passionate about,” he said.
Then came that fateful 21st birthday at his favorite brewery, Sun King in downtown Indianapolis.
“Every time the last quarter of beer was warm and it drove me insane,” Jacob said. “I tried everything. No one made anything for 16-ounce cans. This is something I can get passionate about.”
Jacob designed what would become the BruMate Hopsulator, flew to China to have a prototype made and in November 2016, launched his company.
