Solving the Distribution Issue: How BrewDog’s Web3 Partner Degen Distillery is Using the Blockchain

Sammy Verghese had just built an events empire when the pandemic hit. No one was allowed outside and people definitely weren't going to festivals anytime soon. Everything he'd worked for had been thrown into disarray. Little did he know this was only the start for his most innovative project yet.

The entrepreneur had been buying failing music venues, festivals, pubs and restaurants, quickly turning them into thriving businesses. But the pandemic didn't care about his dreams and forced these businesses to close with nothing to show.

As a result, he started to dive more into the world of Web3, something he had first fallen in love with in 2016. Over the years, Verghese had taught himself about the fundamentals and was enamoured with the community aspect of NFT communities.

Firstly, he tried to be a portfolio manager, consultant, and investor but missed his entrepreneurial roots. Verghese decided to combine his experience in hospitality, his knowledge of web3 tech, and love for NFT communities to create Degen Distillery.

The vision for Degen Distillery is an international spirits brand that utilizes the Web3 community to become the "fastest distillery brand on the face of the planet." One of the company's unique selling points is that it will allow NFT communities to license their intellectual property in exchange for a license fee—capturing that community feel.

This is all well and good, but Verghese quickly ran into a key issue for anyone attempting to enter the drinks industry: distribution.

"We realized there was a fundamental problem with what we're trying to do," Sammy Verghese, Co-Founder and CEO of Degen Distillery, said. "We have a community in Canada, China, Chile, Australia—the four corners of the world. How the hell do we get global distribution for a physical product that is manufactured in the UK?"

Verghese isn't the first to run into this issue, in fact, this is an industry-wide struggle for start-up food and beverage companies. Most companies either fail at this hurdle or resign to being a local or country wide brand, not Degen Distillery.

Instead, Verghese planned up a solution called "social distribution." You can join by purchasing Degen Distillery's NFT (called ORIGO), after a short course, you're released into the wild with the aim of getting products on the shelves of pubs, restaurants, shops, etc. In return, you earn commission through the NFT you're holding. Every new client you get will permanently be tied to the NFT you own, so you'll receive a commission every single time they purchase the product—be it three times or 3,000 times.

Very quickly, the team had solved the distribution issue that plagues so many start-up companies. They partnered with one of the titans of the alcoholic beverage industry and combined it with an innovative Web3 approach to distribution.