Editors’ Note

Ryan Close has built and led successful sales and marketing teams for over a decade and is set to deliver his greatest accomplishment yet – disrupting the cocktail world by bringing the first premium capsule-based cocktail machine to market. His persistent drive and keen strategic insight along with a mindful and modern leadership approach has helped him to orchestrate the recruitment and growth of top tier talent. Close identifies and executes creative win-win partnerships with key players to effect intrinsic value for stakeholders. His intricate decisions and directives over the past five years developing the Bartesian are ready to be revealed. Explosive sales are anticipated from the home consumer, hotels, and stadiums across North America.

Company Brief

Bartesian (bartesian.com) is elevating the cocktail experience by offering premium cocktails without the hassle through its unique single-server cocktail maker. Bartesian creates bar-quality cocktails on demand, providing an effortless way to serve and enjoy premium cocktails at home.

What was your vision for creating Bartesian?

It was a culmination of several factors. I bartended to put myself through college, but I was lousy at it.

Right out of college, I was basically a fixer and would go into small and medium-sized companies to improve sales and operations. I would report directly to the CEO and I would go in as a change-maker for these companies.

I was always hustling on the side with small entrepreneurial ventures, but nothing was really lighting me up and I couldn’t justify leaving my full-time role to fully dive in. Bartesian was a passion project that I could really get behind and throw everything I had into it. I knew it would be a real disruptor.

When I tended bar in hotels, I’d have to push this big awkward bar on wheels into the banquet halls and only offered basic plus one cocktails (e.g., rum and cola). The experience wasn’t fun for me or the guests, the ingredients were average and the measuring was inconsistent.

Like in college, you have the silo cups, booze and juice, and put it all on a table.

After college, when we’re trying to be “adult,” we’re typically doing the same thing. The booze may be a little bit better, but you’re still laying out a bunch of ingredients on a table expecting your guests to have at it.

Bartesian allows you to have a very sleek, innovative product that looks sexy on your countertop and doesn’t take up much space. Guests can pick any cocktail they want from a Negroni, Sazerac, Margarita, Old Fashioned, to others and in 20 seconds they enjoy a premium cocktail.

You use your own spirits, so you control the quality. We’re the perfect addition for the discerning customer who appreciates a quick and easy way to make a great cocktail.

Will you discuss your focus on quality?

We were at a crossroads a year and a half ago, where we were splitting our limited resources between developing the appliance – as a hardware company - and creating the capsules, a CPG (consumer-packaged good). We decided to license the appliance to a highly reputable partner who manufacture and distribute Bartesian across North America. This allowed us to focus on the capsules and ensuring that the taste and quality are at the highest level, which aligned with our mission of creating an authentic cocktail.

How have you been able to offer a high-quality product at an affordable price point?

It is challenging and part of the reason why we licensed the appliance to an established firm. We were determined to not cut corners. By leveraging higher volume purchases of non-custom parts, we reduced the cost of goods, allowing us to sell it at $349.

What are your expectations for growth?

We’ve already sold thousands of units and have demand for more than 50,000 machines in 2019. We expect to grow to well over 100,000 units by 2021. We have all the e-commerce websites, and we haven’t even turned on the marketing spend yet. We’ve partnered with Best Buy, Bloomingdales, and several other premium retailers to launch in-store October 2019.

We also have secured partnerships with hotels (e.g., Hyatt), stadiums (e.g., Wrigley) and other entertainment venues.

As an entrepreneur always looking to the future, are you able to appreciate and enjoy what you are building with Bartesian?

It’s a very interesting question. It makes me think about the time when my wife and I were hiking in Hawaii before we had kids. It was gorgeous and I spent the whole time racing to get to the end. I don’t think I looked around once to actually appreciate where we were. I was too focused on achieving a successful completion.

I am working hard to remember this lesson and what I missed out on by trying to enjoy the process rather than only the outcome. Life is short and there’s always going to be that next place that you need to get to.