Reading List: Business for Punks

BrewDog hasn’t made much of a splash on this side of the pond—yet—but since 2007, the Scottish craft beer company has become one of the fastest-growing drinks brands in the world. In Business for Punks , co-founder James Watt tells how BrewDog did it with punk attitude and rule-breaking, and how you can follow the example. Watt boasts that he intends this book to be no less than “the business bible for a new generation.”

Watt says the old rules simply don’t work anymore, at least for startups like BrewDog. He is occasionally crude, as in his four mantras of punk business: Don’t waste your time on B.S. business plans; forget sales; ignore advice; and put everything on the line for what you believe in.

But he’s also shrewd. He shows how BrewDog reinvented crowdfunding, made use of guerrilla marketing that bordered on vandalism, and created sales strategies specific to the craft beer business. Young entrepreneurs—and anyone who wants to reach millennial customers—might benefit from this outrageous but engaging book.

By James Watt
February; Portfolio; $26

This article appears in the February 2016 issue of SUCCESS magazine.