A new nanobrewery and specialty coffee shop will soon be a part of the downtown food-and-drink landscape thanks to a website where ordinary folks back creative projects.
More than 270 people donated nearly $38,000 from Oct. 15 to Nov. 14 to help Tucsonans Beau Hintz and Mike Gura get their business, the Public Brew House and Coffee shop, off the ground.
The money was raised through Kickstarter, a crowdfunding website that allows anyone with Internet access the ability to financially support projects from budding young artists, inventors and entrepreneurs.
Backers are promised incentives depending on how much they donate.
In this case, people who pledged $25 or more were offered a pint glass or Belgian-style glass with the shop's logo.
Those who contributed $1,000 or more will receive "free coffee forever," according to the brew house project website.
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Hintz and Gura needed $37,000 to pay for the proper equipment for the business, including tanks, drip coffee brewing supplies and a cappuccino machine, while factoring in the 5 percent fee Kickstarter collects if the campaign is successful and the 3 to 5 percent transaction fee from Amazon.
"We came up with a number that would be the bare minimum but enough to do it right," Hintz said of the project.
"It was a massive Hail Mary but we had nothing to lose," Gura added. "Neither of us had $37,000 sitting in our bank accounts."
Gura, 31, and Hintz, 32, had been toying with the idea for a brewery and coffee shop for the last nine months.
Hintz is a barista at Savaya Coffee Market on East Broadway with time put in at Cartel Coffee Lab.
Gura learned how to home brew while living in Moab, Utah.
"Utah has less than favorable liquor laws if you are a beer drinker," Gura said. "They have state-run liquor stores and the hours are wacky. I have always been into cooking, so homebrewing seemed like a good direction."
The two met while working as paramedics with Southwest Ambulance nearly a decade ago.
They stayed in touch over the years.
Hintz would often chat with Gura during his shifts at Cartel Coffee Lab, which is where the idea for Public Brew House came into focus.
The two worked out spreadsheets and secured a space downtown at the historic Charles O. Brown House at 40 W. Broadway, a building that is home to the Ben's Bells studio, Borderlands Theater and the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance.
From there it was just a matter of funding.
"We were talking about loans, but there is not much liquidity out there right now," Gura said. "We went with Kickstarter because it really embodies what we wanted to make: a community space."
The Kickstarter campaign dragged at first, which was painful for Hintz and Gura.
The duo was looking at about $7,000 after 22 days.
On Kickstarter, if you don't reach your goal within 30 days, you don't receive any funding at all.
"We were giving each other pep talks at that point," Hintz said. "I was thinking to myself, 'This was a failure but that is OK.'"
At around day 25, the two began to see a turnaround.
Friends of friends and distant relatives pitched in and people began spreading the word on Facebook.
Five hours before their deadline, the project had raised more than $33,000.
Hintz and Gura eventually surpassed their goal, taking in more than 37,700.
"It was beautiful to watch," Hintz said. "People I had never heard of were donating hundreds of dollars."
"We let the reins go at a point because they were doing it on their own," Gura said.
Now that the project is funded, Gura said the next step is to go through the mountains of paperwork, and permit and licensing applications before moving in.
He projected a grand opening sometime between April and early next summer.
Both Gura and Hintz feel they owe a great debt to those who contributed.
"This is our community project," Hintz said. "It is way bigger than us."
'We went with Kickstarter because it really embodies what we wanted to make: a community space.'
Mike Gura, nanobrewery and specialty coffee shop co-owner
