
← The Bottleneck Podcast7 Jun · 1 h 12 min
James Watt with Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba on BrewDog, gut instinct and starting again
<p>James Watt quit law after two weeks, spent seven years as a captain on a North Atlantic fishing boat, then built BrewDog from two humans and a dog into a business making a million cans of beer a day. </p><p><br></p><p>In this episode he joins Rory and Elfried to talk about the power of naivety, why differentiation always beats optimisation, and what it actually takes to build a challenger brand from nothing.He also opens up on what really happened at BrewDog — the private equity deal that almost worked brilliantly, and finishing a painful second in the bid to buy his own business back. And he reveals his plan for a new beer business called Second Best.Plus: why community will always beat audience, the danger of bottom-of-funnel obsession, and what his new platform SocialTip is doing to bring word-of-mouth marketing into the digital age.</p><p><br></p><p>Follow RoryInstagram: @rorysutherland_clipsTikTok: @RorysutherlandclipsX: @rorysutherlandLinkedIn: in/rorysutherland/Follow ElfriedInstagram: @elfriedsambaLinkedIn: in/elfriedsamba/https://www.butterflyeffect.xyz/Follow JamesInstagram: @captainjameswatt / @socialtiphq / @secondbestbeerLinkedIn: in/jameswatt-investor-entrepreneur-punk/X: @JamesBWattA Sassy+ original podcast series</p><p><br></p>