USC alumnus launches successful beer company


It was a light bulb moment for Brendan Sindell.

It clicked shortly before he decided to attend USC for his Master’s degree in business administration, and that spur-of-the-moment idea has now evolved into his lifestyle for the past five years. USC alumnus Brendan Sindell is the founder of House Beer, a Los Angeles beer company established in 2013 with a mission to provide its consumers with tasty, high-quality brew.

When asked how the idea came to him, Sindell said beer has always been something in the back of his mind. His undergraduate college experience was at UCSB, and he dubbed it “a party school.” Yet, Sindell took a thing or two out of the college party scene that contributed to his future start-up: his acquired taste for beer.

At every college party and sporting event, beer was always in high demand. However, one thing was missing for him —  it just wasn’t good beer. To Sindell, it was unsatisfying alcohol bought in copious amounts with no purpose other than to get people drunk.

The light-bulb moment came to him one summer day, during a conversation with a fellow beer enthusiast. After receiving his undergraduate degree, Sindell was working at an investment advisory firm, with graduate school the only clear destination in his future. He hadn’t thought about launching his own craft beer before, but soon after that fateful conversation, the idea grew on him.

“I wanted to create beer using great ingredients — beers that were great for drinking, high in quality, but also something that won’t leave you too full,” Sindell said.

For two years, Sindell taught himself all he could about the beer industry while brainstorming his start-up, applying for graduate school and handling work.

In the beginning, it was all a blur: talking to the right people, asking questions, researching about beer — a daily routine that led to the advent of House Beer.

Graduate school had always been in the equation for Sindell, and he had his mind set on Marshall’s masters program. As a Los Angeles native, he wanted to build a professional network around Southern California, and USC provided that perfect opportunity for a burgeoning entrepreneur. He began attending night classes in 2012 while spending the day working on the start-up. Sindell attributes many successful aspects of House Beer to his time at Marshall.

“I learned everything from pricing strategy, positioning my product in the marketplace, to managing a team of people,”  Sindell said.

It’s helped him tremendously, he acknowledged, though there were rough patches at the start of his journey.

“When you’re 23, 24, trying to figure out how to start up a company … there’s all this red tape and licensing behind alcohol. It was definitely overwhelming at times,” he said. “I didn’t have anyone to turn to.” Sindell’s family weren’t beer connoisseurs. In fact, his mother hates beer and his father, a retired professor, wasn’t into beer or its business aspects.

It was a different story with his siblings. In the beginning, his older half-brother Derek Wilson pitched in financially as Sindell put in some of his own money, and they drew some funds from friends and family. Sindell’s two brothers and friend Keegan Gibbs are his co-founders, and together, they found the team that would make up House Beer.

“Initially, it was finding people who believed in me and who believed in the brand,” Sindell said.

Though House Beer is now expanding, their mission remains the same: high quality, refreshing drinkable beer.

Despite its growth in the last three years, he remains humble on his progress with House Beer. “It’s still a start-up,” he said. “It’s a roller coaster for sure.”

To Sindell, House Beer will continue to be a work in progress, with uncertainties coupled with successes. There are moments when he feels like he’s on top of the world, and then days when the reality of working in a million-dollar beer industry comes crashing down on him.

“That’s the life of an entrepreneur,” Sindell said.

He’s looking forward to what that life has to offer, but his entrepreneurial roots will always stem back to the Trojan Family.

2 replies
  1. b juardo
    b juardo says:

    “His undergraduate college experience was at UCSB, and he dubbed it “a party school.” Yet, Sindell took a thing or two out of the college party scene that contributed to his future start-up: his acquired taste for beer.”

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