Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 23, 2023 9 Entrepreneur Sam McGee with a few of his 24-inch-long, bat-shaped beer cups that are being used at minor and major league baseball stadiums throughout the country. HBJ PHOTO | ROBERT STORACE Hartford-based entrepreneur McGee's bat-shaped beer cup finds a global customer base By Robert Storace rstorace@hartfordbusiness.com I f you attend a Hartford Yard Goats game next season and purchase a baseball bat-shaped beer cup, you can thank Hartford-based entre- preneur Sam McGee. McGee is the owner of Green Egg Design LLC, an approximately five- year-old company that designs and has two patents for the 24-inch-long bat that holds 26 ounces of beer, or any other beverage users see fit. So far, the bat has been a home run. McGee said his business has grown to the point where he can't keep up with demand. Customers include numerous Major League Baseball franchises, like the Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals. Those teams currently sell his product, for about $25 per bat. (The price doesn't include the cost of beer.) More growth is likely. McGee said he received a Major League Baseball merchandising license in March and every other MLB team has expressed interest in purchasing the bat-shaped cup. In addition, McGee has agreements with about 40 minor league teams in the U.S., as well as current or pending deals with baseball teams in Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia and Mexico. He expects 3 million bats to be available for sale in 2023, and to add an additional 1.5 million bats each year after to meet demand. He said he's currently working to increase production at his Binghamton, New York warehouse and Philadel- phia-based fulfillment center. His main business office is in down- town Hartford, in the Stark Building, at 750 Main St. "This is a global product, but it's still based on the American experi- ence of baseball," said McGee. "It's the American pastime being shared around the world." How it began Prior to forming Green Egg Design, McGee for more than two decades worked in the auto-detailing business and sold cars, primarily high-end vehicles like Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Ferraris. Then, the market crashed in late 2008 and the busi- ness he was in hit hard times. McGee said he always wanted to be an entrepreneur and decided at 37 years old to go back to college at the University of Hartford. He had dropped out of the Georgia Institute of Technology in his junior year in 1995 while pursuing an engineering degree. At UHart, he earned three degrees, including two master's. "I went back to school because I always wanted the dream of having my own business," he said. McGee is now an adjunct professor at UHart, where he teaches courses on entrepreneurship, marketing and management. He recently started a new course called Black Economic Entrepreneurship. While a UHart student, McGee said he started a business consulting firm, which helped him germinate the idea for the baseball bat cup. He had a client that developed a pool- friendly cup for the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas. "I thought there might be something there for me to look into. I thought maybe there was something we could do with a large group of people at a large venue," said McGee. He initially approached the Yard Goats with his idea for a product. The Yard Goats bit and Green Egg Design was born. The reaction to the bat eventually went viral. "In 2018 we sold our first bats (to the Yard Goats). Our first initial Insta- gram post had over 1 million views SAM McGEE President & Founder Green Egg Design LLC Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration technology; MBA; master's in accounting and taxation, Univer- sity of Hartford Age: 50 and 1 million impressions within two hours. It just snowballed from there," McGee said. Soon, McGee was answering calls from Major League Baseball teams that expressed interest in the beer bat. He also rented a booth at the 2018 winter MLB meetings in Las Vegas. Word was getting around that this Vernon, Connecticut native had a cool product that everyone wanted to get their hands on. Startup struggles Getting the company up and running wasn't easy, McGee said, particularly when it came to obtaining startup capital. He was able to raise $100,000 in loans from friends and family to get the company off the ground. But numerous banks turned him down over the years. McGee, who is Black, said his skin color had some- thing to do with it. "I had a business generating more than $1.5 million in revenue (in 2022) and I still can't get a bank loan," McGee said. "The goalposts kept on being moved. Yes, it was because of the color of my skin. More than 10 banks turned me down." Instead of trying to obtain a traditional bank loan, McGee said he raised $850,000 in 2022 from a private investor group. The funds are being used to expand bat manufac- turing and distribution. Stephen Mulready, dean of the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business, said McGee is an active alum who has leveraged his training at UHart into a successful and growing business. "He has spoken to a number of our classes and many students," said Mulready. "He has a lot of energy and goes out there and makes deals happen. He is doing it with Major League Baseball, which is a tough area to crack and he's been successful at it." As demand continues to increase, Green Egg Design is growing. It added seven employees in December bringing its total Hartford staff to 10. New jobs were added in logistics and supplies, finance and human resources. Annual revenues are about $2 million, and the company expects to turn profitable this year, McGee said. McGee said there are no plans in the near future to sell the company. However, the married father of three young children said long term, "it's all about creating generational wealth for my family."

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