Kenneth Connell, Co-Founder, The BroBasket
We’ve all been there; trying to find the perfect gift for the men in your life can be a daunting task; somehow it seems to get even more difficult every year. Well, Howard University Alumni Kenneth Connell, along with his two business partners, saw this as the perfect business opportunity and came up with the concept of ‘The BroBasket – Your Go-to Gift for Men’.
“To be quite honest, I was just fed up of getting socks and ties for Christmas haha, ” said Co-Founder Mike Mazza. “When the idea was originally formed, we knew we were on to something big because all the guys in our class got a big smile on their face when they heard it.”
James Grasty, Co-Founder, The BroBasket
The idea for BroBasket came about in an MBA classroom at California State University, Channel Islands. One of their classmates shared a conversation she had with her (then) boyfriend.
“He got a promotion and I told him I’d send him some flowers. He said don’t you dare send me flowers. But you can send me “He got a promotion and I told him I’d send him some flowers. He said don’t you dare send me flowers. But you can send me beer!” Once the class heard the story they fell in love with the concept. If women want flowers, then what do men want? Beer!
Once the idea was born, the entire class worked on the BroBasket concept as part of a class project. Howeve, after the class ended the idea fell by the wayside. That is until Kenneth, Mike and James revived the idea a year later and decided to execute.
It took many long nights to make BroBasket a reality. Even though BroBasket made for a great class project, almost none of the original class members were willing to put money behind the idea, therefore getting funding for the business was no easy task. Banks denied the applications for lines of credit and loans. Despite this, however, enough money was cobbled together to acquire a location, licenses and some initial inventory. It took over a year and a half, many man hours, lots of coffee (and beer), and numerous delays but on December 12, 2014 TheBroBasket.com went live.
The Serious Golfer Gift Basket
Mini Golf Basket
In the last 2 ½ half years, BroBasket has expanded beyond simply offering buckets of beer. They offer a wide variety of spirits and wines, as well as domestic, international and craft beers. They pride themselves on having a selection wide enough for you to assemble the perfect gift for every man in your life, regardless of what they like to drink. BroBasket is so committed to making only gifts men want to receive, that the number one seller on the website is a product called “Customize Your Own”.
“I believe in business, the only way to be successful is to give the people what they want! And that’s what we try to do here” says James, the third Co-Founder. The Customize Your Own BroBasket product was his idea. “I wanted a product that allowed you to 100% customize the gift. You can pick the container, the glassware, the snacks and drinks, even accessories. You have the ability to give the recipient exactly what they want.”
In addition to the completely customized gifts, BroBasket also offers curated gifts, such as The Golfers Delight. It comes complete with a DivPro divot tool, golf balls, ball markers, a golf towel, cigars, glasses, whiskey stones, and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label. The Black Label can be substituted for any other spirit, wine or beer.
Viva-La-Tequila
Another popular product is called the ‘Viva La Tequila’ and its success led the company to create a new line of products: Sampler Gifts. These gifts include Vodka samplers, Scotch samplers, Bourbon samplers etc. All of these gifts feature a variety of the selected spirit and also include some snacks and glassware. Since their introduction, they have become some of the top selling gifts on the website.
“We try our best to anticipate our customers’ needs, that’s why we offer a wide selection of curated gifts. So if the guy is a golfer, for example, we have a gift for him. If he’s a BBQ enthusiast we have a gift for him. If he’s a craft beer junkie we’ve got him covered.” says Kenneth. “But we also listen to the feedback we get so we’re constantly introducing new gifts. We truly want to make sure that we have all our bases covered and no matter who the recipient is -even if they’re a non-drinker – we can offer them something that would put the biggest smile on their face.”
If you’d like to learn more about The BroBasket, or you’d like to customize the perfect gift for one of the men in your life, visit TheBroBasket.com or give them a call at 844-446-2443.
