The pursuit of hoppiness: Charlotte startup offers a custom approach to the beer club experience.

• Author: Lea, Amanda
• Position: NC TREND: Beer clubs

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Your dad's beer-of-the-month club never had the "beergorithm." CEO Charlie Mulligan felt so confident in Brewpublik's algorithm that matches a member's preferences with more than 3,000 brews, he drained his savings account two years ago to start the company with Zach Jamison and Samantha August. Brewpublik has since added to that $10,000 investment by raising about $700,000, plus a commitment from venture-capital firm SierraMaya360 for $5 million over five years.

About 2,000 monthly subscribers now receive customized orders of six to 24 cans or bottles--depending on their membership plan, which costs from $20 to $55--on their doorsteps. The service also allows members to exchange beers if they're unhappy with their brews.

But Mulligan says corporate customers have become their larger market. "Somewhere along the line, we realized no one was addressing the beer that was being consumed at company events," he says. "Now, we serve about 100 different corporate clients across all four markets." Orders are delivered to offices in Charlotte, Raleigh and San Francisco. Because of South Carolina regulations, customers in Charleston must pick up orders from a centrally located warehouse. The company plans to expand to Austin, Texas; Los Angeles; New York; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle by the end of the year.

Earlier this year, Brewpublik was accepted into 500 Startups, a California-based venture-capital fund and startup accel erator founded in 2010 by PayPal alum Dave McClure and Google alum Christine Tsai. Companies pay $25,000 to join its four-month program and...