HOW I GOT SWEATY AND MUDDY AND MADE NONALCOHOLIC BEER COOL

Bill Shufelt, 39, started his craft beer business in 2017 in a moribund segment of an otherwise booming industry: non-alcoholic brews. Shufelt bet that there were many non-drinkers like him who wanted lagers and IPAs that tasted better than water, and were fit for fancy dinners as well as the finish line.

- DOUG CANTOR

ATHLETIC BREWING COMPANY CEO: BILL SHUFELT

CATEGORY: FOOD & BEVERAGES

THREE-YEAR REVENUE GROWTH: 13,071%

Since then, his Athletic Brewing Company, based in Stratford, Connecticut, has raised about $75 million from investors. Sales were nearly $37 million last year, and non-alcoholic brews, while still a small portion of the $109 billion global craft beer market, are its fastest-growing category. Before helping create that momentum, however, Shufelt encountered plenty of folks who found his idea for a product hard to swallow. -AS TOLD TO DOUG CANTOR

I love craft beer, but I stopped drinking in 2013. I had a job as a trader at a hedge fund, and I was out at work dinners four or five nights a week. I was focused on performance in everything, from work to physical fitness, and the alcohol wasn't adding anything to my life. It left me hung over, and affected my sleep and nutrition.

One night after I'd stopped drinking, my wife and I were walking to dinner, and I was ranting about how terrible the nonalcoholic drinks would be and what an unmet need this was. Finally, she said, "That is an amazing idea! Listen to yourself." It took her pointing it out for me to realize that I even had an idea.