Military Entrepreneur Magazine; Fall 2015

From Garage Gadget to Shark Tank Sensation

Eli Crane, Founder & CEO, Bottle Breacher

Eli Crane, a former Navy Seal, is the founder and CEO of Bottle Breacher, a San Diego company that sells 50-caliber bottle openers hand crafted by active duty service members and veterans.

Bottle Breacher started in a one-car garage with Eli taking a gift his brother had given him from the Philippines and giving it a serious facelift. By painting, polishingand incorporating a sticker of his platoon logo (the Punisher Skull) he created his first Bottle Breacher. He showed his teammates at work, watched their response and knew he was on to something.

In less than three years he has been featured on the ABC TV’s Shark Tank, had several patents issued, launched news products and sold millions of dollars’ worth of Bottle Breacher products. New products include a new wine opener, which has been by far their most successful new product launch to date. They are working on getting into big box retail stores and securing strategic licenses.

Success has not come without its challenges. The company has had to deal with the “Shark Tank Effect” and scaling their business to accommodate demand. It’s meant dividing responsibilities, compromising and adjusting to their post military environment.

Jen and Eli meet with one of their “Sharks,” Kevin O’Leary.

BEHIND THE BOTTLE

Eli joined the Navy one week after September 11, 2001. Like many Americans, he saw the atrocity of 9/11 as a call to action. His career path led from being stationed aboard the USS Gettysburg to serving on SEAL Team 3 and later NSW TRADET.

He credits his training and service in theNavy with giving him the skills to be a goodentrepreneur. In SEAL training, he learned hewas insignificant by himself and how importanthis teammates were to overall mission success.He’s carried that same mentality into day-to-dayoperations at Bottle Breacher.

He also learned the value of surroundingoneself with people who are smarter and moretalented. He made good on that by adding hiswife, Jen, as his first team member. She is notonly part owner, but an integral asset to the team,

leading marketing efforts, overseeing accounting and ensuring that all administrative ducks are in a row.

When asked what he enjoys about being an entrepreneur Eli responded, “I do not think there are too many jobs where you can directly see real time results of whether your vision, decisions, and execution are either successful or unsuccessful like being an entrepreneur.”

Jen added, “I love being able to have a flexible schedule to be a mom. I have two daughters, so I want to ensure quality time with making dinner and doing homework with them. Spending time together is very important to us. It is a typical eight to ten hour workday, but I am able to split it up between day/night and be the mom I want to be.”

“Take the lessons that we have learned while wearing a uniform and apply them into your own business,” he said. “Leadership, teamwork, attention to detail, situational awareness, and how to out think and out maneuver your enemy are all lessons that we learn in the military that apply directly to being an entrepreneur.”

Eli shared the following thoughts to other military veterans interested in starting their own business:

SEAL TO SUCCESS

Eli credits his success as the CEO of Bottle Breachers to valuable lessons he learned in the

Navy: Every SEAL has no choice but to learn how to lead.

One of the mottos on the SEAL Teams is “Leadershipat Every Level.” Due to the very small number ofoperators deployed on their missions, everyone hasto be cross-trained to know everyone else’s job andto be ready to step up and take ownership of anysituation.

A good decision now is better than a great decision later. There’s not always have time tohave a full-blown board meeting for each andevery decision. Leaders who fail to be decisive andlack the ability to make quick decisions are alwaysplaying catch up and quickly lose the confidenceof their staff. Eli says that this concept is especiallyimportant in the startup world.

THREE STEPS TO GETTING STARTED (ELI‘S ADVICE TO INSPIRING ENTREPRENUERS)

Step 1: Figure out what you want your business to be. Keep in mind: you have to follow the green, not the dream. If your business does not provide value to customers, you will not make it.

Step 2: Find like-minded individuals that also enjoy the risk and excitement that goes hand-and hand with a startup and have skill sets that complement yours. You need a team if you ever want your businessto become significant.

Step 3: Divide-up responsibilities and GET AFTER IT. Too many entrepreneurs don’t understand this concept, they try to do everything by themselves and end up doing most things poorly.

For military spouses, Jen adds her own advice:

“As a military spouse, do not take the alone time you have for granted,” she said. “Take the time and letit be an advantage to work on a hobby, exercise and start that business that you have had in mind! Takeadvantage of your support system and resources. Open your door to other military spouses, and be a teamwith one another.”

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Out-think your enemy. Bottle Breacher seeks enthusiastic self-starting staff members who can handle multiple roles and be flexible. SEAL Teams learn to be unconventional as they are always outnumbered whenever they operate. They need to out-think their enemy and make sure that they are always four to five steps ahead of them. Running a startup business is no different, Eli says: “On a daily basis, we compete with huge conglomerate companies that have been doing this much longer than we have. We cannot outspend them so we have no choice but to out think them. Business is war!”

The best defense is a good offense. The last thing Eli learned in the SEAL Teams is something that he uses at Bottle Breacher on a daily basis: position your organization to be constantly making tactical moves forward and your competitors will be constantly reacting to you instead of the other way around. Eli says he has people assigned to keeping him up-to-date on what his competitors are doing, but this information is nowhere near the top of his priority list.

“I spend 95 percent of my time focused on creating, innovating and making our process more efficient because at the end of the day I believe that we are our only real competition,” he said. “If we take care of business here, the other guys do not even matter.”

Eli Crane, Founder & CEO, Bottle Breacher

• Eli joined the Navy seeking a SEAL contract; however, he did not make it through SEAL training on his first attempt.

• After two and half years aboard the USS Gettysburg and two deployments in the fleet, Eli finally became a SEAL in 2006 with Class 256.

• Eli spent the entirety of his operational time at SEAL Team 3 in Task Unit 2-Delta Platoon. Eli served directly for Chris Kyle (aka American Sniper) from 2006 to 2008.

• Eli went on to serve three tours of duty in different parts of Iraq. His qualifications and responsibilities throughout his time in Delta Platoon were lead navigator, automatic weapons gunner, point man, and sniper.

• After leaving SEAL Team 3, Eli went on to join the NSW Recruiting Directorate. His responsibilities here included being a member of the Navy SEAL Scout Team and traveling around the country to raise awareness and find our nations next crop of SEALS.

• Eli finished up his career at NSW TRADET. He quickly became the LPO VBSS (Leading Petty Officer) (Visit Board Search and Seize).

Eli Crane, Founder & CEO, Bottle Breacher