Invest in Gate 11 Distillery

We started our distilled spirits journey five years ago in Chattanooga’s iconic train station. Since then, we have created a remarkable portfolio of award-winning spirits and brands. Now we invite you to join us as we continue this journey by sharing them throughout the Southeastern region and beyond.

In our opening year, we were nominated by USA Today as Best New Craft Distillery. Since then we have earned numerous national and international awards across all product lines. Our amazing gin ranks among the best in the world based upon recent awards at the San Francisco World Spirits and UK Gin Masters competitions. Our offerings include: vodka, gin, rum, absinthe, agave...

And finally - whiskeys! Gate 11 will use some of the proceeds of this campaign to increase our production of bourbon, rye and single malt whiskeys and to curate a wider selection of sourced whiskeys for sale at our bar and bottle shop and for limited distribution release.

Customers love our spirits. You can find our spirits featured on menus in many top spots in Chattanooga and across the state. The market recognizes that we have unique and compelling offerings.

How does a small distillery create so many awesome spirits and brands? Passion, talent and focus! Our spirits are a product of the chemical engineering wizardry of industry pro Bill Lee, the botanical and culinary expertise of his life and work partner, Wanda and the design and branding insights of market ace, Tavis Salazar.

We have doubled (2X) distribution revenues over the past three years with minimal marketing expenditure. Now we are ready for substantial distribution growth.

We project increased revenues across our high margin revenue streams - tours, tastings, bottle shop and cocktail bar sales and dramatic growth with distribution and private label revenues over the next three years.

We plan to use these funds to support our marketing efforts in existing and new distribution territories and for additional production capacity. 

Increase Distribution from 85 to 600-700 case per month by Improving Market Activation, Expanding Distribution Territory, Increasing Production Capacity

We intend to sell the company within 3 to 5 years to an interested investor-operator group who is interested in keeping the Chattanooga location going. Alternatively, we could sell the company or one its major brands to a major spirits house e.g. the 2020 sale of Kentucky brandy distiller Copper & Kings to Constellation Brands or the 2022 sale of Texas whiskey distiller Balcones to Diageo. We anticipate either scenario to be done at a substantial premium to current valuation. Gate 11's diverse line-up means we will be ready for whatever spirit is trending at that time.

Why a community raise? We are local! The Lee's are both native Tennesseans whose careers took them to twelve different states. They returned to Bill's home area to build this distillery in the most Chattanooga of settings - The Choo Choo. In a world of corporate ownership, we want to grow Gate 11 Distillery with local community ownership. Please join us in this exciting journey.