Fresno teacher launches Distillarc to help craft distilleries, teach sales

Key Takeaways

Patiño School teacher Sean Begen launched Distillarc, an AI sales tool for craft distilleries.
He started the platform in January 2026 and is seeking 8–10 pilot partners this year.
Begen has contacted about 40 distilleries and received five responses to date.
He plans to use Distillarc’s real-world work as part of his Fresno Unified classes.

Sean Begen teaches entrepreneurship at Patiño School of Entrepreneurship in Fresno. This winter he built something for his own market research itch, then realized it doubled as a classroom case study. The product is Distillarc, an AI-powered sales platform aimed at helping small distilleries find and grow accounts. That matters here because Begen says the work will live in his high school classes in Fresno Unified, giving kids a window into how sales pipelines actually move.

"I like learning the science, the business, the stories," Begen said. He has spent the last few years studying spirits, watching how whiskey is made in the U.S. and abroad, and how tequila gets to market. A half-empty can of Dr Pepper sat by the projector.

What Distillarc does

Distillarc is built to identify accounts that match a distillery’s brand and goals, then track outreach and market activity so owners can spend time on the right leads. Begen said the pilot will include help with day-to-day sales and compliance, plus reporting that gives owners a clear view of where each bottle might sell. He wants the tool to be customized for each shop, not a one-size list.

The platform started in January as a side project. Begen is now turning it into a business, with education still in the frame. Eight to ten by December, he hopes.

Why a teacher built it

Begen teaches teenagers to pitch, test, and revise. Distillarc gives him a live case to pull apart, from first-contact emails to whether a sales message lands with a buyer. He says students will see how market data turns into a weekly plan, how follow-ups improve conversion, and how a founder changes course when the numbers argue for it. And they’ll see that sales is a system, not a guess.

He’s already reached out to about 40 distilleries and heard back from five. The industry headwind is real, he said, with younger drinkers buying less, so owners need better targeting and clearer stories to grow.

Where this lands in the Valley

There aren’t many distilleries in the Central Valley, though Maple & Copper Distilling opened in Fresno this year next to the Golden Hour bar. Begen is looking across California for the pilot, roughly 200 distilleries by his count, but the classroom is here. If Distillarc works, Patiño students will see negotiations, setbacks, and small wins in real time, which is the point for a K-12 program built around entrepreneurship.

Begen said he will start in California and is open to out-of-state partners later. He wants feedback that helps shape the tool and gives his students a cleaner look at what buyers actually say when the pitch is over.

"Distilleries can work with their current demographic and whoever their customer is to try to fix that issue and they’re going to have to get creative and think outside the box," Begen said.

Central Valley AI is produced by the CVAI Education Desk team and developed by Kaweah Tech, a regional firm that builds, deploys, and integrates AI solutions for businesses across California's Central Valley.

Source

https://thebusinessjournal.com/fresno-teacher-builds-ai-platform-to-help-craft-distilleries-grow/