In 2010 the pair, then in their mid-thirties, started getting the entrepreneurial itch. They decided to take a gamble. Bryan and Shannon cashed out the $160,000 in their 401(k)s and founded a staffing software company called BELAY.
“I’m not necessarily a risk-taker by nature—especially with money,” Shannon told Fortune. “But I thought, ‘Well, if it doesn’t work, we’re young enough. We can always go back [to our jobs], but at least we tried’…At that point, I’d rather choose risk than regret.”
The risk paid off. 14 months after BELAY was launched, the company broke even. It then saw 40 consecutive quarters of market growth. After years of stable success, the couple decided it was time to part ways. In 2020, they brought in a new CEO and one year later sold a majority stake of the company for $126 million.
They still hold 18% of the company.
From desk jobs to running sports teams
BELAY was just the start for them. In 2019, they launched their first brick-and-mortar brewery, called NoFo Brew Co. It’s since expanded to three locations across Georgia. It was through this venture that they began connecting with sports fans, specifically soccer fans who were eager to drink while watching matches.
“We looked at England and also Ireland, and we realized this was a rabid fan base that would follow this team off of a cliff,” Bryan told Fortune. “So we’re like, ‘Well, what if NoFo was on our shirt? What if we put beer in the stadium?’ It’s the Trojan horse that got us into this market.”
In 2022, the duo joined an investment group that bought the U.K. team Walsall F.C. The move was done right around the time Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the Welsh team Wrexham, A.F.C.
Just one year later, Shannon and Bryan bought Irish club Drogheda United F.C. Since then, they’ve begun investing in Denmark team Silkeborg IF and African club Trivela FC Togo.
Balancing risk as an entrepreneur
For Shannon and Bryan, cashing out their 401(k) to launch their business was a risk that paid off. But that won’t be the case for everyone.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between March 2024 and March 2025, one in five businesses failed within their first year of operation. Of the nearly 1 million businesses that opened during that time period, 218,861 closed within the first year. That’s about 600 a day.
