MEET drew brasiel
From Fry Cook to Founder
The growth story of a 1909 member who built something from the ground up... and never stopped.
When Drew Brasiel joined 1909 in early 2025, he arrived at a pivotal moment in both his entrepreneurial journey and ours. Just weeks before 1909 relocated from its original location into its new 9,000-square-foot headquarters on Clematis Street, Drew became a Dedicated Desk member, looking for more than a place to work. He was looking for a community of people who understood what it meant to build something from the ground up.
That desire was rooted in his own story.
Ohio, Red Lobster, and a risk worth taking
Growing up in Ohio, Drew became the first person in his family to attend college. Determined to create opportunities for himself, he worked at Red Lobster to pay his way through school, balancing classes and long shifts while developing the grit, discipline, and resourcefulness that would later define his approach to entrepreneurship. After graduation, he built a successful career in the payment processing industry, learning the business from the inside out while working for others. Over time, however, he began to see opportunities that weren’t being pursued and solutions that weren’t being offered. Armed with experience, confidence, and a willingness to take a risk, he and a trusted colleague made the decision to leave stable careers behind and launch AHG Pay (formerly Alternative Horizons Group).
Like many founders who walk through the doors of 1909, Drew joined at a time when the business was showing promise, but still had plenty of growing left to do. He immediately immersed himself in the community, participating in our 12-week founder education program and taking advantage of every opportunity to learn from fellow entrepreneurs, mentors, and peers navigating similar challenges.
The investment paid off.
As AHG Pay continued gaining momentum throughout 2025, Drew quickly outgrew his dedicated desk and upgraded into a small private office. New clients were coming on board, the company’s reputation was growing, and the business was beginning to scale in a meaningful way. When Drew took the stage at the Founder Showcase at the conclusion of his 12-week program, he delivered one of the most memorable presentations of the cohort. The confidence, clarity, and professionalism with which he communicated his vision made it obvious that both the founder and the company were entering a new chapter.
That momentum only accelerated in 2026. He needed more space to expand his team...so we got him into the largest office we had available.
A Slack message that changed everything
As AHG Pay continued to grow, Drew and his team began looking for the right people to help lead the company through its next stage of expansion. One of those opportunities was posted in the 1909 Slack community when AHG Pay shared an opening for a Merchant Onboarding Specialist.
What happened next wasn’t exactly what Drew expected.
“Michael didn’t apply for the role. Instead, he sent me a direct message saying he was interested in learning more about the position and what we were building at Alternative Horizons Group. Given his experience, I knew he was vastly overqualified for the job, so I had a feeling he had other intentions. But I loved the approach he took. The initiative immediately stood out to me.”
Drew Brasiel
At the time, Michael had arrived at 1909 in a liminal phase, navigating new neighborhoods and co-parenting while on the hunt for opportunity. Having recently left a difficult marriage and expat dreams in Nicaragua, Michael intentionally sought out 1909 as a way to expand his skillset and network. His message led to a lunch meeting with Drew and AHG Pay co-founder Henry, and what began as a conversation quickly revealed something more: community and professional growth.
“We hire heavily on values, and he aligned with ours right away.”
“Michael was an immediate culture fit,” says Drew. “He brought the kind of sales experience we needed, but more importantly, he saw the potential in what we were building and brought a ton of excitement for the vision.” That lunch ultimately led to Michael joining AHG Pay’s leadership team, where he now serves as Vice President of Sales.
For Drew, the experience highlights something important about the role community can play in entrepreneurship.
“Michael was incredibly marketable and could have gone anywhere. But when he moved to the area, 1909 stood out to him. He knew there was something to gain from being part of this community. To me, that’s a testament to the work 1909 does, not just supporting entrepreneurs, but supporting the right entrepreneurs.”
Drew Brasiel
It’s also a reminder that some of the most meaningful business opportunities don’t happen on a stage or inside a formal workshop. Sometimes they start with a Slack message, a shared set of values, and two people who happened to be part of the same entrepreneurial ecosystem at exactly the right time.
Outgrowing the space, keeping the community
By early 2026, AHG Pay had grown to the point where Drew faced a challenge that every founder hopes to encounter: he needed more space than 1909 could offer.
His team had expanded beyond the footprint of his office, and despite wanting to stay, there simply wasn’t a larger space available that could accommodate the company’s next stage of growth. Rather than viewing that moment with disappointment, we viewed it exactly as it should be viewed...as a milestone.
Drew found a larger office just a block away from 1909, giving his team the room it needed to continue scaling while allowing him to remain connected to the community that had played such an important role in the company’s growth. In fact, he chose to maintain his membership because while businesses may outgrow office space, they don’t outgrow relationships, connections, and the value of being part of a community of fellow founders.
Just months later, Drew’s growth story reached another milestone when he was selected as one of the founders to pitch at Crowdfunding & Cocktails 2026.
Standing before a room full of community leaders, supporters, investors, and fellow entrepreneurs, Drew shared the story of AHG Pay, the problem the company was solving, and the vision for where it was headed. By the end of the evening, he had raised more funding than any other founder participating in the event.
For those who had watched his journey unfold, the moment felt fitting.
A founder who had arrived at 1909 with a dedicated desk. A founder who committed to the educational programming. A founder who built meaningful relationships within the community, hired key talent through the network, expanded into a private office, outgrew that office, and continued scaling beyond our walls. A founder who remained engaged, continued showing up, and ultimately returned to the stage as one of the strongest examples of what growth can look like when determination meets opportunity.
What 1909 is for
At 1909, we often say that our goal is not to keep founders here forever. Our goal is to help them build businesses that become too large, too successful, and too ambitious to fit within the confines of where they started.
Drew Brasiel’s journey is a perfect example of that philosophy in action.
Despite the growth of AHG Pay and the milestones achieved along the way, Drew is quick to point out that none of it happened alone. He credits much of the company’s success to the unwavering support of his wife, Marissa, the partnership of his co-founder, Henry, the dedication of the AHG Pay team, and the community of mentors, peers, and supporters who have helped along the way.
His office may now sit a block away from ours, but his story remains deeply connected to the 1909 community.
Success isn’t measured by how long a founder stays in our building. It’s measured by what happens because they were here.
And by that measure, Drew’s story is exactly the kind of success we exist to create.