Vino Veritas

The Wheels Keep on Turning

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:55:00 +0000

While I haven't blogged much in a while, we've been fairly active at Vino Veritas, doing more investors meetings, site assessments, demographic research, etc. In the middle of all of that work, an opportunity for me to take a crack at doing some innovative new media projects has popped back up onto my radar.

It's with pride in the work we've done to date, and with a lot of hope for future of Vino Veritas, that I've decided to step aside as CEO of the company to take advantage of the window of opportunity that has presented itself.

I will be retaining a seat on the Board of Directors, and helping my co-founder, Larry Lee (who is now President, and CEO) keep the business moving forward. I will also continue to provide analysis and assessment of potential deals as well as some strategic support on the road ahead. I've also been asked to keep up the blog here; updating it as things move forward and as time permits, and I'm happy to do that!

This startup has been a tremendously valuable learning experience, and I'm very grateful for the opportunities and outstanding people I've gotten to meet through this process. I believe that Vino Veritas will continue to sharpen its focus, identify appropriate opportunities and create a unique product offering in the market in the months and years ahead.

I'm grateful that I get to continue to contribute to that process, though it in a different role than the past year has been. For any of you who are curious about the media endeavor I'm embarking on, there will be some updates and info on that side of my career at http://www.uglyshz.com/blog. Thank you to everyone who's been a fan, and supporter of my role in this company, it's been a great experience.

In Vino Veritas!

More Market Research

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:22:00 +0000

Industry associations are a good thing. Not only do they tell you where not to be, based on others experience, but if you step slightly to the left of your industry, they tell you a whole lot about your competitive advantage.

We've been attending a monthly series of web seminars for self-storage operators and here's just a few of the really important things we've learned that help us further cement why we're at the right time at the place with our business.

Primary competition, if you can call it that, is from other self-storage operators; some of whom are adding wine storage services
Those competitors have some very high barriers to entry in their business:

The cost of properly securing an area with high value contents
The cost of proper insurance - including bailment liabilities
The cost of limiting the value of contents customers can store

That's right - many storage operators have lease agreements that limit their exposure to lost contents to less than $2500.00. Anything over that, and you're outta luck.

When you think about it, does it really make any sense to be storing your wines anywhere near a bunch of old mattresses and junk, oh, and Ricin?

There's a huge, and very underserved need for properly secured wine storage - and when you add that into all the other pieces of the puzzle we've assembled, we're really excited about where this is going to go.

Why Build a Cave?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:46:00 +0000

OK, lots of other reasons I've espoused before, but none of them come closer to the truth of why Larry & I have set out to do this, as this wonderful story that came across my RSS feeds today:

In a small valley not far out of town, there are dozens of underground wine cellars where vintners store and sell the local wine, Egri Bikaver, also known as “Bull’s Blood.” As the evening winds on and the cellars close, visitors concentrate themselves more and more tightly into the remaining open cellars. The wine and proximity make for good conversation and new friendships.

It's about the stories told, friendships found, and conversations had around a great place, and great wines.

We're very passionate about these stories, and look forward to sharing in them with our clients, and the friends we'll make along the way as well.

Customer Research

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:26:00 +0000

We hate to call it "market" research, because our market is made of people we hope become our customers.

In order for us to better serve our customers to the best of our ability, we're conducting a web survey on storage sizing.

We'd greatly appreciate our fellow wine enthusiasts taking a moment to tell us how to better build a place that serves them!

Thank you.

Thinking About SWOTS

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:07:00 +0000

A friend of mine made a comment the other day about how another person at his work didn't understand how to participate in a SWOT analysis.

And it got me thinking about it for a minute.

I'm all for examining my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, but what struck me was the word "understand" when he talked about the HR benchmarking analysis. But how much do both the one giving and the one receiving the analysis understand of each others contextual objectivity in the process?

Objectivity when it comes to measuring production output is pretty straightforward, but measuring psychological and character metrics seems like... well I think it's pretty tough to do in context.

One of the companies we're interested in doing business with has a list of ten principles they operate by that we admire a lot, and one of them is a very old axiom:

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood"

How often, when we are judging what may be fairly subjective metrics, do we *not* seek to understand or even consider the other persons actions we're about to judge within context?

I can certainly look at my own history and see places where the same work was being produced in different contextual settings, and one place, I excelled at. The other place, I didn't do well at all. Was it a weakness of my own character, or a conflict inherent to the context that prevented excellence?

When the day comes we have to do annual reviews and analysis, we'll work hard to understand first.

Learning how to do, by doing not

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:59:00 +0000

I'll admit, patience is not always my strong suit.

I don't necessarily think I'm headstrong, but I'm typically more of "wanting to get it done" kind of guy. I prefer to make assess information, make a decision and move ahead.

This is probably the primary reason I know how to do a lot of the stuff I know how to do, because I didn't want to wait for someone else to get it done for me.

Over the last couple of years, the impatience has toned down a lot as I grow older and more experienced.

Once in a while it's still a surprise to me that I have to stop and and counter the "we have to get this thing done" impulse with the fact that there are times when waiting is what needs to be done.

Hopefully I'm getting better at that as we go:)

Good People, Good Markets

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:51:00 +0000

Early this Tuesday morning, we went to our first Chamber of Commerce meeting in one of the markets we want to be in, and were very glad to meet some great people and learn good things about conducting business in that community.

Our thanks to Calabasas Chamber of Commerce and their "deputies" at the "Good Morning Calabasas" breakfast.

Y'all have to admit, it was somehow appropriate we ended up taking home a door prize of a bottle of wine from a random business card drawing:) We got a good laugh out of the coincidence!

It was a pleasure to attend a well-organized function that said it was about "relationship building" within the business community, and delivered on that in spades.

We look forward to being an active partner in the community as our business grows.

Great Wines for Dummies

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:43:00 +0000

Larry Lee, president of Vino Veritas, has a far more advanced palette than I do, and is hard at working on continuing up the scale of sommelier certification. But on my end, I'm mostly a dummy when it comes to "good wines," though I'm having a blast learning more.

We had some great friends come over last night for dinner and a movie, and they handed off a bottle of wine to my wife and I with the "well, we know you're connoisseurs, but this should be a pretty good bottle."

But as far as I'm concerned, pretty much ANY bottle that's enjoyed with great friends, IS a great bottle of wine. (and if it turns out to be a BAD bottle, then we all get a good laugh out of pouring it down the drain and opening something else).

~Drink what ya like~

Sweat Equity Ain't Just About Hard Work

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:06:00 +0000

A while back I had a post about the hard work, etc. of starting a new company and how to figure out the value of sweat equity, and that's a term that's been coming back in spades for Larry and I.

Sweat equity isn't just about the hard work you put into getting a new business off the ground, but as Larry likes to put it, "The sweat rolling off your brow all night long while you stare at the ceiling, wide awake, trying to hang in there long enough to make it all work."

Amen. We're all right there.

I'm reminded even more of this the last two days with news of one of the major companies I used to work with in the media biz abruptly going out of business with hundreds of unpaid employees locked out, and another shuttering it's operations in two other countries as it contracts as well.

It's a tough time to start a new business, but in no way does that mean we're giving up. To the contrary, it means we sink our teeth in to do whatever we have to do to get this done.

Commodities vs. Treats

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:11:00 +0000

Hugh over at GapingVoid has a great post up today about commoditization of products and how the special becomes less special the more widely available it is:

Rosé tastes a lot better in the South of France than it does in London, no matter how much you’re paying....

People like treats. They are indifferent to commodities, even when the quality in the latter is high. Your downfall begins the minute people no longer have to wait in line in order to get your product, the minute they no longer perceive it as a treat.

It's an interesting point, and one that I think has some validity, but in a world where scarcity of distribution is becoming increasingly ... scarce, that's like saying that music is a commodity because you no longer have to wait in line at midnight for the cd release of your favorite artist.

At the macro level, music, and creative content is certainly purchased as a commodity, but the relationship the customers have with that product is anything but a commodity no matter how many people have a copy of that music.

There's probably a tendency to look at that and say "well, that's a creative product" and they would be right, and that, I think is where a business and a market loses it's "treat" status.

It's difficult to build a large business that has a creative and authentic product. The larger you get, the more people between the founding principles and fundamental reasons you started making your business, and your customer. When your meetings are more about how much you're going to make in the next round of stock splits and less face to face time with the customers who love (or by now, don't love) your product, the less your product or service is a treat.

At the same time, there's a lot of entrepreneurs who build something new just for the sake of doing something new, or for the sake of creating something from nothing. Not necessarily because of a burning passion for the product, but a passion for "seeing if it can be done."

I think those passions, if they are articulated and shared in an accessible way, can be held onto and kept alive within a business for a very long time.

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Well, it's 2008 and we're plugging along here.

The only New Year's resolution I'm making is to keep working hard to avoid corporate-speak and be responsible and accountable for my own actions & words.

I can't help, after a vacation with some time to reflect, thinking again about how if you rip the lid off of any corporation, all you find is people.

The company itself is just a legal fiction, and it's made up of human beings.

As we move through this ambitious project here at Vino Veritas, it's my responsibility to have conversations with both our vendors and our customers-to-be in ways that respect their own humanity, and my own as well.

Here's to an open, honest and productive 2008!

Acting on Constructive Feedback

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:21:00 +0000

We've been hard at work the last couple of weeks building scale 3d models of our facility and creating the right balance of storage, event, and operations space to make sure we do have a viable business model.

It had it's moments where we definitely upside down in our numbers, but the end of the day, it's been a great exercise because it came out of the constructive feedback we received (thank you Matt, in particular) and made us figure out not "if" Vino Veritas is going to be a viable business, but "what" it was going to take exactly to make it work.

And it *will* work.

We're even more excited now because we can see in real terms what we need to do.

For all the supporters and fans of Vino Veritas, here's a couple of pics from the 3D models we created for the facility.

From the entryway looking towards the "Rotunda"

The "Rotunda"
A wine tasting area in the center of the facility, water walls in the back will be tied into climate control systems to help control humidity levels in the caves.

It's going to be a great place to hang out and enjoy your wines, and we'll be sharing future models with you all as we finish them out!

(Thanks Google Sketchup for providing such a great toolset that allows us to do modeling like this on a shoestring budget!!!!)

All Hail the Mighty Google

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 01:02:00 +0000

If you haven't tried, or heard of SketchUp right now, well, you're not the only one.

One of our wise Google Overlords purchases is a 3D scale rendering program that squarely kicks everything programs behind I've ever used that was even close to free.

We've been going crazy designing the details of our facilities with it, down the the last private locker and cellar - all exactly to scale, so we know exactly what kind of density and racking we need to make the numbers work. It's awesome!

On top of that, you can even import topography from Google Earth to Sketchup, and we can immediately see if a site is going to work with a particular cave layout (length of entryways to storage, etc), and make sure it maintains fire code compliance, etc.

Really, really amazing, so THANK YOU oh kind, benevolent GoogleLords, this helps us get a level of detail that tells us 1) if it will work, and 2) how it can best work... and it doesn't hurt that we can SEE what it looks like.

Feedback & Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:06:00 +0000

There's a big difference between supporting a great idea, and funding the execution of that idea; and great execution is about details. Actually, it's not just details, it's minutiae. It's knowing every tiny nook and cranny not about what IS, but about the scenario that you're presenting in you business plan.

Last night we got our first real, point-by-point constructive feedback on our business plan and we're very grateful for it.

Thoughts on the K4 Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:24:00 +0000

II'm posting this a month or so after our presentation at the Keiretsu Forum so that I have had some time to digest and think about the experience. In retrospect, I think the post is still totally valid, and as we start to have other discussions to move our business ahead, we continue to get pinged by numerous other people and businesses, whose purpose in business seems to be only to prey on entrepreneurs in startup who don't know any better - oddly, a lot like the "I'll make you a star" wanna-be agents and producers who inhabit the underbelly of Hollywood, you either learn to avoid those folks early, or you don't.... but I'll post about those later.

Here's the original post from back in September:

First off, I'm tired. Larry and I met at 5:30AM this morning to load out a TV from my home so we would have something to present a (truly) badass presentation we'd spent the last 5 days feverishly working on completing ever since receiving an invitation from the Keiretsu Forum to present at their Southern California Angel Expo.

I'm not going to write anything here that was not a direct experience, since I know a good number of my readers here are both entrepreneurs and VC's. I'm sorry if it hurts any one's feelings, but as stated at the top of the blog, this my personal blog as CEO. Not particularly the companies position.

First, some backstory. As early as maybe a week or two after our incorporation in early July, we had been asked by some other (Silicon Valley) startups if we'd talked to the Keiretsu Forum.

Since our answer was "no," we investigated, and as their website indicated, we asked if we could attend a presentation strictly as observers before we decided to launch our on Angel presentation effort. We emailed and got a fabulously positive "come on out" response, and we were excited.

Until it came time to get an actual time or place for the meeting. Which after being told we could come, we never did get the particulars, and never heard again from the forum folks until after their meeting had past.

In retrospect it almost makes me wonder if there might be a reason for that.

We never heard from them again, until kind of out of the blue, we were invited to participate at an Expo as a company with a "presenting table" (or presenting company, if we want to pay for that) at their SoCal Angel Expo.

How cool! I'd made the assumption (I know, I know... *sigh*) that someone had taken a look at our (highly rated business pitch or press coverage on the web, or our (submitted) Executive Summary and someone had seen the merit in our business plan, and we were in. Awesome!!! The only, catch, it was going to cost $1500 to have a table there. (The "full presentation" companies, got a table and 15 minutes on stage for $6,000).

To put it straight-forward-like, we are totally a bootstrap startup. Everything our partners and potential investors have seen to date has been completed by sheer willpower, late nights, talent, some cash, and some credit. We've worked our asses off for everything that we have thus far. To invest our limited resources on several hours at a country club in front of "angel" investors seemed like a well-calculated risk.

Upon arrival, the first thing we were told was that we would have to split our 6' table in half. No "hello," no "good morning," no "hey, we have a space problem and could we maybe work something out with sharing your table?" Thankfully, we had a display that was so large it needed the entire table, so there was no option of "sharing".

As other folks started to filter in, other entrepreneurs started to chat with us, and the conversations were pretty much about two things from their side.

Number one: Who the hell were the investors, and how does anyone identify them (as separate from the rest of the presenting companies), AND at one point, the banter going about was that out of all of the people there, only 5 (count'em, FIVE) investors were there.

I think later in the day, that number went up to maybe 20. At any rate, it was certainly... low, and most certainly far out-numbered by companies there looking for funding.

Number two: There were a number of entrepreneurs who had presented at more than a few of the Keiretsu Forums, and were just now starting to get traction after people got used to "seeing them" and this is just "how it works." This is after they had spent $20-30k just getting in front of these people a few times, and beyond that, they were surprised to find that they were now on some kind of Keiretsu "partner list" that they don't know how they got on to (but glad to be there, of course). This was viewed as simply, "the price of admission."

To continue with the "surprise" factor, we were invited only early last week, and were excited, and as far as we knew, we were just supposed to "show up" with a cool presentation limited to our table.

We found out yesterday, (day before) that we needed to fill out a four to five page fact sheet (fine & dandy, we've got all that info, albeit in a slightly different format, but that's ok), and then upon arrival this morning, and grabbing some coffee, opening the morning agenda and finding that in approximately 15 minutes, we were supposed to be giving a fast pitch on stage. Uh... OKAY.

Again, brought up by other attending entrepreneurs, this seemed to be more the norm, than not.

To bring me to final point, the K4 Forum *really* talks about great deal flow, which is all awesome since if it actually materializes, means we can all spend less time on waiting for our lawyers with properly performed due diligence.

There is also quite a point made about the "relationships that matter."

Not once, not a single time today, did we see or hear about one of the existing members or staff of Keiretsu taking investors around to each of the (very small number of) presenters (supposedly pre-vetted companies???), and just doing a simple introduction.

This is something we already receive through a number of good networks, from whom while we've not yet secured investors, we've for sure had excellent and enthusiastic conversations with their attendees.

If relationships matter, people matter. If people matter, they need to be introduced to each other, and the people you introduce them to have to be people you're enthusiastic or at least interested in.

We thought we'd cleared that hurdle, right up until the moment a guy set up a table nearby that was honest-to-goodness trying to raise money for a company that was still producing CASSETTE TAPES. (and then, I had flashbacks to buying bootlegged Beach Boys tapes at the swap meet when I was kid).

And then there is the last question of a long day.

When I myself get to the point where I can be the angel investor in other startups, why in the world would I ever want to go talk to, or attend or even show up at a presentation if I was not enthusiastic and passionate about new businesses in general? About the ingenuity, the passion and the fire-in-the-belly that comes with creating something from nothing?

Going to any kind of investors meeting where current investors are talking about how they "tear startups apart" is not a constructive place to be.

This is a new venture for us, but we do have a lot of business experience. More than this, we really try and do our best to reach out listen and learn at every opportunity we can.

We know we have a great business model, and we will win.

We also know that there are people out there with specific experience we do not yet have, that can be an asset to growing the company in a constructive way. Those are the people we hope come on board as investors.

We are looking for you. We will respect what you bring to the table, and our business will richly reward you in both the process and in the experience.

While we did not see that in today's proceedings, we will find it in the coming days.

We're still grateful for the experience and the couple of very genuine folks we did meet today, you know who you are if you read this and we thank you.

People are People

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 04:14:00 +0000

Larry & I had a great time this evening at the reception/mixer for the kickoff of the Keiretsu Forum's SoCal Angel Expo, and we really enjoyed all the folks we met this evening; we look forward to more conversations at Tuesday's expo.

One thing we keep coming back to is that, no matter what kind of investor or entrepreneur you are, people are people.

Be honest, be passionate about your business and the conversations and the types of discussion all come out the same way. Somewhere in there you find ways to connect.

Whether we get to listen to the pitch and conversations about another startup (and learning new things about our own market conversations) or whether we have an opportunity to speak about what excites us about our new business - people are people, and in the listening and the speaking of a conversation, the truth about what kind of person you are and what kind of people you're having a conversation with, is revealed.

We're very glad to be participating in the upcoming Southern California Angel's Forum and are glad for every conversation that comes from it -because at the end of the day, people are people, and we all learn from each other.

Wine 2.0 Competition Totals

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 21:58:00 +0000

Well, the voting for the Wine 2.0 Competition over at Vator.tv is closed and they're slated to announce the "winner" next week selected from the top 3 finalists in a number of metrics.

I have to admit, the contest itself got me pretty competitive, and it was amazing to watch Crushpad's last 48 hour run on the votes. They managed to go from 5 votes, to over 200 in those last two days. Congratulations Crushpad:)

Then again, if Vino Veritas was already a $15m/year company with very happy customers, you bet we'd be reaching out to our fan base for support too. But out of the other four early-stage companies in the competition, we're very happy to have come out where we did (thanks to Yokum Taku, for the heads up to this competition back in August!)

Below is a breakdown of the final top 5 metrics:

We're also really pleased to have placed as the highest rated pitch of the competition and moreover to have had such positive response on the comments and questions we've received from participating in the competition. Everyone's input has contributed greatly to helping us further understand our market, and how to better communicate our own goals and visions for the company.

To the Vator.tv folks, thank you for creating this site for entrepreneurs to try things like this, more than just a platform for competitions, it's been a great way to raise visibility and do early market testing for our startup.

To everyone who voted, rated, commented & referred, a huge THANK YOU for your support and encouragement - it's much appreciated.

Whatever shakes out from the "top three" selection by Chris Moore, we're happy to have had the opportunity to participate in the competition!

(Oh, and just so we can keep up the competitive spirit, we went ahead and placed our pitch in the AO100 competition at Vator too! Why not?).

Last TWO days of the Vator.tv Wine 2.0 Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 04:38:00 +0000

It's down to the last TWO days of the venture capital competition on Vator.tv and there's a lot happening in our world. Even if you've already seen our old video, there's a whole NEW presentation up, and we would love to have your vote AND your rating on our newest pitch (much clearer, more fun and higher production values, really!).

I know it means logging in or registering but PLEASE, if you can take 5 minutes to do so, please do. Vator has added two separate ways to vote and rate a pitch;

Click HERE to view and RATE the new video!

Click HERE to VOTE for us!
(click on the green VOTE for this pitch under our video! Login and make your vote count!)

Thank you everyone for your fantastic support.

Wine is a social experience

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 04:20:00 +0000

While I don't mean to be negative to wine-centric social networks, one thing that I keep coming back to personally is that wine IS a social experience.

I can definitely say that I have never, ever lined up 3 or 4 vintages on my desk, next to my computer, to do a wine tasting. The only one time where I was drinking by myself and making notes about it on a wine social network (Corkd, for the record), it was awfully hard to shake the guilty feeling of "drinking alone."

Wine is a social experience. It's not something that is simply consumed (for the most part) it is a drink that's experienced - especially the further up the wine knowledge ladder you get.

The more you get into wines, the more you want to learn about them. The more you learn about them, the soil and climate conditions of a region, the vinting techniques and people involved, the label design and texture all come together to create an experience that is less of an experience if it's not shared with someone in that time, and place.

I think that's the point where a lot of the current wine 2.0 buzz kind of misses out. The technology are being developed to enable and share wine knowledge, but they're largely missing on the experience. Meetup.com has done very well creating local niche experiences, and maybe that's the missing ingredient in wine social networks today (that I've seen thus far) is how to make that global knowledge and enthusiasm of wine reviewing and turn into hyper-local gatherings where people can enjoy, learn and experience wines in a social context.

Vino Veritas on Vator.TV

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:34:00 +0000

Many thanks to team over at Vator.TV! They've just posted the interview we had with them a couple of weeks ago.

We really appreciated the opportunity to chat with Bambi Francisco and the folks working over there (not to mention thoroughly enjoying the architecture in the offices of Clarium Capital Management - beautiful work in there).

Check out the interview below:

Keiretsu Angel Expo

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:09:00 +0000

We've been invited to pitch at the upcoming Keiretsu Forum SoCal Angels Expo next week and we're excited to be a part of it.

If any of you are planning on being at this event, please drop by our table to say hello!

Wine Social Networks? Hardly.

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:13:00 +0000

Just for "fun," I went ahead and signed up for accounts at pretty much all the "major" wine 2.0 websites the last couple of weeks and have noted some strikingly absent features at all of them that just astounds me.

For starters, a social network of any value has to enable people to browse other people's profiles and befriend them/communicate with them easily.

Second, the members of a social network have to be able to have conversations about whatever niche their social network fills.

So here's my list of wine-centric "web 2.0" sites:

Cork'd
Features: Wine tasting notes entry, cellar tracking, searching wines and tasting notes.
(innovative element: wine library tv is great.)

Snooth
Features: "Personalized Wine Recommendations"

Bottlenotes
Features: Tasting notes, cellar tracking, recommendations & wine club sales.

Bottletalk
Features: Tasting notes, wine sales, cellar tracking, same old same old - EXCEPT you can kind of browse members. I was momentarily encouraged by the name "BottleTALK" thinking it might be a place you could actually discuss wines or regions, etc, but I would be wrong.

Not a single one of these sites have an easy way (or any way unless I was missing it) to easily carry on conversations in the space.

At any rate, highly discouraging.

Now, before I run off and set up a smokin' social network of our own (which honestly is not part of our core business) using KickApps fantastic white-label platform (I worked a bit with these guys over a year ago putting together social network demo's for television shows we were producing - great product and easy to launch an awesome service on), Larry Lee tells me "Hey, you can do that on WineZap."

Really?

Isn't WineZap for "Finding, Pricing & Comparing" wines? Yep.

And there's our (new) friend Michael Stajer, doing it right, again.

Right at the top of the page is a menu option that says "TALK" - and Talk you can! That link immediately puts you in a place to start a new conversation about wines. You can do videos, join and start your own subgroups, etc.

THIS is a wine social network, and a well-done one at that (right on Michael!). It just blows me away that the sites claiming to be the new "Wine 2.0" social networks are totally missing the boat, and WineZap's e-commerce site is hitting all the right notes.

Want to find, AND TALK about wines? Go to WineZap NOW and sign up!

Vinocera beta signup page

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:26:00 +0000

The geek in me is outpacing the wine geek in me today, as we've just taken some of our early screenshots of our Vinocera demos and have opened our Beta Testing notification page.

We expect to start our beta tests in early 2008 and if you're interested in helping us put the RIA through it's paces so we can make it the best application you've ever used to interact with and manage your wine collections, we'd love to have you!

Click here to go to the signup page and we'll be sure to let you know when the private beta's start rolling out!

Private Events, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:12:00 +0000

As we've mentioned in the past, and as plays a significant role in our anticipated revenue streams, our underground facilities will be featuring private event space both above and below ground in settings that wine country enthusiasts should really enjoy.

From an operational standpoint, we've been fortunate to have the advice of my fiancee's event design & coordination company, Encantare. From where and what facilities need to be available for visiting caterers to placing small pads for event restrooms to be trucked in and out of, there's a long list of elements that go into creating spaces that make event rentals simple and successful, we're glad to have a company to turn to as developments move ahead.

Personally, I'm also really proud to have seen her work featured on KTLA's "Good Morning LA" show last Wednesday as part of this year's "Wedding Salon at the Four Seasons" event.

Some footage from the newscast and the shoot is available on her blog here (and if anyone's looking for a great event designer/event coordinator, drop her line!).

On Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Lawrence) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:24:00 +0000

Competition is healthy, and necessary for any business to survive and grow.

If you don't have competition, you don't have business.

Interestingly, in a business that has traditionally been very quiet, barely marketed, and highly protectionist (and in some cases, wine storage itself being claimed an intellectual propertly - uh, ok), we seem to be stirring the wine storage pot up a bit.

To that, we say "GREAT!"

The wine business is changing, and the old way of storing wine someplace you can't even find on a map, or online, is not the direction it's headed in.

Personally, I like competition. It means that sometimes we win, and sometimes we just get the bar moved up to a new playing field - which is good for us in many ways.