It's time to announce the winner of the Wine 2.0/Vator.tv competition, seeking the top-notch tech innovator in the wine industry.
The winner wins a beautiful glass sculpture made by Jack Storms, and the opportunity to have a one hour meeting with each of the judges. The judges include Heidi Roizen, founder of Skinny Songs, former partner at Mobius Venture Capital; Richard Rosenblatt, CEO, Demand Media; Bowen Osbourn, M&A, Demand Media; Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV; Alan Citron, executive at Buzznet and J. Smoke Wallin, chairman of Wine 2.0.
Before we dive into the winners, here are a couple of companies that didn't receive enough popular votes to get them into the top three. But they received high enough ratings from the judges (click here to see who judged the event) that they deserved an honorable mention.
"Bibola has a tremendous business plan and a great overall concept," said J. Smoke Wallin, chairman of Wine 2.0, the wine social networking and events company that hosted the competition. "This company was very much liked by the judges."
Another company, WomenWine was also liked by the judges, said Wallin. The startup could be "the Martha Stewart or Oprah of wine," he said. Unfortunately, WomenWine didn't attract enough of the popular votes.
Remember, the winner of the overall competition won based on a combination of the popular vote (as measured by the community votes) and 25 points, coming from the judges.
Coming in at No. 3 is Snooth, a wine community and social shopping site. The judges rated Snooth very highly. But unfortunately, Snooth didn't get the community turnout for the popular vote.
In second place is Mutineer magazine, an online wine publication. This was the competition "dark horse," said Wallin. Mutineer was practically a last-minute entry. But by the end of the competition, Mutineer was in second place with the popular vote. "They had a huge following. They had a nice presentation and the judge's liked them," said Wallin.
The winner of this year's Wine 2.0/Vator.tv competition is Curiosk Marketing Solutions, a wine marketing company. Curiosk has developed a kiosk that resides in wine and liquor retailers. The kiosk allows consumers to scan a wine bottle, and create personalized cards that have pre-filled information about the wine, such as characteristics and suggested pairings.
Once again, the winner of the popular vote also won the votes of the judges. Last year, Crushpad won the popular vote with the Vator community and won the overall Wine 2.0/Vator competition. Crushpad went on to raise $9 million in venture financing.
Let us know what you think of the winners.
Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.
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Steven Loeb
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Wine 2.0™ is the innovator in social networking and events in the wine industry. With a focus on the next generation wine consumer, Wine 2.0 breaks down the barriers to learning about, experiencing, and enjoying wine. Wine 2.0 events feature a rich diversity of world class wines and the newest generation of emerging technology companies, services and communication tools that are changing the world of wine.Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
There are three aspects of Left Bank LLC, dba America Uncorked and Bibola.com, which sells great value imported wine:
1. Business-to-business -- America Uncorked
2. On-line direct to consumer, wine clubs -- Bibola.com
3. Creation of proprietary wine brands that will be sold business-to-business and on-line direct-to the consumer at a high margin -- creates a solid equity base
America Uncorked sells great value imported wines to the trade on a national level. The wineries in the America Uncorked portfolio keep inventory in the USA at their own expense with no risk to America Uncorked.
In addition to selling to the trade, America Uncorked sells its wines to Bibola.com, a sister company, on a just-in-time basis. Most wines retail for between $ 12 and $ 20 per bottle. Bibola.com then pays America Uncorked within 30 days after upfront credit card transactions for the sales are received. Again there is no need to invest in inventory because purchases are made just-in-time. The businesses are vertically integrated in that one aspect of the business sells to another aspect of the business earning the highest margins possible.
A third aspect of the business is to create and launch proprietary "Bibola" brands to be sold through the national trade and on-line through Bibola.com.
Bibola.com has various wine clubs, based on subscrpition memberships. Most club members receive six bottles delivered quarterly. Discounts are granted to wine club members as incentives to join. There are no fees for joining.
"Bibola" is the founders "alter ego", and is a cartoon character who tells her story of years in the international wine industry. Bibola.com is a whimsical, visually entertaining site with lots of personality and offers a very fun and educational shopping experience.
The portfolio will be expanded to offer new producers from around the world, including domestic wineries and proprietary brands, and will also add own brand tea, olive oil, chocolate and other complimentary gourmet products.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
General: Mutineer Magazine (Wine Mutineer LLC) is beverage media company that currently produces a Nationally distributed print magazine and dynamic web site/blog. Our mission is to meet the communications and media needs of the industry we serve while producing the best products we can for our customers.Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Women & Wine http://womenwine.com is a lifestyle company with a social media platform for user contributed content from lovers of wine, food and travel ages 21-59. Free members can share stories, tips, pics, and videos to entertain, inspire and educate. Our weekly newsletter goes to 50K people - both women (80%) and men who like our storytelling sensibility.
Women & Wine's core revenue comes from creating multi-media content and offline events for our A-list clients who are interested in unique and creative ways to reach savvy college educated women who, in addition to their interests in wine, food and travel, also love movies, books, fashion - you name it! Clients from movie studios, women's magazines, top fashion houses, travel and of course wine, spirits and food brands engage W&W as a trusted source for women. W&W has held events in 31 cities for over 7,000 people in the past 18 months and has a top rated podcast on i-tunes (RSS feed from http://womenandwineradio.com).
Women & Wine is a US and EU trademark and the company also owns a small wine boutique called Wine Valet at Two Rodeo Drive which provides the company the ability to sell wine and build an offline clientele around the world for our concierge services.
W&W has a top 100 wine show on i-Tunes with over 90 hours of archived podcasts and on March 29th at 10 a.m. PST will launch our new one hour show LIVE! at the Wine Valet at Two Rodeo Drive on CRNTalk.com and broadcasting to 20 million Time Warner Cable households (check local listings). The show tapes on Via Rodeo - similar to The Actor's Studio as guests sip the wines of our winemakers and tastemakers and the they can buy the wine in our store or online.
We have an ambitious plan to be the next breakout brand for women - as there's a huge vacuum in this space - and believe we are the leader in this niche catering to 40 million women who say they buy or drink wine at least once a week. And, as there is an enormous opportunity to reach women ages 21-30 who are interested in learning about, as well as drinking wine, there is the opportunity to be the "brand for life" as wine means something different to women at every stage of their lives.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Crushpad is a San Francisco winery where you are the wine maker. Crushpad provides grapes from the West Coast's top vineyards, an industry-acclaimed wine making team and a state-of-the-art winery 100% focused on making wine in small lots. You choose your level of involvement and we do the rest. No matter where you live, you can now make your own wine.Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Curiosk is redefining the way people shop for, buy, give, receive and enjoy wine and spirits. Installing a Curiosk touchscreen kiosk lets wine & liquor retailers enhance customer service, increase basket size, achieve store differentiation, provide a value added product and turn browsers into buyers. The Curiosk product and process is an innovative and informative, creative and convenient retailing solution.
How does it work?
Simply scan the barcode label to receive product information such as; tasting notes, food pairing notes, serving recommendations and cellaring guidelines. Then use the touchscreen to personalize and a print a greeting card. The patents pending card containing both the product information and the personal message, prints at the kiosk and is designed to fit over the neck of the bottle. It is the ultimate greeting card.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Snooth is a social shopping site for the wine industry. User's can use Snooth's powerful search engine to browse 2 million ratings across hundreds of thousands of wines and then link to 11,000 merchant partners (stores and wineries) in 50 countries to make a purchase. In addition, Snooth is a social network. Users can create accounts, see what their friends are drinking, get recommendations and find their 'taste twins' - users with similar palates to their own.
Joined Vator on
