For the love of Wine

I recently have been speaking with a few very compelling wine technology companies. There are a few different ways to capitalize on the wine industry, and I think it’s a great idea!

Some companies are leaning more on the educational side. These companies want to teach you about different types of wine, their regions, and what to pair them best with. These companies are looking to build a big user base, become the go-to site for any wine information, and then monetize.

Others are building mobile apps where your phone will recognize what restaurant you are in, get the menu and wine list, and recommend what wine to get with your meal, or what meal to get with your wine (personal favorite as I struggle with this.. and servers aren’t always helpful).

Another angle is that companies are getting together “wine trade shows” where a lot of wineries will get together and merchants, restaurants, etc. will have a general place, physically during the show, and on line, to get connected. These companies also have great content management marketing.

All of these are great ideas.. especially if you’re trying to impress your date 😉 

At this point, many of these companies are a little early for OpenView’s model. However, with some growth capital investment as well as OpenView’s financial consulting services, I think that one of these smaller companies could really break out. OpenView could help with competitive positioning and maybe combine a few of the various angles companies are taking and have a real leader break out. We will always keep investing and we will all keep drinking wine, so sooner or later an investment marrying the two will come along (hopefully).