Hardware Podcasts

Barefoot Wine: Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan

How I Built This · 16 Sept 2024 · 1h 15m

What this episode covers

Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan, founders of Barefoot Wine, explain how they pivoted from accounting and consulting to building a $500 million wine brand after acquiring $300,000 worth of debt in bulk wine from the bankrupt Sovereign Winery. They disrupted the industry by marketing wine like beer, targeting everyday female shoppers with a consistent, non-vintage flavor profile and a distinctive footprint logo, while bypassing initial rejection from major buyers like Lucky Supermarkets by securing traction with Trader Joe's. After two decades of grinding through distribution challenges and maintaining cash flow via a 'cliff report,' they sold the company to E & J Gallo in 2005, recognizing that scaling required resources beyond their small team's capacity.

Most relevant to

founders before launch, early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
E & J Gallo, Sovereign Winery, Trader Joe's, Lucky Supermarkets, Sebastiani
Products
Barefoot Wine, Robert Mondavi, Chateau Lafitte

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