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Backstage Interview With Green Barrel Wine's Limor Allen

more Allen, the co founder of Green Barrel Wines. And I've been looking forward to this session all day, frankly, because you wanted to drink wine. Absolutely. And it's, ah, it's always great to showcase the product when you're starting an interview with a co founder, so I don't If it's OK with you, I'll pour us a couple of glasses. You explain what green barrel wines is. Sure eso green barrel wine is a local start up. We're here, located in San Francisco and Treasure Island, and basically what we do is we bring high end local boutique wine to the market, minus all the bottling. So we get in early with winemakers and partner with them. And if they believe in sustainable winemaking practices, which means less packaging and adding very little to the wine, then we try to work with them on using our barrel dispensing system. Basically what is inside of the barrels and nine leader pack, and we feel that, as opposed, all the bottles, labels, foils, corks, things like that. And so, just in sh...

ipping weight alone, we reduce almost half of a case. Fantastic. Yeah, I'll say cheers to that. So what are we drinking here? This is a rose. A. This is a 2009 from winery SF there, um, located right next to us on Treasure Island. So there's very little shipping costs also, and, uh, they custom make some wines for us. Terrific. So, uh, one of the themes that we have here at Creativelive isn't what One of the main themes and things that we do is we provide access to you the top experts in various fields to you, the aspiring entrepreneurs who are on their way up. Yeah, right. Access to Reid Hoffman and Guy Kawasaki in particular. Today, Gary Swart is still doing his presentation on the main stage. But we also want Teoh show what it's like for someone who is in the process. So how long have you been doing green barrel wines? Officially, we've been on the market about two years. Um and we spent about a year before that kind of testing the market, pretending we had a business and we didn't just trying to get out there and see if this concept actually was just a good idea in my garage or if this was actually something that we could market and scale up. There are a lot of people to use. My friend Noah Kegan kind of refers to some of those early. Are we gonna do this? We're not going to do this stage as Theo. Entrepreneur stage. Would you describe yourself as a prior want Tre preneurs? Um, yeah. You know, I think I always kind of felt like I wanted to work for myself and really challenged more than just meetings all day and kind of following instruction. Um, so I'd say I was always looking for something that interests me and Oh, entrepreneur, Sure. I mean, it's really funny you mentioned him because right before coming here, I looked at his contest for going to Austin and his product. And so that's a good time. Yeah. He's actually also going to coming to creative live in mid July to do a one day workshop on fear. Um, awesome. Awesome guy Like I really admire the stuff that he does. He's terrific. But so before you did green barrel, you were working in corporate America? Yes, you just a little while you're doing I had a totally randomly different jobs. Um, I used to work in health care. And so I did proposal management on. Before that, I was, uh, working an aerospace, doing international contract negotiations. Awesome. It's a very different, uh, probably fairly well compensated, though. Yeah, better than now, Short and but at the same time, like you have chosen to go this direction, which you know right now isn't isn't as lucrative. And we want Teoh inspire people to pursue their passions and become entrepreneurs, if that makes sense to them. But but I was wide open. It's not all unicorns and rainbows and sunshine. No, I'm still, I think in, You know, it's really hard to not compare yourself to others and to it's a good practice to compare yourself to others because it pushes you further. Um, my huge aspirations. When starting this, I thought we'd be way further than we are now. But then, when you compare yourself to most startups two years out not being in debt, you know well, we self funded it ourselves and having control of the product and really starting a new market. I can't complain. It is going quite well, but in that two years, I think I'm finally burnt out of working 80 hour weeks, so I've reduced it a bit. But my goals of getting rich quick and working 20 hours a week haven't really materialized yet. Sure, and that's important to recognize that this is a really hard path. People have to be ready for that. It's not. It's not as glamorous as the stories of Mark Zuckerberg and the Instagram folks make it seem. Yeah, you know, A big difference I'm learning is that I'm not in a technology field. I have a physical product. And to make any more of my product, I have to put out more capital. And one of the biggest challenges has been managing the capital with the level of growth that I would like to see. I'm very ambitious, and I would love to see his, you know, fly through the roof on our growth. But I also would require a lot of funding to do that. So, um, I've hands on, been in it, doing the welding, doing some of the work myself. Not very well, but you know, at least getting that experience in the background to where now I have a much better understanding of pushing what I need from suppliers and being really involved. So I really have never worked with a physical product like this. Yeah, but it's awesome that you've taken the leap to do that. And we hear the story of the startup founder and technology whose emptying the waste basket and cleaning the bathrooms. Here we have you who have taught yourself how to weld, essentially right. And I also drink all the wine, right? So this is the upside to that, right? Right. Um, can you tell us a little bit about your worst day as an entrepreneur? I think it's important to understand the worst of the worst day Looks like, because if you can survive the worst day, you have a lot better chance at more of those best days. Right? Um, the worst day would be a day of completely unsuccessful sales. Um, I wouldn't say that I'm generally a sales person. I mean, when I am passionate and I care about something and it goes, well, I'm having the best time ever. I wouldn't call that a sales person. Get a good salesperson can take a situation and maneuver it all around to be successful. So, you know, I believe in the product, and I love what we have. And so when I go there and put my heart on the line with someone else or a new client and they're absolutely not happy with the wine or they tell me this product is ridiculous and I'm never gonna make it, um, it's a big blow. You get back in the car and you maybe shed a little tear and then you get back out there. But, um, a long, hard day of unsuccessful sales is it's really rough is pretty tough. You'd never done sales prior to starting this business. I mean, there's a bit of sales and everything, right being a contract negotiator. There was a level of sales and proposal management. There was a level of it, but not cold, hard door to door. Walk into a bar and carry my barrel and, like, carry on my stuff out, You know, that's that's pretty rough. Yeah, and And how have you been able, Teoh? I learn how to do that. Like overcome the fear of walking into a new place and say Hi, I'm This is my wine in a barrel. Sometimes I have a glass of wine before sales. Um, e wouldn't recommend that for everybody, but really, it's a personal pep talk. I think we've touched on this before. I'm the kind of person that I talk about my goals out loud, and then that way, when it comes to doing it, I have no choice. I've said it to someone else and I've made it really. So with sales, it's kind of the same thing. I sit in the car and I'm like, All right, you just got to go do it. You You told them you'd show up. You set up an appointment, you got wine in the car and you just kind of get through it. And you know, over time it's become easier. And actually, over time, people have really driven their understanding of this product. I would say a couple of years ago, the market was slightly uneducated on wine, on tap, as well as using completely alternative packaging and what that would do to the wine. And now the markets more educated and they're calling me back the same places that were kind of saying No, that's great. Yeah, fantastic. Um, I I person love. It reminds me of my heritage. Like I come from an Italian family and, uh, my grandfather made wine and there were It comes out of a barrel when you're over in Italy and it's a great thing. Talk to me a little bit about your brand, because that's not something that necessarily Americans are familiar with. Like the whole wine on tap went out of a barrel or, you know, God forbid wine in a box, right? ICO pack iko pack, right? You know, uh, that's kind of I have a very international background growing up and have done a lot of travelling. And that's really where we came up, my business partner and I With this idea, you can go to the markets in Europe and bring your reusable growler, and you fill up a bunch of wine for the week. Like in Italy. This is very big. You spend very little, maybe 10 euros and you walk away with it and you have wine on the table for the weekend. It's quality wine. Um, that comes home in a jug. Growlers. A jug gallon jug. Yeah, and you clean it yourself. You bring it there, you fill it up and take it home. And that was kind of where we started originating with this idea. Like, Wow, you know, there's so much waste for just the wine I want at dinner on the table when I'm not opening up my really fancy bottle, Um, you know, and so that kind of started it. And then as we went down the process of going through, we were gonna put keg lines through this and all these more cumbersome ideas and really simple is better. We were like, Wow, if we use the technology that's out there, unfortunately, in the U. S, it has a negative connotation. Do toe the frenzy is and what not, But it's what you put in it. So we're like, Wow, we could put something in this that stays fresh for four weeks once you open it, and as long as you want to consume it within a year, this isn't You know the bottle I'm gonna hold on to for eight years in my cellar. But this is and it's ready now, Like what? We're drinking. The 2009. So a lot of people also assumed our wine would be young, but it's really what you put in it. And when you package it, So us working very closely with the wineries, we ended up finding all these other benefits like it's cheaper. Ah, you know, stays fresh by the glass. And there's all these new markets It opened up for us that we were really able to kind of go out there and test and pursue. And what's been really fascinating is the consumer market, the end user. They're the people really driving this new technology, and they're opening up their mind like, yeah, I'm willing to try this where some of the winemakers very stuck in one model or another like no one will buy this. So it's actually not true. Some people are buying this. Yeah, well, I So I actually bought this for we through an opening event party toe. Welcome. The San Francisco community into creative live in a physical manner. And our event planner suggested your green barrel wines and sceptic right off the bat. I I'm gonna serve wine out of a barrel at a party for a bunch of, you know, uppity valley folks. They're not really that uppity, but, um, you know, is the area of the world where quality wine is highly valued by the consumer sets. I was really skeptical, and I, you know, we met. I sampled your product and found a red and white that I thought were spectacular. In fact, they, you know, they went faster than anything else last night at the Friday, which was pretty great. Um, I wanna go back. Teoh, You talked. You talked a lot about the packaging and the ICO friendliness. That's a value that's really important to you clearly. And we've heard from other presenters about how having a values driven business makes it easier to get up and go to work in the morning. Because it's something you you believe in. Can you talk about how you know some of the not in addition to the ICO friendly situation? Some of the other values that you know that keep you going on a daily basis personal freedom. I think you've mentioned Yeah, you know, with starting this, um, I worked for the large companies and been climbing the corporate ladder and, you know, really trying to keep in with the vision and focus of the company's. But what I really wanted to feel was close and personal toe. A product like I'd mentioned, a physical product touching something and making something out of it has been really rewarding in life. Um And then also, I believe in the local movement of we've got amazing wine right here. Why are we shipping it all over the world for your table wine and not using all our resource is, I believe in the local food movement. And also what I've learned from doing this is we should be focusing more on packaging and packaging on everything is gonna be a waste at times. Um, so I've had some opportunities to partner with certain people and go big and go cheaper wine. And I really want to believe in what we put in the market. I stand behind every single one of the wines we select. I go through two panels of tasting. I would be the first panel. Well, yeah, So I wanted to believe in something. I wanted to feel connected and close to it and feel like I'm shaping the market. This has exceeded my expectations of all of that. The fact that I'm learning every day about new benefits or ways I can influence and enter other markets. It's really exciting. And I wanted something innovative and, you know, you almost think, Well, what could be so innovative about why and why it has been out there forever. Um, and had I been hitting the streets with another good wine, There's thousands of good wines around, so really, this product differentiated us in the market. And even though I think I could go really large scale and cheap wine, I wouldn't believe in it. And I've been resistant of that. That's terrific. So Ah, what advice would you have for either aspiring entrepreneurs or people who like yourself are still, you know, early or mid stage? You know, um, I've seen a lot of advice out there that says, Don't spend all your time on business cards and websites and all this, and I've been pushed in many directions by a lot of people that I need to be more techy. You need to go out there and ask people what they think about the product and say yes to everything. That was kind of what I started doing was just saying, Yeah, we can do that And then I'd go home and be like, How do I do that? But you're going to figure it out when the pressure is on. And, you know, I felt I feel really inspired by people who come to this country and try things and open businesses and barely speak the language and don't understand the legal system. And I started thinking more and more about that. It was like I should take the risk to what do I have to lose? The worst case scenarios? It doesn't work or doesn't Isn't wildly successful. But I gained a lot, and I'm now forever changed as an employee. Employees to myself employed the others. I don't think I can sit there again and take orders and be told what to do when I don't believe in it. So, you know, be an agent of change. And if you think you've got something, just try. Go tell everyone you're gonna do it. Go to the market with a I'm embarrassed. Even tell you the sample I used to walk around with that didn't look anything like this. Um, pull some winds out from behind and, you know, test with people and they're gonna be your best market. I get advice at every event I do, whether I wanted or not, Right. But you you early on created stakes for yourself. You told your community Hey, I'm gonna try and start this wine thing, and that sort of people would start asking you about it. And that would create, you know, sort of a little bit of social pressure to do the thing he said you were going to dio when you get out there. And you actually took the product to put it in front of people and said, What do you think about this? You tested it. You got some negative feedback on some stuff. So you pitched that went back, tried something new. You looked at a bunch of different delivery delivery mechanisms and decided, Hey, this simple ICO pack don't need keg lines. It really works. And then you got out there and you sold the crap out of it every single day, going to different bars, and I just think that's a really inspiring story. And yeah, my PIN most important thing about an education is how it changes us. And you've just said that over the past few years you've been dramatically changed by the self education that you essentially given yourself, and I think that's incredibly inspiring. So I know I just sort of like rambled on there about how awesome you are. And maybe it's the wine kicking in, but let's give a big round of applause to Lamar Allen.