Nectar of the Vines

Take a sip of Vinomofo with Josh Zail

Mission (The Why):             

Vinomofo’s mission is for everyone to experience good wine . It’s not just about getting everyone to drink good wine though, the emphasis is on the experience. And that’s what they’re really selling. Confused? Watch this video.

Philosophy (The How):

Cofounders Justin Dry and Andre Eikmeier have built their emerging empire on three principles: Curation, Value, and Culture. They only sell wines they love and drink, they give their members “epic deals” on those wines, and they advocate fun over “bowties and BS”.  Their actions are guided by their multi-pronged mantra: “Step up, care more, keep it real, do some good and have fun”.

  

Legal Structure (The What):

A quick ABN lookup of ‘vinomofo’ turned tricky when I came up with four results, and found myself wishing that the real Vinomofo would please stand up. A bit of background reading helped me figure it out (more or less), so please bear with me and my limited understanding of Australian corporate law while I try to explain.

Vinomofo started out in 2011 as a Proprietary Limited Australian Private Company. If you were asleep for both of my posts last month, that means it’s a business owned by a small number of ‘shareholders’, and doesn’t sell its shares to the public. And it’s Australian. Stay with me here.

In mid-2012 Dry and Eikmeier sold Vinomofo to the Catch Group (the company that owns Catch of the Day and Scoopon) and gave up control of their company. But sales didn’t explode like everyone had hoped, and the two boys found that without the pressure of running their own company they didn’t work with nearly as much drive and passion. So in July 2013 they bought the company back (again a Proprietary Limited), started up their startup again, and after a few months of tough slog they found the massive growth that every entrepreneur dreams of.

Fast forward to last week, and Vinomofo is announcing a $25 million round of funding from Blue Sky Venture Capital. That’s a lot of money. And it requires a fixed trust to look after it, or something like that. I’m not sure I’ve taught you anything about corporate law, but it’s a good story!  

Stuff it does (The More Interesting What):

Vinomofo’s Unique Value Proposition is great deals on wine. Their customer base is so big they can “blow the next best market price out of the water”, so with free shipping on big orders, free returns and each customer getting their own “personal Mofo Broker” to find them wines they’ll love, it’s definitely a solid pile of value. New wines are released every day, and members can even join ‘wine clubs’ to access top secret deals.

If these wines taste as beautiful as they look, I want some

What they do well:

Until you’ve signed up, everything about the Vinomofo website makes you want to sign up. You can click to join straight away, or watch a sleek and vibrant video that’ll most likely convince you to join. If you’re a real rebel, you can scroll through the highlights reel of the value they offer, punctuated with social media snippets from their happiest customers. Vinomofo reminds you that wasting time sitting there staring at the screen, as their members are snapping up deals every second. Anyone with an internet connection can join, yet they’ve maintained the image of an exclusive club.

Once you’ve signed up, everything on the page is designed to sell you wine. Now that you’re finally in the club, the deals are all yours, and that excitement can be turned into orders with just a handful of well-placed clicks.

Opportunities (Exciting stuff on the horizon):

Having conquered the Australian market, international expansion is looming for Vinomofo, and they’ve come up with a pretty unique method for testing potential new markets. Their 'lite version' involves selling just one container of wine in each potential market, and seeing which ones gain the most traction. It saves massive amounts of time and money, and I have no doubt Vinomofo will be taking over the world very soon.  

Unfair Advantage (why it deserves an entire blog post):

Vinomofo’s brand finds unique expression within the language and design of its website, to the point where it feels like the company has a tangible personality. From the funky buttons you click to buy wine (Pic) to the irreverent tone of absolutely everything written there, exploring this enterprise feels a lot like meeting a very friendly and self-assured person. Vinomofo is the cool kids from high school, the ones you always wished would be your friends, only now they want to be friends with you too. Joining the club means you get to sit with them at lunch, laugh with them, and be cool like them. Who wouldn’t want in?

Vinomofo is one cool dude

Final Thoughts:

I think the Cat Empire articulate Vinomofo’s Unfair Advantage perfectly in their ‘Wine Song’, with the line: “I'm going to die with a twinkle in my eye, 'Cause I sung songs, spun stories, loved, laughed, and drank wine.” That's the experience Vinomofo is selling, and that's why over 400,000 Australians (including me) are now members. If you haven’t heard this song, please listen immediately, and thank me after. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go order some wine.

You Can't Spell 'Entrepreneurship' Without Entrepreneurs - delve into The Entourage with Josh Zail

 

Mission (The Why)

The Entourage is all about teaching entrepreneurship to young aspiring entrepreneurs, providing tools and advice that work in the real world. They are big on values, with 10 short and sweet mantras such as “Take Initiative. Don’t Wait” and “Do More With Less, Become a Master of Leverage”. They all fall under the umbrella of “Inspire freedom, enable greatness, change the world.”

Philosophy (The How)

­Entourage founder Jack Delosa strongly believes that entrepreneurship should be taught by successful entrepreneurs, people with a 'been there done that' experience. Jack doesn’t think that universities are able to keep up with the pace of change in the world of entrepreneurship. Everything that The Entourage does has the aim of educating and creating a community of capable and passionate entrepreneurs.

 Legal Structure (The What)

The Entourage Education Group is a Proprietary Limited Australian Private Company. In English, that means it’s a business owned by a small number of ‘shareholders’, and doesn’t sell its shares to the public. And it’s Australian. Cool.

Stuff it does (The More Interesting What)

The Unconvention is Entourage’s cornerstone event, a one-day carnival of big-name speakers and outcome-orientated workshops that celebrates entrepreneurs who do business unconventionally. It’s likely that the words ‘disrupt’ and ‘innovate’ will be mentioned more than once, but the Unconvention is a lot more than buzzwords and hype. More on that in a minute.

The Entourage offers a range of education products, from the Diploma of Business (specialising in entrepreneurship) to the Launch program, Build Program and Scale Program. Each of these is tailored to a different stage in the entrepreneurship journey, but they’re all driven by the core ideas of learning from people with plenty of experience in the arena, and getting out into the real world to make your business happen. Becoming a member of The Entourage is free, although enrolling in one of its programs or attending the Unconvention requires payment.

 What it does well

Throwing aspiring entrepreneurs and hugely successful founders into the same room spreads knowledge sharing, but more importantly it spreads passion, and lays the foundations for meaningful networks. I’m studying entrepreneurship at uni this year (sorry Jack), and I’ve already discovered that starting a business is really, really hard. Stuff goes wrong every 5 minutes, the pressure is relentless, and motivating yourself can quickly become an uphill battle.

Sharing your passion means that it’s still alive even when you’re having a rough day- it multiplies and expands and energises everyone it touches. Having a network of people who have experienced similar struggles can be the difference between sticking with your start up against all odds and throwing in the towel like a boring, rational human being.

From the Unconvention to the full-length education programs, The Entourage is constantly getting entrepreneurs together to learn from each other and create a supportive community, and I think that’s its core strength.

Room for Improvement

In my opinion, weaknesses are almost impossible to find when it comes to The Entourage, but I do think that by marketing to ‘entrepreneurs under 40’ they alienate older aspiring entrepreneurs that may share the mindset and appetite for learning of their younger counterparts. I understand the youthful and dynamic brand is very important to The Entourage, but I think people over 40 are equally capable of risk taking and innovation.

Opportunities (Exciting stuff on the horizon) 

It’s not hard to see that this enterprise works hard to integrate its 10 core values into every move it makes. “Live on the extra mile, good enough isn’t good enough?” reads one of my favourites, and this mantra drives The Entourage’s push to become a nationally-accredited Higher Education Provider in 2018, meaning it’s taking a giant step toward becoming an actual university. This might seem a touch hypocritical given Jack’s comments about the pitfalls of universities, but I think it’s a bold move that has the potential to boost The Entourage’s credibility, effectiveness and reach.

 

Unfair Advantage (Why it deserves an entire blog post)

Although The Entourage’s more obvious Unique Value Proposition is in the education department, I think its unfair advantage is the community factor.

Everything about The Entourage feels personal, differentiating it from the   production-line student experience stereotype that most education institutions face. The Entourage is all about having fun. It reminds you to enjoy the journey of entrepreneurship, a journey renowned as one of the most demanding and unforgiving career paths. 

Plastered across its website are photos of people brimming with passion and excitement, along with video interviews with satisfied Entourage graduates.

My favourite part of The Entourage’s digital profile is AskJackD, a video blog where Jack answers questions sent in by budding entrepreneurs. I think this episode encapsulates the purpose of AskJackD, and touches on The Entourage’s unique aura.

A thoughtful and inspiring blog.

Onesie day at the Entourage Office

The Annual Entrepreneurs' Harbour Cruise

 The Australian Startup Awards

The Entourage’s playful community spirit intertwines with its educational philosophy of person-to-person learning. Sharing of expertise and passion generates both at a phenomenal rate, and that’s why I can’t wait to see where The Entourage goes from here.