Listen to Rowan Gormley on being 'Business Start-up of the Year award winner'...
Rowan Gormley on working with partners...
“We’ve worked with partners, for instance Jamie Oliver and BBC's Good Food.
“We work with other companies that have the right profile of customers, and if companies want to thank or reward their customers, wine is a fantastic currency to do that with.”
On growing the business...
“Once we had worked with partners to get the initial customer base in, a lot of the growth just came from existing customers recommending their friends.
“We’ll say to our customers, for example, we need a thousand people to chip in £50 to help a wine maker set up his business. We may be 100 investors short and the current investors will then turn to their friends and ask them to join in.”
I’ll be constantly exchanging emails with someone in New Zealand or Australia, and by the time you finally meet up in person you feel like old friends
On Rowan’s relationship with the wine makers...
“It’s very interesting. A lot of the wine makers we do business with I haven’t actual met. I’ll be constantly exchanging emails with someone in New Zealand or Australia, and by the time you finally meet up in person you feel like old friends.
“We had a wine maker stay at our house last night. It’s quite an intimate thing to let someone you haven’t met into your house.
“But because of all the contact through email you feel like you can trust them – this is a business based on trust.”
