Australian Wine Startup - Investment Opportunity

[Cmjritchie]

Interesting comments @SleepyPolarBear and I must say I agree with some of them.
A couple of your comments though appear to be subjective, thats all good though as we all have an opinion and of course are all allowed one.

I guess that’s the thing with tech startups, there is an element of risk as perceived value is usually based on number of users, revenue potential and growth opportunities.

Yes a lot fail but there’s been a number if ‘crazy ideas’ that have taken off and cemented themselves as major players (not going to bore you with the list).

It will certainly be interesting to see how it goes and I agree with you and if they do burn through that $60k with no results they wont be getting any more money out of me.

 

[SleepyPolarBear]

Yes a lot fail but there’s been a number if ‘crazy ideas’ that have taken off and cemented themselves as major players (not going to bore you with the list).

I must be missing something, but what's 'crazy' about winevalet?

The concept of algorithmic palate predictors is already employed by many players. Good Pair Days | Discover Wines Paired To Your Tastes is one, is this not the same thing? except goodpairdays seems to be run by a Somm and actually holds inventory, this allows them to supposedly mix and match wines to your taste. Winevalet on the otherhand does not intend to hold inventory to save on costs, fair enough, but how do you provide unique customizations to customers if you dont hold the product? It's a logistics nightmare, sending out individual bottles from different suppliers/wineries.

I think its very important to look at all those other "ideas" and how they faired.
Vivino obviously comes to mind, started in 2010 as a wine identification service and evolved into a marketplace currently going through a $155m series D funding. Still has not achieved break-even, but you can see the value it provides consumers with its huge database. What value does winevalet provide customers? --> "A mix of wines each month that is uniquely curated to reflect your lifestyle". This is simply a wine club, not a market disruptor.

Something closer to home, Vinomofo, whose failure to IPO can roughly be summed up by Joe Aston:

Can Blue Sky’s Vinomofo really IPO?!

Blue Sky’s targeted investment performance for Vinomofo was laughable from the outset.

www.afr.com

Noting a brash excerpt: "Vinomofo’s unscalability, its lack of pricing power and the competition’s low barriers to entry rendered Blue Sky’s targeted performance for this investment laughable from the outset", highlights the issues that will face winevalet if it gets off the ground. Assuming it succeeds, it will realistically also be another 10+ years before IPO will be considered and that your investment can yield any returns.

It may be exciting to be a founding member of a startup, but it is important to remember that 90% of them will fail. If people have excess equity, I'm all for supporting startups if due dilligence is done, but don't expect to see that money back anytime soon, if ever.

 

[Daver6]

Couldn't agree more with @SleepyPolarBear. The other issue is there is no competitive moat. Let's say for arguments sake that this concept turns into a winner and profitable. The big guys, ie Woolies/Coles can just slide right in and use their already sizeable stock and delivery infrastructure to beat a player like this because their costs will be lower.

 

[misohoney]

Super informative post @SleepyPolarBear

 

[drron]

The best wine investment I made was getting shares in the Petaluma IPO.Up 14 times the initial price when taken over 2-3 years down the track and I still get a discount on their wines.

 

[Cmjritchie]

Yes agree @SleepyPolarBear there’s nothing crazy about wine valet itself, was more referring to previous tech startups that were classed or pigeonholed as ‘crazy’ or ‘stuipd’...alas time will tell with Wine Valet’s concept and if the idea will come off.

Appreciate the input and the time taken to write in detail your thoughts and engage.

Let’s hope in a couple of years I can resurface this thread and brag about its success and the return on my investment

 

[SleepyPolarBear]

Yes agree @SleepyPolarBear there’s nothing crazy about wine valet itself, was more referring to previous tech startups that were classed or pigeonholed as ‘crazy’ or ‘stuipd’...alas time will tell with Wine Valet’s concept and if the idea will come off.

Appreciate the input and the time taken to write in detail your thoughts and engage.

Let’s hope in a couple of years I can resurface this thread and brag about its success and the return on my investment

All the best mate, hope you prove us wrong.

I was told about this during their first tranche of seed funding last year, so had looked into it before, thus built up some long standing opinions before coming across this thread. The biggest red flag for me was the hiring of a family member to be the "branding lead", regardless of what the product was, that just screamed warning signs at me.

Anyway, please do keep us updated . While we may seem dubious right now, a pivot in the right direction could make all the difference.

 

[kevviek]

I think this is more a function of the strong equity markets/excess liquidity around the globe rather than on the merit of this particular business idea. People are seen taking on excessive risk and throwing money at anything so comes as no surprise they raised money relatively easily.

In a strong wind even turkeys can fly. For the sake of the investors, I hope it does well.

$47k funding raised - that's roughly the value of one bitcoin...not going to get them very far.

 

[billbro]

I agree that it's not ground breaking, although I am yet to look under the hood of their code

Not exactly sure what ground breaking tech you would expect to see even if you looked under the hood?

Hasn't good pair days been doing this for ages? 17 Best Wine Clubs and Subscriptions in Australia

Edit: oops only on page 1 and looks like @SleepyPolarBear already called it out above.

 

[SleepyPolarBear]

Not exactly sure what ground breaking tech you would expect to see even if you looked under the hood?

Hasn't good pair days been doing this for ages? 17 Best Wine Clubs and Subscriptions in Australia

Edit: oops only on page 1 and looks like @SleepyPolarBear already called it out above.

We give it alot of criticism, but it is still early days. And I am all for more competition in the wine retail, as that equates to cheaper wine. Doesn't mean I'll invest, but am definitely rooting for it.