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As a sommelier at prestigious, Michelin-starred eating places and with a background in sustainable agriculture, Kristin Olszewski needed to make natural, high-quality wine extra accessible to individuals who would usually shrink back from it.
Her resolution: Put it in a can.
In 2017, she launched her canned wine firm, Nomadica, into the market—curated, zero-sugar wine in eco-conscious packaging. However not everybody was enamored. For a lot of within the conventional wine business, canned wine was arduous to swallow.
“After I launched, canned wine was all worth wines, nothing you’d truly wanna pour right into a glass,” Olszewski recollects. “I am unable to let you know how usually I used to be laughed out of rooms after I began to go round and pedal Nomadica to individuals. Even my group and pals within the wine business had been like, why are you doing this? Nobody desires this.”
Seems they had been improper. Nomadica is now accessible direct-to-consumer and in retailers throughout 25 states resembling Entire Meals, Sprouts, and Complete Wine, with Goal within the works for 2025 Final 12 months, Nomadica was named the Rising Drinks Model of the Yr within the Subsequent Wave Awards.
Olszewski joined me on the One Day with Jon Bier podcast to speak about her path from a Harvard dropout to the founding father of a profitable firm and her recommendation for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Have a singular experience in your business
Kristin spent years as a sommelier in high-end eating places in Nantucket, Nashville, and New York. That skilled expertise, coupled along with her examine in sustainable agriculture, provides her unicorn standing within the canned wine business. “I am the one founder with wine expertise. Everybody else has MBAs, or they employed individuals to handle the wine expertise a part of it,” she says. “I am the one individual wanting on the business from the underside up.”
This distinctive perspective permits Kristin to determine traits and alternatives others might miss. She shares one instance: “I run a wine program in Los Angeles, and I noticed that we offered extra orange wine by the glass than all different colours mixed. Growth. I used to be the primary to market with a nationally distributed orange wine in a can and now field.”
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Construct actual relationships with board members and buyers
Kristin prides herself on being very open and trustworthy along with her buyers in regards to the challenges Nomadica faces. She surrounds herself with a board composed principally of operators with expertise operating companies and might help her by means of the ups and downs. Full disclosure: I used to be one in every of Kristin’s earliest angel buyers and wrote her the largest verify I had written so far as a result of she checked each field for me.
Take note of rising traits and shopper preferences.
Regardless of Nomadica’s success, Kristin is just not resting on her laurels. She is continually making an attempt to innovate and be on high of modifications within the business. For instance, she acknowledges that millennials and Gen Z have gotten extra discerning about what they devour, which contradicts typical knowledge that these generations simply go for fancy labels and advertising gimmicks.
“That is an extremely educated shopper who’s nerdy, who deep dives on what they’re consuming now,” she says.
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Keep true to your model
Kristin deliberately constructed Nomadica slowly, beginning with partnerships at premium resorts and venues. Opposite to the recommendation she acquired, she targeted on producing high-velocity gross sales earlier than increasing into mass retail.
“I took this sluggish, arduous path as a result of I really feel like that is additionally simply my vibe, that is my power. I by no means do something the simple manner, which is annoying about me. All my pals are endlessly irritated about that, however I knew this was the appropriate technique to construct the model, and now we’re prepared for retail.”
Do not be afraid to problem the established order
As a feminine founder in a male-dominated business, Kristin confronted a number of skepticism and pushback when she launched Nomadica. However she persevered along with her imaginative and prescient to disrupt the wine business and make it much less pretentious.
No person is laughing at her loopy concept anymore.
“If you have a look at the wine business proper now, the one segments which can be rising are glowing, canned wine that is above $15, which is precisely the place we’re priced,” she says. “I really feel like whereas everybody else is divesting or making canned cocktails out of wine, I am leaning in as a result of I nonetheless see the chance.”
