Ingrid Best: 2 Years of IBest Wines, Rolling Stone Africa Cover, & The Vision to Sell!

Ingrid Best: 2 Years of IBest Wines, Rolling Stone Africa Cover, & The Vision to Sell! + More 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Silly. It's way up with Angela Yee.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
And today I am so excited because this woman is
literally like one of my best friends in the world,
but she's also an entrepreneur also somebody that I've been
like championing since even before you started your own business.
Right ingrid Best is here with me aka miss I
Best Wines is in the building.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm in the building, and so is the wine.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
And so is the wine. And today we are celebrating
two years. October tenth has been two years since you
launched this brand.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Two years. How does that feel?

Speaker 4 (00:35):
It feels amazing, It feels surreal. It feels like time
is moving really really flat fast, but also moving slow right,
because it feels like we've done so much, but it
really has only been two years and there's so much
more of a gonna do.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well as a founder. I have so many questions for
you because I feel like the landscape has changed so
much two years ago to where we are today, as far.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
As even like funding. And here's one thing.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
It's interesting because we went to a fashion week event
like last month sometime. It was me, you and Melissa Butler.
She's the founder of the lip.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Bar Love Melissa and the.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Three of us were having this conversation and it was
just so good because I think people don't understand that
seeing someone's product everywhere does not equate to she's really
bringing in the money. You have to lay down that
groundwork so your wine is everywhere. And that's what Melissa
and I were talking about. Even when we left the event,
we were having a conversation together.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
But the accolades that you've managed to achieve in.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Two short years, because we have to also understand two
years is not a long time, right. You got the
gold medal for the New York International Wine Competition, yes,
for the White Blend, the silver medal for the Red Blend.
You've got the USA Wine Ratings Gold medal for the
Red Blend and the silver medal for the White Blend.
You have all kinds of like International Wine Challenge Awards,

(02:03):
International Wine and Spirits competitions, medals, so many different things
that you've achieved.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
But do you feel like you made it yet?

Speaker 3 (02:12):
No, far, far far from made it.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
I tell people all the time, I'm a twenty year
overnight success, but I'm just getting started. So for twenty
years I worked, you know, from so many brands, did
so many things had this dream launched by best Wines,
and there's so much more that you need to be
able to do to really consider yourself I think successful.

(02:39):
So I'm happy with the early success. I'm grateful for
the support. Obviously, we have a great product. It is
an award winning product. But I think most founders would
totally understand when I say, there's just so much more
to do. And the truth is, hitting the milestone of
turning two years old, we've already we've already been able

(03:02):
to do with the data shows black and brown women
typically aren't able to do. The data shows between twelve
a month and eighteen months black women founded businesses fold.
They just don't have the capital to keep going. And
the truth is, there isn't a day that I'm not
sitting there with Chanelle, who leads our finance and our

(03:24):
business modeling, and saying, how are we going to do this?
And so most people think we see you everywhere. You know,
the brand is fun and we are we're all those things,
but we're also a brand that is a startup, and
every single day we're trying to navigate the challenge of
getting past what the data says We're not going to

(03:45):
be able to get passed, right, and it's not easy.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
With all of these accolades and places that you've shown up.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
What has been some of the obstacles that you say
that you need to overcome.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, you know, raising capital.
You know, black and brown women, we get less than
one percent of venture capital. And in the case of
someone like myself who is an expert, I'm an expert
in this business. The fact that I've built the brand,

(04:18):
launched the brand, have a tremendous model, have wonderful business
women that are working alongside me, it is still been
very difficult to attract the investment. And it's not isolated
to me. That's the average black and brown woman's story
when it comes to raising capital. I think the difference
is that I refuse to stop right, I refuse to

(04:41):
not keep going, and I'm relentless when it comes to
my resources. I'm relentless when it comes to my network.
I've really mastered how to ask, and so even in
conversations that you and I have, I'll call, I'll be like, Ange,
do you know such and such?

Speaker 3 (04:56):
You know?

Speaker 4 (04:56):
And that's where not letting your ego get in the
way understanding that like, if you want to win, you
have to do all the things that it takes, you know,
to win. But I would say the biggest obstacle is
raising capitals and capital and I also think the other
obstacle is being put in a box. So to me,
it goes without saying it's a black owned brand, right,

(05:18):
I'm actually black and Latino, so we could say Afro
Latina own brand, but we get put in a box
often time, and so you know, at the end of
the day, this is a luxury wine.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Brand, right, hard period, you know, hard stop.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
And so that's another I think obstacle because there is
this assumption that you're supposed to show up in only
certain kind of places, that the product may not be
you know, it may be inferior to other products. And
then the kind of funding that you would be looking
for is somehow different, right than someone that doesn't look

(05:55):
like you. So I would say that those are the
two obstacles, and then the third is distribution, right, and
a lot of people don't realize, you know, we are
in a three tier system in the United States. So
there's the supplier, me, the person who owns the brand,
the distributor who has the right to sell the brand
and then the customer, which would be a restaurant or
a liquor store. And so getting distributor partners for new

(06:20):
brands is very difficult.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
And it's a must.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's a must, yeah, because it's not like you can
go directly to a restaurant and be like, hey, we
want to be in the restaurant.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
Right, No, you have to go through the distribution network.
And so even for someone like myself who has tremendous relationships,
who has been able to secure some big distributors. We
have Empire in Georgia, we have Regal in California, which
are big, reputable distributors with incredible portfolios, in some other markets,

(06:50):
it hasn't been as easy, right, and.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
So a lot of people, so in every state you
have to get a distributor every state, every So that's
why sometimes you'll see things are only available in certain
places and you can't get it until you get a
distributor exactly.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
And you know, the other thing is there's a balancing act.
And we talked about this actually the last time I
saw you when we went to the Harlan Fashion Row event.
Shout out to brandis Daniels. We talked about this. You know,
you don't want to go too fast. So where you
want distributors?

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Right?

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yes, I know that there are seven core markets that
we are ready to, you know, really accelerate ibest wines.
But what happens a lot of times with entrepreneurs and
startups is they go too fast. You know, Pace is
your friend, Paces your friend, having a plan as your friend,
and I think oftentimes the idea of growing and scaling

(07:45):
is romanticized.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, you don't want to overpromise and under deliver. You
want to make sure that you actually have products available
right when people are placing orders and wanting to do things,
and you want to make sure there's a demand. You
don't want to go to a place like say you
enter nationally, go to another country but there's no demand
and nobody knows it, and now quest you all this
money to try to market to get there, but no
one's buying it.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Exactly.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
I think, you know, understanding what makes sense for your
business model and sticking to it is so important. And
so for me celebrating two years today for my best wine.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
I can't believe it's been two years. Two years.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
I just think about when you first launched this brand
and look even the groundwork before this was available. I
just remember like putting together the logos, like which logo
do you like? And getting the glass where, the packaging
right and going and getting the liquid right.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
That was one of the most important things.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
And you really literally had to travel to South Africa
to get that done.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
No, it was so important to me. I didn't want
to just be someone that you know, kind of slapped
a country on my bottle and said, you know, this
product is from South Africa. It was critical for me
to plant my roots in South Africa. Shout out to
all my South African family who have been tremendously supportive
of myself and I best wines and everything that we're doing.

(09:04):
And yeah, I spent a lot of time there. I
all but moved there. And for those that may not
have heard me say this before, Angela Yee is the
reason why I ever stepped foot on the continent. You
invited me to go to an event in Johannesburg. It
was the first time I had ever gone to Africa
and it changed my life.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, we had our time. We were like we are
coming back. I was we were ready to stay.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
Yeah, you know, we went there and so from that
I got obsessed with just really understanding and researching the
South African wine region, which is a beautiful region that's
been producing wine for over three hundred years. There's a
lot of incredible South African wines, and so we hope
that I Best Wines can just be kind of a

(09:48):
bullhorn right to the region and to all the other
incredible wines and wine makers that are coming out of
South Africa.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
I always say it's really important when you go someplace,
whether it's investing in real estate or a product like
you have from South Africa I Best Wines, it is
important to make sure that you are really involved in
the community there, so we're not just taking from there.
And to the point of that, it's respected enough that
even Rolling Stone Africa has I Best Wines literally in

(10:16):
the magazine and it was even like on the cover too,
just to be able to go in and read about it,
because you really did make sure that you were intentional
about how you showed up there.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah, No, it was so important to me that you
know that people in South Africa felt like this is
not just a marketing ploy, this is not just someone
who you know, got this big marketing idea, but this
is a woman who is very passionate about the country,
very passionate about the creative community there.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
They're so inspiring to me. They've been tremendous to me.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
And yeah, when we when we were mentioned on the
cover of the inaugural issue of Rolling Stone Africa was
such a big deal. We also got a write up
in Report Africa, which also was just like huge. We're like, wow,
you know, to be recognized from an international standpoint with
media and press is huge.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
But I think it does.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Speak to the fact that people absolutely see my commitment.
You know that that I'm passionate about it. And yes,
it's about I Best Wines, it's about my brand, but
it's also about just the South African wine region as
a whole and the continent as a whole. We all
should be celebrating what's happening on the continent.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
I also want to talk about it as we're celebrating,
because this is a celebration of two years some of
the major wins that I Best Wines has had so far,
and amongst those winds being distributed in Virgin hotels. Right,
we can go to a Virgin Hotel and order the wine.
It started off in New York, So tell me about
that journey.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yeah, so you know, again the power of relationships and
the power of a great product. The very first sales
call Iver made as the founder of I Best Wines. Yes,
I go into restaurants, I pitch and I do everything. Yeah,
I do it. And so I went in and I
met with the team at Virgin Hotels in New York

(12:08):
and tasted the wines.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
They love the wines.

Speaker 4 (12:11):
Shout out to Sarah and the team at Virgin Hotels,
New York. The wine performed so well. It's across several
of their menus at the New York location. And then
they had something that's called an RFP where you have
to submit to it's a request for a proposal. You submit,
and we did, and we won the national business and

(12:32):
so from New York we're now huge. Yeah, we're now
at Virgin Hotels nationally, which is which is huge for
a startup brand.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
Right, But again, I think it.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Speaks to the story my hard work, the team's hard work,
and also the wine.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah. Now the wine is amazing.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Listen, every time I drink it, I'm like, first of all,
you know, I want to feel a little something too.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
You're definitely don't feel it, and I'm floating when I have.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
It.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
It's a great float. Okay.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
In addition to that, American Airlines tell me that story
and how our best minds is showing up on American
Airlines international flights.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, this is also one of those like surreal moments.
You know, we submitted again to a request for a
proposal with American Airlines. These submissions typically have thousands of
brands that submit to them, and our white Blend was
selected to be served on American Airlines Flagship First, which

(13:32):
is their you know, cream of the crop.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
The only way I fly, I'm kidding, I'm not rich.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
It's the only way I used to fly before I
became an entrepreneur. But and so obviously getting the email
saying you've been awarded the business American Airlines Flagship First,
I mean the tears of joy because you know that's
bucket lists achievements. You know, to see your brand served

(14:03):
on an airline is just out of this world. So
shout out to the American Airlines team. We're so grateful
to them for seeing us as a startup business as well,
and allowing new brands to submit to their tasting process right.
And I got a chance to visit the American Airlines
headquarters in Dallas. That was fantastic and meet the team,

(14:24):
and they were just really excited to see who is
this person behind this brand that people are so excited
about seeing in flight. So huge win for us and
we intend to hopefully have more placements with American Airlines
across our portfolio.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
I think it's really important when we think about how
we show up to to the point of people want
to see who is this person behind this brand? And
anytime I've had the opportunity, if there's something that I'm like, oh,
this would be great for Ingrid and for ibest Wines,
I have no hesitation and knowing that I can pass
that relationship on because I know how you show up
and I know that you know your business thoroughly inside out.

(15:02):
One thing that you and I both have talked about
struggling with when you discuss raising capital is even being
able to ask or being able to pitch ourselves, because
I don't think we're used to pitching ourselves. We're used
to pitching other products. You know, We're used to being
the connectors for making things happen. It's different when it's
for you. But for some reason, I feel like it's

(15:22):
also harder. Yeah, but it shouldn't be. It should actually
be easier.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
When we're doing things for ourselves. What do you think
about that?

Speaker 4 (15:30):
You know, it's funny my dad. My dad is ninety
two years old, and my dad often says to me, baby,
you put your name on it, go out there and
do what you gotta do. And I remember the first
time that he said that to me, and I was like, whooh, yeah,
you're right, my name is on this. And I do
think women specifically oftentimes it's like head down getting the

(15:54):
work done. And you know, when you are building a business,
people want to know who is the person behind the business.
And so I've had to learn how to get more
comfortable being in front because for the most part, I
was always doing things behind the scenes, building everyone else's thing.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
And so now this is really like.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
A microscope on me, you know, And there are times
where I'm still adjusting to that. You know, whether it's
someone walks up to me and is like, oh my god,
I love your wines, or I'm like, wow, these people
know who I am.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
They'll be like, should you look familiar? Where do I
know you're from? And then they're like, oh my gosh,
your I Best Wines. And that's amazing for them though,
because the product already speaks for itself. There's times we're
friends and you'll tell me, like if you have something
going on. There's times that I've gone to event and
not even known that this was an I Best Wine
sponsored event, and I get there and I'm like, oh,
look they're hereport.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
I Best Wines.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
And the other thing that I feel like you've been
very intentional about is being in the art space. And
you love collecting art I do, and curating art shows
and assists in that way. So talk to me about
that space for you and some other partnerships that you
have when it comes to art.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
Yeah, honestly, I fell in love with art collecting not
that long ago. I tell people my journey as a
collector is a fairly new one. But I realized quickly
I was like, I like seeing the money hanging on
my walls, right, I like investing in art. I love
getting to know artists, and especially the emerging artists right,

(17:28):
who oftentimes don't necessarily have a huge platform. Are trying
to figure out how to get more exposure. Like I
love that, I love connecting the dots for them. I
love seeing the wine at shows obviously exhibits, you know.
Shout out to the folks who have tapped us early
on the mckeleeen, Thomas's The Swizz and Alisha's.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
For their show that was at the Brooklyn Museum.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
It was at the Brooklyn Museum. Michelleen's was in LA.
We've also done, honestly over like a hundred and twenty
art events. Shout out to Ashley, who leads all of
our events and partnerships. And for me, it's just critical
that we're showing up in spaces that represent the places
that I want to support. Oftentimes, once the galerius or

(18:15):
the curator or even the artists themselves has done everything
they need to do to produce the show, they don't
necessarily have money for wine, right you know. And and
they haven't necessarily had wine that they feel good about
serving right of the wine.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah, no jugs of wine, but you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
Like now there's a through the line connection with not
only the artists, but the wine that's being served there too.
So we've gotten tremendous support from the art community. We
would not have been able to do what we've done
in these two years without artists saying we love that wine,
we support that wine, and for them saying that's the

(18:58):
wine we want poored adjacent to our art, right, that's
a huge, huge compliment. And so I absolutely just love
the art community. It's therapeutic to me. And it's also
the things that you don't see, the collector's dinners and
their homes, the fundraisers that the art community does.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
I just I love it. It has my heart. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Now, earlier we've been talking about expanding and I know
you launched in South Africa last year, so you have
plans to also launch internationally in other places.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, correct, Yes, give us a lot the brand.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
The brand is a global brand, which I have to
pinch myself when I hear myself say that. So we
are available in South Africa. We are also available in Ghana.
So we were able to secure one of the largest
distributors in Ghana, which is a huge deal and we're
very excited about that. And initially we were hoping to
launch last year in Ghana, but there were some things

(19:56):
that got hung hung up but we are officially now
in Ghana.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
We're excited, congratulates. It's a huge one. Where's the wine, Dan, Yeah,
like you're putting by the way, but yeah, we're in Ghana.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
We are working on launching in Paris and London again
because those are big, right, art community, art hub community.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
If you need me to travel like as an assistant
on an.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
Signing you up very soon. But yeah, so we have
our eyes on some markets that we know makes sense.
There's also some additional markets in Africa that we're looking at,
Nigeria being one, Kenya being another, will wand up being another.
But you know, again back to the scale, right, you
don't want to go too fast. And so this this

(20:43):
leading up to this two year anniversary, I've actually spent
more time in the US because I've had to just
do the work, you know. You know, Virgin Hotels and
American Airlines and Total Wine don't open up by being
at events. They open up because you're doing the work
to make sure that you're positioning yourself and you're answering
those RFPs and doing I think the work that people

(21:05):
a lot of times don't know about.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
When you think also about the fact that you do
have investors?

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Right?

Speaker 2 (21:11):
What type of responsibility do you have to your investors?
As a founder of I best wines because there are
people who are entrusting you with their money. They're investing
in you, but then what do they get back? And
like how does that process work? Because I know people
all the time can be a proach like, oh, I
want you to invest in whatever I'm launching. What are
some things that people as investors should look for and

(21:32):
what type of responsibility do you have to your investors?

Speaker 4 (21:36):
Listen, I think the first thing is transparency. You know,
this is a startup and as a startup, my investors
have invested in me. They've invested in me as a
founder and as a CEO. So what I'm sharing with
them needs to always be coming from a place of
honesty and oftentimes.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Being very vulnerable.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
You know, there have been times where we've had to
fill the gap.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
In certain areas.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
Right We're waiting for a PO to come in, and
I've gone to investors and said, hey, there's a PO
coming in. Can you float the business this until this
PO comes in? And what you gain from that level
of transparency with your investors is that the investor understands
that you're willing to not just tell them when everything's
going great.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
You got to tell them.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
You got to tell them when hey, this thirty days
is feeling testy for us, you know what I'm saying,
and we need some help.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
And so I think for me, it's.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Like the transparency piece is critical and understanding that in
a business everything is not going to always be all good.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
It comes outlier.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
And Dan got the fancy glass wear. Okay, Okay, make
sure you pour yourself.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Look, it's two.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Years you know for IVS Wines, and shout out to
you and the team. Because what I also know is
that without the right team, nothing moves. And so tell
me about the team that you've had. And it's also
not easy to be a member of a team that's
a startup. It's very rewarding when it works out and
when you believe in the product, but it is also like, okay,

(23:08):
you guys, we're really like strapping in and getting this
done from the ground up.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
So talk to me about the I Best Winds team. Yeah,
the I Best Wines team. Ashley.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Listen, whenever someone says we see iye Best Wines everywhere, Ashley, Yeah,
she she is a one woman show who's leading all
the events and partnerships for this brand. I like to
tell people it's kind of like a street team, you know,
old school street team where.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
You you know, she said street you know, we see
the error we come from.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
We're real surgical with how we're doing it. But it
really is the leadership of Ashley. So shout out to Ashley.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Actually so great. I like lightweight poster.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
You did it, and so I borrow her from the
But but I think that speaks to like the work
that Ashley does. You know, she's been amazing and incredible
to the point where you and I are such a
good friends that you have somebody great.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
I was like, yeah, we also we share her.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, and we share her. This sounds awful, but it's
it is a compliment. We should compliment she's actually here girl.

Speaker 4 (24:11):
But yeah, So so Ashley, you know Chanel, you know
finance and modeling, you know, at the end of the day,
boils down, boils down to we're building this to make money.
We're building this to sell it one day and have
an historical acquisition. And that is only done if you
have tremendous leadership with from a finance and a modeling perspective.
So shout out to Chanelle. All the press that you

(24:34):
see happening, that's Anna and I tag teaming. Anna does
all of our internal comms. Anna's also was with me
at the start, like she was the person that I
was ide eating and figuring it all out with. So
shout out to Anna. Shout out to Grace Maharry. She
is our sooner. She's our secret weapon.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
I like say that for me again because I don't
say it right.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Yes, okay, Grace ma Harry just the just a tremendous force.
She is an incredible force, and she's really my partner
in as we're looking at new vintages and launching new things.
She's she's my she's my set of you know, tasting.
You know, she's not tasting buddy, you know, she's the
person that's helping me make those those those decisions on

(25:18):
you know, is the liquid right and do we feel
good about it? So shout out to Grace. There's Kathlyn,
who's actually one of our strategic advisors. I recommend entrepreneurs
have advisors. You're one of them as well. You need
people that you can bounce ideas off of you need
people that can tell you when you're not doing it right,
when you are doing it right, when you need to

(25:38):
consider something. So, Kathlyn, who am I forgetting Chanelle Grace Anna?

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Oh, Rachel.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
Rachel's been on maternity leave. We got a new baby
on the team.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
The baby's on the team.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
The baby's on the team too. The baby does not drink.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
We need be baby formula. Yeah, but Rachel.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
Is our brand manager and she's really the glue. But
what I will tell you is that this last year
was her obviously taking time for maternity. You know, I
had to step up quite a bit as a founder because.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
I was so used to having Rachel right there with me.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
And I'm grateful for that time because it reminds you
you got to know how to do this stuff.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah yeah, And also it makes you have a different
type of appreciation when you have to do it yourself.

Speaker 4 (26:24):
It really you're like, please come back. Yeah, but I
can't do any of this without the team. Thank you
for bringing that up. I'm so grateful for them. And
we're building this thing brick by brick, and it takes
a lot of work and they're doing it with me, and.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
It's very key.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
What you said about you're building this to sell, yes,
because sometimes people don't want to admit that publicly. And
so when you think about building this brand and knowing
that at some point you know that is the goal,
right And that also helps the investors be able to
cash out as well, because you made a commitment to
them and they know they're investing because they're knowing at
some point, you know, we will be able to get

(27:01):
a return, like a nice return on our investment.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Why do you think people are so hesitant to say
that if they know in their head. I've always heard
you should be building your business like you want to
sell it because that's how you do have to structure
your business. Everything has to be in order. And you
also never know. You can think at first I'm going
to keep this forever and then later on be like
m I actually have the opportunity to sell and do that.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
So discuss that with me because people.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I think people need to understand why one would build
a business that's their baby and you love this business
so much, but with the intent to sell.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, you know. Listen.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
Over my twenty year career, I had an opportunity to
really see things at a high level when you work
for organizations like Diagio and ALVMH and Paccardi, when you
run joint ventures, your exposure to business is just really heightened.
And so I think for me understanding that one of
the beautiful things about creating something is that you should

(28:00):
be wanting to create.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
Things all the time.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
I know I am I'm always thinking about what I
want to create next, and so here I am with
ibust wines, but there's a lot of other things that
I want to contribute to this industry, whether it be
Nana low out, There's a lot of different directions that
this industry is going in and I want to be
a part of that. And in order to do that,
you do have to unlock a level of wealth. The

(28:24):
only way that we're going to close the wealth gap
for us in this country is if we are building
billion dollar companies. And so for me, in my mind,
I've known from the start what the endgame is, and
the endgame is acquisition. And I think a lot of
entrepreneurs are only thinking about the start and in the

(28:44):
middle they forget about the end. And if you have
a strong ending, if you know that you know this
is going to be a blockbuster, then what you're doing
at the start in the middle is different. What you're
building at the start to actually build something that a
company would acquire is different, and so I'm very bullish
about that. I also think that no one is going

(29:06):
to be able to build a brand with the things
that are important to me like me, And I do
think that some of these bigger companies can benefit from
working with founders like myself, buying or doing joint ventures
with founders like myself, because there is something unique that
we bring.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
We bring the equity of culture, you know.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
You know.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Lastly, these tariffs.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yea, how is that?

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Sorry, I need a drink.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
I know we are trying to celebrate here, but I
do want to make that a reality for people to
understand what the impact of these tariffs will have.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, it's a real thing.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
And what I will tell you is that as a founder,
I have had to quiet the noise just a little
bit because it can be so daunting that some people
are just like, how am I going to do this?

Speaker 3 (29:59):
For us?

Speaker 4 (29:59):
We quit got into the mode of what do we
need to do to mitigate the fact that in some instances,
this tear, these tariffs are putting us in a situation
where we can't afford to do this anymore, right, and
so things like, you know, can we lower the cost
when it comes to our packaging. So we just actually

(30:19):
landed on a new bottle for IBS Wines. It's lighter weight,
it's a little shorter, but it's absolutely beautiful and so we're.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Really excited what you see on the market. Now, this
is it.

Speaker 4 (30:30):
We're moving to a new pack and some of that
is being driven by the fact that we need to
figure out where we can cut costs. Still a beautiful pack,
still luxury, but you know, we've had to look really
tangibly at like what are the things are going to
help us navigate the terraffs because it is very difficult
and depending on what country you're talking about, the tariff

(30:50):
may be higher or lower, and so we're just having
to mitigate the best way we know how. I think
the main thing that we're doing though is protecting the
so the wine, the quality of the wine, the process.
You know, our winery partner, that does not change, but
what are all the things around it that could help
us potentially lower some costs so that we're also not

(31:11):
having a pass that on to the consumer. Who is
also already going through they're, you know, reeling a lot
of things that are happening in this economy right now.
So the tariffs are real. They're disappointing. We don't have
to be in this situation. I will leave that, will
save that for another day.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
But we are.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
And I think my message to entrepreneurs and people who
are on businesses, you know, find a way to keep going.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Yeah, find a way to keep absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Well listen, my last final thought is get you an
angry best in your life if you don't have one.
This is a person who has, you know, aside from
as you've heard in this interview, has amazing business acumen
and I think just brilliant, but also just a good person.
And that's what I think people should be investing in
brands that are amazing to start with people who are brilliant,

(32:01):
but people who are also just damn good people, because
that's not easy to come by.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
So you got it, our girl, congratulations.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
We're two years old years old, and she's a good time.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
I have a good time.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Aside from I'm a good time, I'm a good time.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
But thank you, and I cannot wait till we're celebrating
the when you actually the business gets acquired. We're gonna
be right up here and we're gonna be we're gonna
spill some wine on each other.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
We're gonna pour them out for the homies.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
It's a way up