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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 sometimes 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 trade, canned wine was laborious to swallow.
“Once 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 typically I used to be laughed out of rooms after I began to go round and pedal Nomadica to folks. Even my neighborhood and pals within the wine trade had been like, why are you doing this? Nobody needs this.”
Seems they had been fallacious. Nomadica is now accessible direct-to-consumer and in retailers throughout 25 states akin to Complete Meals, Sprouts, and Complete Wine, with Goal within the works for 2025 Final yr, 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 trade
Kristin spent years as a sommelier in high-end eating places in Nantucket, Nashville, and New York. That skilled expertise, coupled together with her research in sustainable agriculture, offers her unicorn standing within the canned wine trade. “I am the one founder with wine expertise. Everybody else has MBAs, or they employed folks to handle the wine expertise a part of it,” she says. “I am the one particular person trying on the trade from the underside up.”
This distinctive perspective permits Kristin to establish developments and alternatives others could miss. She shares one instance: “I run a wine program in Los Angeles, and I noticed that we bought 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 traders
Kristin prides herself on being very open and trustworthy together with her traders concerning the challenges Nomadica faces. She surrounds herself with a board composed largely of operators with expertise working companies and may assist her by means of the ups and downs. Full disclosure: I used to be certainly one of Kristin’s earliest angel traders and wrote her the most important examine I had written thus far as a result of she checked each field for me.
Take note of rising developments and client preferences.
Regardless of Nomadica’s success, Kristin is just not resting on her laurels. She is continually attempting to innovate and be on prime of adjustments within the trade. For instance, she acknowledges that millennials and Gen Z have gotten extra discerning about what they devour, which contradicts standard knowledge that these generations simply go for fancy labels and advertising and marketing gimmicks.
“That is an extremely educated client who’s nerdy, who deep dives on what they’re consuming now,” she says.
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Keep true to your type
Kristin deliberately constructed Nomadica slowly, beginning with partnerships at premium lodges and venues. Opposite to the recommendation she acquired, she centered on producing high-velocity gross sales earlier than increasing into mass retail.
“I took this sluggish, laborious 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 straightforward method, which is annoying about me. All my pals are endlessly irritated about that, however I knew this was the suitable approach 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 trade, Kristin confronted loads of skepticism and pushback when she launched Nomadica. However she persevered together with her imaginative and prescient to disrupt the wine trade and make it much less pretentious.
No person is laughing at her loopy concept anymore.
“Once you take a look at the wine trade proper now, the one segments which might 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.”
