Wine Entrepreneurs Avoid Funding in Favor of Community

Business Week reports that a number of oenophiles — read: lovers of wine — are starting their own online businesses to cater to the community.

Many of these “oen-trepreneurs” are putting online community building ahead of getting funded, even going into debt rather than sacrifice a community vision:

Sagi Solomon founded OpenBottles in 2005. An attorney in San Jose, Calif., Solomon hopes to make the wine review and social-networking site his only full-time job next year. He deliberately avoided outside investment, however, because he does not want his vision for the company diluted. “It’s costly to get venture financing, and you do give up not only equity in the company but overall control of strategy and where you want to take the business,” Solomon says.His model for growth is Craigslist: “He started it on his own with no financing, and it’s grown into this really vibrant community,” Solomon says.

Of course, this makes me wonder why Solomon and his cohort are worried that potential investors won’t embrace a community-driven business model. With all the VC money out there for smart social media startups, why wouldn’t investors in wine-driven sites be similarly community savvy?

Welcome to our community! If you like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed!