Sydney-based startup WithWine helps consumers buy wine based on word of mouth

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Australia has the reputation for being a country of beer drinkers and the number of startups in the wine industry been growing over the last few years – from startups offering wine subscriptions to those that help you pick wine by matching it to your personality or meal.

Sydney startup WithWine enables people to find wine by looking at what their friends have enjoyed and then choose from lists of wine on the app ranked according to ratings from friends. Users can also follow friends, wineries, and specific wines – incorporating a social aspect to the business. The WithWine app allows wine fans users to save and keep track of wines they like, assisting them to easily remember the actual wines they found at the bottle shop during the last visit.

The app features a marketplace which allows wineries to have their own online store and sell directly to consumers – offering them a pleasant alternative sales channel. It has currently signed up 40 percent of wineries in the Hunter Valley and few other from around Australia, with a number of importers of foreign wines having expressed interest in creating a store on the app.

The startup was founded by Richard Owens and his business partner is BlueChilli. Richard has a wide experience in companies including Apple, Rothschild Bank and Macquarie Bank as well as a number of his own startups. His last role was Innovation Manager at Macquarie, and it was at this position that he came up with the brilliant idea for WithWine.

The startup capitalizes on a social and ‘word of mouth’ concept’ as a cheap and very effective marketing tool. The main factor driving the creation of With Wine is the focus on recommendations from friends. Ironically, Owens never really drank wine until four years ago, and only then at the urging of his father’s friend. So he wants to demonstrate that the recommendations of friends are far better rather than the recommendations of complete strangers – through With Wine app.

[Source] Sydney-based startup WithWine helps consumers buy wine based on word of mouth