My boss, Michael McCafferty took me to the TEDx Conference simulcast tonight in San Diego.
It was at a venue called 3rd Space, a co-working space for the creative. (You can click the link for their website.) It was located in University Heights, San Diego on Park Blvd.- a hipster park of town filled with art galleries, coffee shops and bars. It reminded me of Silverlake in LA. Anyways…
There was a wine company providing free tastings for TED attendees. It’s called 12 Signs Wine, and the idea is that they have a different wine for each astrology sign of the year. Her free wine “tasting” turned out to be a free, full glass of wine. Now my boss being the startup guru (read his blog here), and seeing every opportunity as a way to make money, decided to ask the founder why she wasn’t charging customers for the wine at an event like this. Her response: she’s only there to promote her wine, not to make money.
EH! *buzzer sound* Wrong answer!
Michael staggered back a little in disbelief. “Not make money?! At an event like this?! Not make money?!”
The wine lady seemed extremely confused at his shock, and her defenses came up. “I just want to get my name out there tonight, and people typically end up buying a bottle anyways.”
Since Michael was busy still digesting the idea of not charging anyone for wine, the little entrepreneur-to-be in myself piped up, “May I recommend that if you’re not going to charge anyone for wine, then you might want to serve only 1-ounce pours rather than a full glass? It is, after all, a wine tasting.”
She still seemed confused as to why my boss- and now myself- were so concerned with her free, promotional wine. As Michael attempted to explain the concept of promoting startups while still making money, the wine lady continued to defend her idea of free wine. They bantered back-and-forth a little, but the conversation resulted with her commenting to my boss, “You’re very strange.”
At this, my boss and I walked away towards our seats, questioning what just took place back there. “Did I say something to offend her?”, Michael asked me. “No”, I replied, “I think she just doesn’t get the concept of a startup yet. You can count on her not ever reading our startup book that we just gave her.” And we sat down to watch the conference simulcast.
Once the simulcast was over, we stood up to leave and Michael apologized to the wine lady if he had said anything to offend her earlier. Her face was lit up and she replied, “Well, I decided to listen to you because so many people kept coming back for more wine. I began charging them by the glass and actually made money tonight! Thanks for the book, I’m going to have to take a look at it.”
It was an “aha!” moment for her. What a concept that as a business you can actually make some money AND promote your product! Michael and I laughed to ourselves about the whole situation as we walked out. I guess my boss really DOES know a thing or two about starting a business! 😉
(If you have a startup & would like some free resources for your company, or are looking for a mentor, check out our website doubleMsystems.com OR read the post from my boss, Michael McCafferty’s blog about his startup mentoring program to find out about more opportunities. Our company has also recently published a book for startups titled the Interactive Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs. You can email me to request a free copy.)