VINEBOX (YC W16) Lets You Try New Premium Wines, by the Glass

by Y Combinator2/20/2016

Traditional wine clubs deliver by the bottle or the case. That means that often, members end up with large amounts of wines that are unexceptional, or not suited to their tastes.

VINEBOX is a company launching out of our Winter 2016 class that is a new take on wine clubs, sending top quality wines by the glass instead of by the bottle. The VINEBOX model makes it easy and cost-efficient to explore the world of premium wine one glass at a time. As a member, you only commit to full-sized bottles when you’re sure you’ve found something you love.

VentureBeat’s Ken Yeung wrote about VINEBOX and interviewed its founders in a story this week:

“If you’re like me and enjoy wine occasionally, but find it difficult to
select a good bottle, then joining a wine club won’t necessarily be a
great investment for you. After all, why would you risk getting an
entire bottle when you’re not sure if it’s something you want?
Instead, you might want to check out Vinebox, a monthly delivery service that will ship wine by the glass to you from Europe to improve your palate.

…’Right now we live in a society where we’re all about testing things
out. It’s about immediate gratification. You can listen to a sample of
music or watch an episode for free,’ said Vinebox chief executive Matt
Dukes. ‘We’re extending the example to wine because picking it can be an
intimidating thing.’

Operating as a wholesaler, importer, and retailer, Vinebox is
licensed to ship wine to 39 out of the 50 states (sorry, Utah). Its
three largest markets are New York, Texas, and California. Customers can
select from one of three tiered offerings: They can pay $35 per month,
$33 for three months, or $30 per year. Each option comes with three
glasses of wine each month from bottles costing between $25 and $55.”

Read the full story in VentureBeat here.

Author

  • Y Combinator

    Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200). The startups move to Silicon