This episode of the DevReady Podcast, features hosts Andrew Romeo and Anthony Sapountzis with Nathalie Taquet, CEO & Founder at eBottli & Bottli. While the former company provides all information about the bottles (description of the winemaker, the origin of the bottle…) for B2C and all tracking and traceability of the bottles (statistics, strategic marketing, counterfeiting, geolocation…) for B2B, the latter connects customers to small vineyards with unique batches. Listen in while the three of them talk about technology and the digitization of processes in wineries.
Nathalie has a strong background in Research and moved to Australia from France with her husband and their three children. Coming from Burgundy and having a family that produces pinot noir in small batches, she was always passionate about wine. In fact, she has even been trained as a Sommelier. Cutting the long story short, her background, passion and training, all combined, meant that she understood, first hand, the pains and challenges faced by the farmers and producers. That is why she and her husband decided to bring innovative technologies to the fore for the wineries in a bid to enhance the experience, increase transparency and traceability, and prioritize optimization and efficiency.
“It is really important to do this proof of concept with real data where you can develop the solution, optimize it. Because the first solution is not the best one you need to connect the technology and the real world to be sure that it fits with the users.” – Nathalie Taquet
As France is home to many wine producers who like doing things the old-fashioned way using traditional methods of winemaking, Nathalie knew that changing their way of life would be an uphill battle. For that reason, she believes that getting a start in Australia where there are lots of opportunities and flexibility in the market might be an advantage in the long run as the company hopes to expand to Europe in the near future. While most of their customers are small producers as opposed to established brands, she acknowledges that 90% of the market is comprised of such small producers and hence a bigger customer base. She furthers that one of their goals, however, is to push start-ups to collaborate with big businesses and even though such collaborations might not always come to fruition, they do lead to the generation of some great ideas.
Use of technology being the core of the business, Nathalie feels that there is a disconnect between start-ups and IT. She emphasizes that their role is to bridge the divide and make sure that real data is used for the proof of concept to ensure that better solutions are not only developed but also optimized. From her experience, she highlights three key things to keep in mind when introducing a technological solution in any industry:
1. Listen to your customers: work with the potential customers and identify what they need
2. Make what they want to buy: don’t provide a solution that people don’t want to pay for
3. Make the journey simple: don’t add another step in the journey and make it complicated
Changing people’s habits is a major challenge and the company is looking forward to working with their collaborative team to overcome that challenge as Nathalie believes that interaction between different teams adds value for everyone. In addition to having a good team, start-up founders can also emphasize the following:
1. Engaging with Accelerators and Start-up Hubs
2. Nurturing Good Relationships
Doing so has helped her raise capital for her business twice and she underlies that building good relationships with partners, investors, and customers can have a major impact on any business.
Topics Covered
· Value of Technology
· Use of Data in Wineries
· Lure of the Australian Market
· Ease of Working with Small Businesses
· Solution to the Disconnect Between Start-ups and Technology
· Vison for the Future
· Challenges Faced in the Business
· Involving Everyone in the Team
· Building Relationship
Key Quotes (Time Stamps)
· “It’s to connect all actors in the supply chain, that is disrupted, actually; to be more sustainable also because there is a lot of waste because of this disconnection. So, if you have access, in real time, to all this information, it’s more powerful.” (3:20 – 3:36)
· “For example, the barrel lifetime is six years, in an average. But they don’t know what they put before. For example, they reuse the barrel for spirit but they don’t know what happened before for the lifetime of the barrel. And they can also compare the data. For example, if they have a batch of five barrels and they would like to know why it’s better than last year or previous years, so, they can understand better what happened. Like chemistry also. It is more relevant for premium wines.” (5:08 – 5:43)
· “It is harder in established brands. I think it’s easier with small brands. Analytically, 90% of wineries are small, so, it’s a majority. And it’s good to help them because they are open-minded, they are looking after sommeliers for the future.” (8:43 – 9:05)
· “It is really important to do this proof of concept with real data where you can develop the solution, optimize it. Because the first solution is not the best one you need to connect the technology and the real world to be sure that it fits with the users.” (13:08 – 13:26)
· “You need also to know if people are ready to pay for your solution. Because sometimes it solves a problem but they don’t want to pay for it.” (16:03 – 16:11)
· “That education piece is always the stumbling block especially if you’re trying to do something that’s really new and no one has done anything like that before in their own world.” (13:39 – 19:47) – Andrew Romeo
Social Media Clips (Time Stamps)
Value that Technology Brings to the Customers (2:13 – 3:36)
· Acquiring and Using Data (3:33 – 6:05)
· Benefits in the Australian Market (7:26 – 8:30)
· Established Versus Micro-Wineries (8:31 – 9:59)
· Evolution of Tech in the Business Based on Real Data (13:05 – 14:33)
· Key Points for Introducing a New Technology (15:22 – 16:35)
· How to Raise Capital (23:04 – 24:28)
Useful Links:
Connect with Nathalie Taquet
Visit eBottli.
