The Wine Business: 5x Growth in a Tough but Fun Industry

hhh, the wine business.

Like restaurants, it's one of those industries that exerts a romantic pull, then often devours the entrepreneur.

But not today's guest David Page.

David was fully aware of the pitfalls in the wine business, but during his search back in 2010 he came across one that occupied what he saw as a growing niche within the local industry, and one with recurring revenue: vines management for the small, private vineyards of Silicon Valley's elite.

Talk about one of those businesses you'd never guess exists.

Well David bought that business as a first-time acquisition entrepreneur, and in the intervening years has quintupled it — and, I gather, had a lot of fun in the process.

Aside from the fun angle to David's story, I want to highlight another point:

David bought a really small business, tiny team.

First month, David is delivering wine to the backdoor of local grocery stores from his car. He was really in the "muck and bullets", as he says.

But it's what he wanted — he expected to get in there, put his back into it, learn every corner of the business, and figure out how to grow it.

This goes against the exhortation you've heard a lot on this podcast that you need to acquire a business of a certain size so that day 1, you can be working on the business rather than in it.

And while I certainly understand that, David's story is just the latest of many examples where the acquisition entrepreneur got in there, operated the business, and made it grow.

See if that resonates with you after listening to this interview with David Page, owner of Post & Trellis:

Sponsors

August Felker is a 2-time successful searcher — first with a traditional search fund; the second time around, he did a self-funded search.

Today August runs Oberle Risk Strategies, an insurance firm with a dedicated practice group for searchers and acquisition entrepreneurs like you.

If you've got a business under LOI, Oberle will provide complimentary due diligence on that business's insurance and benefits program. A great, no-risk way to get to know August & team.

They love helping searchers; they've worked with hundreds. Oberle is a specialty insurance brokerage for searchers, by a former searcher.

Check out the Search Fund Team at Oberle.