1. Wine & Venture Capital

2. Start-ups are like wines in the grape stage Plenty of sour grapes

3. Can’t entertain every start-up idea No shortage of proposals

4. Takes a long time & hard work to produce good fruit

5. Pruning is uncomfortable

6. No room for sentimentality

7. The success of a wine is determined by the skill of the winemaker

8. Wine and money flows

9. Can be dispiriting at times

10. Reality will almost always be different to the business plan

11. Venture Capital investors don’t generally include non- profit businesses in their investment portfolio Wine farms don’t generally make profit

12. While blind tasting is a thing in wine circles, Venture Capital investors do not welcome blind investing

13. Customers may be more willing to splurge on wines with some sort of story behind them

14. It’s a global game

15. Don’t make investment choices near an open bottle Sometimes the best investments are the one’s you don’t make

16. Just like a small wine farming community, everybody knows what everybody else is doing....

17. Not all business plans make it to presentation stage but are often worth looking at

18. There is no simple formula for creating a successful business like there may be a standard method to making a good wine

19. If all else fails, you can at least drink your product

20. Make sure you love what you do