Wine Library's Rapid Growth

Gary Vaynerchuk shares how his father's wine business scaled rapidly without traditional financing.

"My dad ran his business with no line of credit, which I love - it's old school immigrant, pay with what you have. But what's crazy is that business went from $4 million to $25 million in 30 months. Managing inventory and payroll was intense, but I got trained in playing within myself.

We didn't have a line of credit for a long time, probably until 2011 or 2013. The first 4-5 years were just about not spending what you don't have. It was simple - just basic business principles. When we landed an account paying $480k a year from someone like Mondelez or Pepsi, and you feel good they're going to pay, then you can hire 6 people at $40k apiece.

What's funny is I find myself laughing because my approach can be intuitive and back of napkin, while people with all the proper Excel sheets, SAP, and cloud software get messed up. It's because they don't have a good pulse of their actual business - they get ahead of themselves and lack patience."