nimbletoad blog

The founders of Nimbletoad voted today to make available to independent wine retailers a free version of their new cellar management program, vinecat. The founders hope this program will help stores compete against those with greater financial and political leverage.

It becomes harder each year for the independent wine retailer to stay competitive. For nearly 20 years the founders of Nimbletoad have sided with the Davids as they fight the Goliaths.

First, it was allocations of sought after wines. Political ties and buying leverage quenched that. Since 1999 Costco has been the largest seller of first growth Bordeaux in the United States. As a wine buyer, one of the founders looked to other lesser known regions to help his store maintain a competitive advantage.

Next came the onslaught of private label wines, with Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck leading the charge. Private label wines offered the chain stores better margins and label exclusivity. In response, the founders formed a company to help smaller wine stores develop private label programs. Through these programs, stores were able to offer better wines at higher margins without the threat of being undercut by the chains.

Today, technology is taking its toll. Companies like Vinfolio are using both capital and intellectual networks to close the doors on competition. The result are closed social circles where clients inventory their wines, sell their wines [not all companies offer this service] and buy their wines; all within a closed loop.

In response to the latest threat to the corner wine shop, the founders of Nimbletoad plan to make a free version of vinecat available to independent retailers. Soon, the corner bottle shop will be able to offer a complete cellar management solution to their customers.

If you operate an independent wine shop, send an email to info@nimbletoad.com. We would like to hear your thoughts and put you on the list for this competitive equalizer.

How do you know you are independent?

• Your board of directors are not Silicon Valley washouts (I mean luminaries)
• Your idea of venture capital is gas money to Tahoe
• You’re not related to the mayor
• Your advisory board consists of your spouse

Free has a price. Make no mistake about it. The old saying, “You can’t get something for nothing” rings true especially in today’s Internet.

Google and Yahoo do not provide free search and email out of the goodness of their hearts. Myspace and Facebook do not exist simply because the founders were lonely. There is a seemingly endless list of sites offering you free access to their services. Mint will let you track your money for free. Sites like Cellar Tracker and Vin Cellar will let you track your wines. Yahoo’s Flickr will even let you store your photos without a charge. The question is “Why?”

Well, the March issue of Wired magazine declared Free as the Future of Business. At first glance it makes sense. Think back to the classic example of Gillette giving away the razor so it could sell the blades, or of Hewlett Packard virtually giving away printers so it could sell ink jet cartridges. Giving away something to ensure a future revenue stream seems logical. But, what about the long term? What if customers wake up one day and realize they have sold their souls for a shiny trinket?

Everyone must ask themselves “Is the free razor [or email, or storage site] worth it ?”

Is the privacy I’m giving up to sites such as Google and Myspace worth the utility I get? I used to think so. However, now I’m not so sure. I think I’ve discounted what my anonymous data is worth. On March 31, 2008 Google declared revenue of 5.19 billion for the previous quarter. It would appear Google’s product, namely our “anonymous” data is pretty valuable.

But, what about sites like Mint and Vin Cellar that do not sell advertising?

Instead of a direct answer, let’s take a look at 37 Signals. 37 Signals is not only the creator of Ruby on Rails, but of many web apps.

37 Signals does it right. They make no bones about it. They offer free functional versions of their web apps such a Basecamp and Campfire to lure you into the paid plans with greater functionality. 37 signals is in the business of creating and selling Web Apps. Their intentions are clear. Other sites’ intentions are a little more cloudy.

Two questions that everyone needs to ask before signing up for a “Free” web service:

1. What are the ulterior motives behind offering this free service?
2. Is the price of “Free” worth it?

Proof that Web 2.0 has officially jumped the shark. Dunder Mifflin ran into trouble when the social networking aspect of their paper purchasing site attracted child predators. When the hit TV sit com, The Office, pokes fun at Web 2.0 you know the end has already passed.

Don’t get me wrong. There is a place for sites like myspace, facebook, and linkedin. However, every web app does not have to be linked to a community. Sometimes it is nice to pull yourself away from the pack, get your work done, and have some alone time.

The latest web apps to include social networking functionality are cellar tracking sites such as Vinfolio’s Vin Cellar. The new version of Vin Cellar allows you to link you cellar to your facebook profile.

While wine collecting is an awesome hobby that can lead to long lasting friendships, I’m not sure I want my professional facebook friends to have an insight into my wine habits.

Does the world really need to know how many bottles I have purchased?

Do my friends really need a blow by blow recap of my nightly consumption?

Do my friends really need to know that I cracked open a $300 bottle last night? Just because.

If wine collections are fair game in Web 2.0, why not just include Bank Accounts and Stock Portfolios? Why not? The fact that I bounced 6 checks last month is far more interesting than the insipid Pinot Grigio I was forced to drink last week at a dinner party. For that matter, in today’s green economy the fact that I placed an order for 10 reams of unrecycled really is quite scandalous. No wonder Dunder Mifflen launched a social aspect to their site.

Well, at Nimbletoad we are drawing a line in the sand. Our new wine cellar management program Vinecat will be a one to one relationship between you and your cellar. Enter your wines quickly, find them fast, and surprise you friends at the next dinner party because they have no idea what is in your cellar.

We are in the process of fleshing out a web app for wine collectors to store their cellar information online simply, safely, and securely. While there are many other online cellar management solutions out there such as cellartracker, Nimbletoad’s solution promises to be the simplest and most intuitive.

The problem that we see with many online wine database solutions is that they try to box the user into a set of rules and standards. For example, cellartracker makes their user search through the entire database for existing entries before adding a bottle to their collection. While this process ensures standardization, it takes a lot of time.

Standardization is great for community involvement and marketing purposes, but it does little to help serious collectors enter their wines quickly and then retrieve the bottles from their cellar easily.

The blueprint for Nimbletoad’s cellar solution comes directly from the trenches of San Francisco where an offline version was used to track the multi-million dollar cellars of the city’s most serious wine collectors. During the founder’s ten year stint as wine buyer for one of San Francisco’s largest wine stores, the most important aspect of a cellar database was quick, easy entry and lighting fast retrieval.

Nimbletoad’s cellar solution vinecat will be akin to a professional photographer’s camera bag. Little padding and lots of utility.