Federico Saiz (’14) and Vicente Estevez (’14) are a classic example of how MBA students can leverage their time at business school to build a successful enterprise from the ground up.
The pair of UCLA Anderson students came up with the idea for their company, Aquívino, as part of a project for their Entrepreneurial Venture Initiation class last year. Aquívino, a wine-of-the-month club serving Mexico, offers subscriptions ranging from roughly $37 to $63 USD per month and a chance to try wines from all over the world, hand-selected by experts. In addition to the wine, members receive a newsletter with related articles, wine pairings, wine tasting invitations and more.
Mexico was a natural target market for their business. Not only are Saiz and Estevez both originally from Mexico and plan to return there after getting their MBAs, they also learned that wine is the fastest-growing alcoholic beverage category in the region. From crafting their business plan to working with various faculty to create their go-to-market strategy, from designing their packaging to developing a learning curriculum (each month features a different theme – French wines, wines of the old world, etc.), the partners have tried to incorporate every aspect of building their company into their Anderson workload.
“We juggle, but we also take advantage of being here in classes,” says Saiz. “We try to make every project from every class relate to our business. It’s very helpful to be able to apply the learning from classes so quickly and to see the results.”
Aquívino has seen steady growth in subscriptions since its launch last summer, and Saiz and Estevez are hoping to expand their customer base as much as they can by the end of their Business Creation Option project. They’re investing heavily in marketing, collaborating with industry bloggers and working on potential partnerships with major companies in Mexico.
“It’s a challenge because we’re managing it from here,” Saiz says of Aquívino, which has its main warehouse in Mexico. “Everything is twice as long and twice as hard when you’re running the business from abroad.”
For now, Estevez is taking a course through the North American Sommelier Association to become a certified sommelier. They’ll also continue to fine-tune their website, which they built themselves and, for now, is their first and only point of contact with their customers.
Check out Aquívino's website, follow them on Instagram (@aquivino) or like them on Facebook.
Comments