Joel Peterson: Building a Strong Brand and Growing Your Market

Ravenswood Winery founder Joel Peterson began wine tasting at the age of 11 and had a dream to create wines in California that would rival the greatest of Europe. He turned his dream into reality in 1976 with his first vintage that won a prestigious San Francisco tasting. Even so, he kept his day job as a microbiologist for 15 years while he grew Ravenswood Winery into one of the most well known and well respected names in the industry.

Because of Ravenswood’s strong brand, Bill Hambrecht of WR Hambrecht thought it was the perfect candidate to test out his new idea for taking a company public via Dutch auction. Bill approached Ravenswood and in 1999 the company made history by becoming the first company to sell their IPO shares via auction over the internet. Two years later, the company was bought by Constellation Brands, the largest wine company in the world, for 3 times the initial IPO market cap. Tune in to hear the full story behind Ravenswood and how Joel built such a strong brand.