Heini Zachariassen (Vivino Founder) On Going From The 600th Wine App to #1

Episode details

Heini Zachariassen grew up on a little island logged between Iceland and Norway where the total population hovers around 49,000 habitants. While Heini thinks it's the most beautiful place on earth, the weather is not always great. He stayed there until the age of 22 years old, then moved to Denmark. From a young age, Heini tinkered with computers and fell fast in love. It was a passion he shared with his father, which never left him. Heini always had a knack for building things and was drawn to the world of entrepreneurship. Serving almost every executive role you can think of from CTO, COO, CEO, Chairman of the Board, Heini has proven one thing, he knows how to build products people love. In 2010, when Heini and his co-founder Theis launched Vivino, they were the 600th wine App on the market. Within a few short years, they managed to climb to the top with 36 million users, looking up 2 million wines every single day, and organically attracting 600,000 new users each month. To date, Vivino has raised $57 Million in funding and is operational in 16 markets. He shares 5 strategies to break into a crowded market and win.  Tune in to listen to the rocket ship journey Heini went through with Vivino and his lessons learned along the way In this episode you will learn about: Founder experiences Growth hack strategies Product Market Fit Raising capital Runway challenges Differentiation strategies Scaling operations Product development- how to build a product people love Leadership mistakes and lessons   Heini Zachariassen's biography: Heini Zachariassen is the founder and CEO of Vivino, which provides users with any wine’s rating, review and average price. Vivino is also the world’s largest wine community, claiming more than 15 million users. With more than $37 million in funding, Zachariassen continues to drive Vivino’s global expansion, via users now in 227 countries and on every continent around the world. Having co-founded several startups, including antivirus software company BullGuard, Zachariassen has a varied background in software development and mobile innovation and a track record for building successful global businesses. He leads the team from Vivino’s headquarters in San Francisco. Connect with Ander Michelena: Website Twitter Linkedin * * * Full Transcription: Heini:  I think it’s got something to do with my ethnicity where I’m from. It’s a pretty common name, actually. Tanya:  That’s Heini, founder and chief evangelist of Vivino, the world’s largest wine marketplace that has over 33 million users looking up 2 million wines every single day and organically attracting 600, 000 new users each month. To date, Vivino has raised 57 million in funding and is operational in 13 markets. Heini:  I’m from a place called the Faroe Islands where I also grew up. Faroe Islands are located between Scotland and Iceland in the middle of North Atlantic. It is the most beautiful place in the world, but the weather is not amazing. Actually, here in California today we have pretty Faroese weather, wet and a little bit cold. Tanya:  How long did you stay in the Faroe Islands? Heini:  Yeah, I grew up there. I was born there, and I grew up there. I moved out of there when I was – must’ve been 20 years – no 24, 22 years old. I moved to Denmark. I spent all my childhood there, and back then, it’s 50,000 people. It’s in the middle of the North Atlantic. It is isolated, and the winters are dark. It’s a very special place to grow up, for sure. I think now it’s changed a lot where people are so online and so on. I think I read an article somewhere that Iceland was one of the highest penetration of Facebook in the world, but I’m pretty sure the Faroe Islands would beat that. People are extremely online and well educated and so on, so it’s a very different place now than it was when I grew up.