Women Leaders Disrupting Industries And Breaking Barriers featuring Just Enough Wines

Have you ever had an urge to do something and just never ended up doing it? Did you ever want to learn how to surf? Go skydiving? Learn Italian to live abroad for a year? Open up a coffee shop with homemade muffins??

So why didn’t you do it? You convinced yourself that it’s too costly, too inconvenient, you don’t know where to start, you need to be in an ideal physical shape and you need a few million dollars in the bank account to feel safe. This article is a reminder, that if you have a dream or you’ve had an urge to improve something, you can start today.?

Please meet Jessica Hershfield and Kaitlyn Lo founders of Just Enough Wines disrupting global wine market is valued at 417B and expanding.

1. What inspired you to start your own business?

Since graduating from Stanford, I spent my entire career working in big tech. From Google, to Uber, to Lime, I was working for some of the biggest tech companies in the world. While I learned a lot, and worked with many amazing people, I found myself unfulfilled in the work I was doing. I always had the itch to start my own business, but didn’t have the confidence to take the leap until I had gained enough confidence in myself. In late 2019 I decided it was time I took a chance on myself. I had just come back from a wine-tasting trip in Spain, and decided that I wanted to find a path in an industry I was more passionate about - bringing people together through food and wine.?

2. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when starting your business?

The biggest challenge I faced, and continue to battle with to this day, is Imposter Syndrome. When starting your own business, you have to constantly prove to yourself that you can do it. You have to have faith and confidence in yourself that no matter what people tell you, you can succeed. Sometimes the biggest person you need to convince is yourself.

When I first started Just Enough Wines in early 2020, I had so many people tell me that canned wine is never going to work. People had assumed canned wine is bad wine, and that it would be difficult to get people to pay for a premium wine in a can. That initial pushback exaggerated my own self-doubt and was one of the biggest challenges I faced early on.

3. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I had always had a passion for wine; I loved the ubiquitous nature of it being your transition from work to leisure on a random weekday, but it also being part of a fancy food and wine experience. I then looked for a solution to a problem I had in my own life - I would either open a bottle of wine and waste it a few days later because it had gone bad; or I would drink too much, and feel bad the next morning. I wanted built-in portion control and a more practical, sustainable serving size, so I looked to create a single-serve wine option. I landed on a can as the best option to accomplish these goals, as each can equates to a glass and half of wine; or Just Enough.

4. What sets your business apart from others in your industry?

After I landed on canned wine as the thing I wanted to pursue, I was luckily joined by my co-founder Kaitlyn. Together we discovered that while there were canned wine options in the market, most of them were low-quality, poor tasting wine. We didn’t want to sacrifice on quality just because the wine came out of a can, so we set out to provide a great-tasting wine in a can. Today, we provide a pleasure-forward, perfectly portioned canned wine. Our wines are all vintage and appellation-specific, award-winning, and sustainably produced; something that sets us apart from many of the other options available today.?

5. How do you balance running a business with other responsibilities in your life?

Having come from high-stress tech environments, I deeply understand the impact burnout can have on employees. Because of that, from the very beginning of our company, we put an emphasis on work/life balance. My co-founder and I are always checking in with each other to make sure we’re taking the time we need outside of work and will call each other out if we feel like the other needs some time away. This means turning off work on weekends, taking vacations as needed, and setting reasonable boundaries around working hours. We strongly believe as leaders, we need to set an example for the rest of the company to take the time they need to balance work and play.?

6. What advice would you give to other men/women who are thinking about starting their own business?

One of the biggest challenges of starting a company is just figuring out where to start. When I first started Just Enough, I remember sitting at my desk in the morning and thinking “what do I even do today?” The best piece of advice I got was to just complete one thing each day. That thing could be as simple as filing for our LLC, or as big as choosing a company name. Eventually, the things you complete start to add up, and you start to form the basis of a company. Before you know it, you’ll be sitting at your desk with a to-do list too long to complete that day.

7. How do you stay motivated during tough times in your business?

Starting your own company is certainly a rollercoaster ride. There are lots of highs and lows along the way, and it’s important that you’re prepared for this. When things get tough, I take time to look back on achievements we’ve hit, and remind myself how far the business has come. We have a team meeting every Monday, and during this meeting we name last week's wins. If things are really tough, I will go back through those slides and see all that we’ve accomplished. It’s a great way to take a step back and look at the company from a different perspective, taking you out of the weeds of what might seem to be hard at that moment.?

8. What has been your biggest achievement so far in your business?

We’ve been fortunate to have many achievements to date, including the incredible team we’ve built, the delicious wine products we’ve consistently produced, and much more. At this time we are especially proud of the growth we’ve seen in our business year after year. Last year we grew our business by 112% from the previous year and are currently on track to grow another 100+% this year. We are proud of this growth because we know it is a product of the hard work from every member of our team and staying true to our vision.?

9. How do you measure success in your business?

Each quarter we set OKRs (objective and key results) for each area of our business. We review these weekly in our team meetings and we rely heavily on analytics to measure the success of our business.?

10. What is your long-term vision for your business?

Long-term, we want to be the nation’s leading provider and seller of premium canned wines.?