Last Updated on May 2, 2021 by
Ashley Dubois Leonard (05:58):
I saw the cool things that my friends were doing with software in Silicon Valley and thought man, how great it would be to one, work in a faster paced environment, which is what ultimately led me to jump ship for a bit. But also work with some of these tools that are being developed for other industries that are so applicable in so many ways. Fast forward, I left the industry in 2009, I think, and went into technology consulting, believe it, or not on the technical marketing front and was studying mobility trends. That’s when I had that aha moment of wouldn’t it be great if there was a mobile driven solution for wine production and wouldn’t it be great if a winemaker designed it and built it from the ground up and not a CFO for a winery that’s just needing their wine maker to plug and play. But like truly purpose built for wine making to allow the lab team, the seller team, the wine making team, the viticulture team, to be able to enter data, extract data, report on data from anywhere any time.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (07:09):
And in the way that they’re used to getting it too. Because the alternative would be a production flow company that says, Oh, I think we should build this for the wine industry. So they just retweak what they’re already doing in another industry. But you decided to go straight from the ground up so you didn’t make any of those mistakes or you didn’t try to cram something that was built for some other application into something that would be used for wine. I see that a lot of times, especially on POS software and a lot of the winery software has been crammed in and not built from the ground up like what you’ve done.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (07:40):
I felt a gap for sure. There was a gap at the time where, to your point, it was either someone that wasn’t from a winery or wine production tried to make their system fit wine, which is very hard. We can go into that if you want. Or you have a wine maker that had this idea like me and thought, well, I’m going to kind of tinker with the software myself and outsource some development and see what I can come up with. The product had more intention behind it, but it wasn’t modern. I took the depth of my wine making experience and wider operational experience and said, I need to partner with great software engineers that are using modern tech stacks to do this right and do it well. That was the difference is the marriage of the wine making experience with bringing modern tech to wine making.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (08:29):
Can you think of one of those examples where your solution solved the problem because he built it from the ground up rather than the way that maybe another solution might have crammed it in from the side?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (08:38):
Sure. Yeah. And this gets kind of technical. The challenging thing about wine production software and why a lot of these larger companies won’t touch it, like ERP software won’t really build purpose-built wine production software is because of the liquid management process and the blending that takes place is super complex. You may pick from 10 different blocks. You may process them together. You may do a juice bleed. You may do four different press fractions. You then go to barrel, you’re topping it along the way, all of these different milestones along the wine making process, you’re changing the composition and your seeing volume gains and losses. There’s so much around the process that needs to be tracked for compliance purposes. Ultimately that’s why everyone needs [inaudible 00:09:32] software is because you’re reporting to the TTB. You’re making alcohol. They care about this. You need to get them reports on the exact steps that you’re taking to make this.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (09:42):
And understand that landscape is huge.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (09:45):
Huge. Yes. Yes. And we’re just one element of a large landscape, but it’s a super essential element to get right. So to answer your question, it’s the nuances behind wine making workflow and capturing what actually happens on the seller floor in terms of the blends that take place. You’re blending 10 tanks into 500 barrels and you may have some leads that you retain and keep behind and that has a composition. You’re tracking that. It’s just really intentional and purpose built for wine making.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (10:18):
That’s awesome. What were some of the challenges you faced? Building something from scratch, even surrounding yourself with the best and the brightest, there had to have been some challenges.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (10:28):
Oh gosh, of course. Many challenges along the way. Yes. So looking back now that we’re eight years in, when I founded the company and partnered with some alpha and beta wineries in Napa Sonoma to help us build this out with intention, it was pretty novel. The idea that their team or their winery could bring a mobile device to their wine making workflow kind of blew their mind. It was pretty bleeding edge. They were used to not bringing technology out of the office. You sat behind a desk to do all of your winery work when wine making is not done behind the desk. A lot of education around here’s the empowering part of why it makes sense to bring a mobile solution to your team. And you want to empower your team. You want that accountability on a team member basis for what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (11:23):
A lot of education for the industry. A lot of challenges in building software fast and iterating on it. Our product to track from block to grape to bottle is incredibly complex and comprehensive. To do that right, and do that well takes time. We just want to get this in the hands of wineries. The challenge of just balancing time to market, while also keeping one of our top values, integrity, in mind that we’re not going to just get something market for the sake of getting it to market. We want it to be great and we want it to work right. We want to follow the right process. So those are just some examples of challenges that we have.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (12:03):
You’re also on the leading edge with you being a software as a service. It’s not some like archaic software that you’re going to install on a box that gets obsolete that you have to renew every year. You’re constantly innovating and you’re constantly improving on the thing and your customers are constantly getting better, more intuitive.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (12:19):
Yeah. That’s a valid point too, is they were used to only on-premise systems. You had to download the software onto a single computer and that was your wine making software. The idea of cloud-based at the time, and again, the industry was a bit behind other industries at this, but they were afraid of security issues. While my data is in the cloud, this is proprietary information. Is it safe? We had a lot of education to do there on yes, this is the future. This is what will allow you to scale your business. This is what allows us to support you in a more proactive way without having to do manual maintenance refreshes behind the scenes. That was absolutely an educational piece as well.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (13:00):
I would think that the proprietary, because blending wines and every winery has got their secret sauce or their secret recipe on how to make the wine and their proprietary thing. By educating someone with a software it’s lives in the cloud, I can imagine a lot of wineries being very leery as to putting all that data on the cloud. Figuring that they might lose that it factor that they have on their blending or whatnot. How did you tell the wineries or give them confidence that their data was secure?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (13:30):
Sure. Yeah. My two rebuttals to that, the first one is, well, if you’re keeping paper records or if you’re only keeping records on one computer in your office, what happens if that winery burns down? You’ve lost all of your records and sadly that really resonates right now in terms of Napa Sonoma, well, mostly Napa Sonoma, but yeah, the whole West coast has gone through these last few years. But the other example that I always bring is, your banking system is in the cloud. If Google cloud goes down, which is who hosts our instances, if they go down, you have much bigger problems than your wine making software. It means that there are much larger global systems out there that you are without. There’s a lot of redundancy now with data centers around the nation and it’s just super, super secure. That’s usually what I tell folks that are still nervous about it.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (14:22):
Yeah. That’s a huge education thing. We encounter that all the time in our business as well, going online. Tell me about your team. You’ve got a pretty amazing group of people there that you’ve surrounded yourself about.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (14:34):
We do. That’s co that’s our secret sauce. It really is. It’s our people, their experience and their passion for what we’re doing. We’re at I think over 20 folks now that work for InnoVint and over half of them have direct winery operational experience, especially those that touch sales the process and our client success team. It’s always been super important to me and to InnoVint in general that we employ those that have firsthand experience and they can really provide value above and beyond what a normal customer service team may provide in terms of consulting. We’re always consulting. My sales team is consulting on wine making practices from their first call with someone interested in what we do, through ongoing client success with how to best build a work order workflow to blend and drain and press and barrel down your wines.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (15:35):
That’s a huge value add. A lot of times when you’re dealing with tech companies, they may know the tech, but they don’t know why the tech is being used. How it works. You know why it works and where it should work. Providing that insight’s huge. And you’ve built the team that enables that to happen.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (15:50):
Yeah. We actually have engineers that have wine making experience, which is amazing. It’s so unique to find modern engineers that also understand the space. It helps us develop a very valuable product as well because like we’ve talked about, the product itself is super catered to wine making and the operational workflow..
Drew Thomas Hendricks (16:11):
Yeah. That’s great. I laugh because a lot of times tech people end up starting in tech and then they become wine makers or they start a winery. They get the IPO up. Your team’s gone the opposite way. They started in winery and then they moved to tech, but they’re still in the wine industry. But it’s funny. I like that reverse circle. It may work out better. It does work out better. I can see why.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (16:34):
Yeah. You’re absolutely right. I would say that a lot in the beginning that I am the anomaly. You usually see tech start wineries and I’m the winemaker startup tech company. And yeah, I think with the modern day and age and software being so prevalent in all of our lives and this inflection point in the industry to think, Oh, wow, software is actually really cool and I can take my wine making experience that maybe I’m not interested in pursuing full-time anymore and go help out other wine makers by working for InnoVint. That’s a great deal for me. That works perfectly with where I’m trying to go with my career development.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (17:08):
Absolutely. I can see in the past year about we’ve all spent the last year in a pandemic, being distant and not being able to actually talk face to face with many of our coworkers. How has the past year has shaped InnoVint
Ashley Dubois Leonard (17:21):
So interestingly, we didn’t miss a beat when everyone had to start working from home full time because we’ve been an a distributed team for the last three years or so. There’s always things to learn about how best to manage remote practices and communication and all that. But I feel like we’re pretty darn good at this point at running a really productive internal engine with how we build product, how we support our customers and how we sell our product. During COVID, we were onsite much more in sales process and now everyone had to turn to video for meetings during COVID. And it’s actually helped InnoVint because we’ve always embraced that where you are demoing or supporting a software product. Well, guess what, we can just meet and share our screen. It’s actually that easy and it’s almost the same experience as if we were there in person, but it’s more time effective for us. It’s possibly more time effective for the wineries to meet with us this way. So yeah, it hasn’t been all bad for InnoVint.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (18:27):
Well, that’s good. For the wineries themselves though, your software platform would be helping them a lot. Eliminate the amount of time they need to actually be in there and actually looking at the barrels and getting that data on site. Since it’s available in the cloud, they can do a lot of their work from home.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (18:44):
Absolutely. Yeah. That is one of the main value adds of InnoVint for sure right now is that, a wine maker can be at home that morning with their kids while their kids are on Zoom taking classes and they can be assigning work to their seller team that has to be on site. It allows them to have that accessibility and real time insight into what’s happening at their winery. And as their team is updating these digital work orders that we support, they get real time access to that. They can actually sit on InnoVint at home and watch their team in progress. It’s pretty cool.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (19:17):
That’s awesome. Going forward in the pandemic, I’m going to ask a question, it’s a little broader beyond what you see other suppliers. Going forward as we emerge from the pandemic, what challenges do you see vendors to wineries facing in 2021?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (19:31):
Wow. That is a big question. Vendors in general. Well, I think both wineries and vendors need to embrace a more flexible work-life balance in terms of having to be in office all the time. I think a hybrid model is really effective and this has caused us all to realize that. Wine making will always have to be onsite. They’re always going to have to be making wine, but it can provide them with more flexibility, which is a part that I love. Because within InnoVint, I always wanted to improve the professional lives of wine makers. Wine makers, they’re under the gun a lot. It’s a tough lifestyle at times. You’re at times underpaid and overworked. Harvest is a really grinding time. If I can provide them with some peace of mind and a great solution to use to help them feel better about what they do, that’s great. Supporting these more progressive work models in the future will be essential for vendors to adapt to that and understand that to cater more to this new working model than some of the traditional sales channels and marketing channels have been done in the past.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (20:43):
That’s excellent. That’s good advice for sure. That work-life balance. Going forward into 2021, what’s the next step at InnoVint? What’s the next on your horizon?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (20:55):
We have a lot of plans.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (20:57):
I know you just launched a new feature.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (21:01):
We launch new features a lot. Yes, that’s right. So an exciting new development. InnoVint is bringing this new mobile experience to our customers. With our mission to be a mobile first company and to keep encouraging and supporting remote work, we’re tripling down on that by developing this mobile app that’s super modern, that can run on any device at any time, even offline. If you are in the vineyard, back way off the cell grid, and you don’t have obviously wifi out there, you can actually access and enter information on your blocks in the field which is really big. Same in the cellar. If you’re deep in a cave, obviously you don’t have cell service or wifi. This is a common thing at wineries and vineyards. You can run your operation offline. That’s exciting. It’s also a beautiful app that my team’s invested a lot into. I think this will definitely help promote us and feed us into the future of mobile.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (22:08):
That’s the one thing about your platform. It is a beautiful app. There’s a lot of design thought that went into it.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (22:14):
Thank you for saying that.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (22:15):
A lot of times in production software it looks like a modified Excel grid. Your stuff is actually a pleasure to walk through and I do have to commend you on that.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (22:26):
Thank you for saying that. It’s something that we’re proud of because we understand not all wineries have the most tech savvy staff that like to or are used to using comprehensive software product. We like to keep it as simple and accessible as possible for everybody.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (22:41):
That’s so important because not everyone has a full degree in enology. Not everyone has all that science background and all that tech background. A lot of times someone really needs that user intuitive interface that allows you to get the job done, to get the compliance documents submitted. Your team makes it easy. You mentioned a couple people at the start. Who are some of your mentors?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (23:04):
Oh wow. So there’s been a few wine making wise. Bill Brisso definitely is one. Bill, if you’re listening, we talked a while, we should catch up. He was my initial mentor early on after college, just helping foster my career development as a wine maker. And then Michael Michaud when I was younger, that was my first true exposure to the industry so I’ll always be grateful for him. And then there’s been people along the way that have just genuinely supported my efforts and what I’m trying to do. I had a lot of support, I don’ think I could name names, but when I was transitioning from the tech industry to starting the software company, a lot of the folks that had met me in the tech industry were just so supportive and interested in investing and just totally behind this initiative, which was so wonderful.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (23:58):
What was the best advice you got from Bill?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (24:00):
Oh wow. I don’t know if it was a tidbit of advice. It was just that background support and encouragement to take on more than what I probably would’ve thought I could take on at that time. I was in my early twenties and I was like, I can’t run a wine business, a new wine brand. This is crazy. I don’t have any experience doing this. He just helped facilitate and fostered that development as well as allowing me to keep active in wine making and work with his team and be onsite, still doing punch downs and pump overs with his team, working with my fruit during harvest. Just around the board, just very supportive.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (24:35):
That’s great. Having someone being able to give you the confidence and to empower you to make those changes and just build your life is so important.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (24:44):
Yeah. Absolutely. And then when you talk about mentors in the software industry, cause it was new for me. I didn’t have a network in SAS. I met a lot of people along the way, both in the wine industry and software that helped to facilitate my growth. Craig Hall with the Hall and Walt winery in Napa has always been very supportive InnoVint and helped coach me in a couple of ways. I have some SAS CEO advisors that were running SAS companies as well that I would tap into as needed. You have to find the mentors. At those critical decision points, you need to run it by people or else you’re isolated and it helps tapping into those that have experience with where you’re struggling.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (25:29):
Absolutely. Now being a CEO, having built a huge tech company, been a wine maker, as a mentor yourself, what advice can you give someone that’s maybe just entering the enology program at Davis or someone that’s just starting to become or want to be a winemaker or a tech software engineer.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (25:48):
Yeah. Think outside the box. Especially if you’re in school, there’s so much that you’re not taught, that is an option for you. I would’ve never imagined that I would end up here, ever in a million years. Never. I would’ve never thought I would start a software company while studying wine. But sit in the high times and the low times and absorb. Absorb everything you can and things just happen naturally. There’s a path for everyone. There’s a path for them and it can be beautiful. It’ll be challenging. You’ll have great successes and great challenges, but it builds character and it’s really fulfilling.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (26:30):
That’s awesome advice. Don’t ignore the life unfolding before you and don’t resist some of those chances that you may not have envisioned being your future. That’s great advice.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (26:41):
I was lost. I will admit was lost for some time when I realized that I didn’t want to do wine making full-time and I didn’t know what to do with myself. And I said, what am I going to do? I have so much passion and drive to do something great, but it’s not what I studied. What am I going to do? And life takes you where it needs to.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (27:00):
I can relate. I graduated with a degree philosophy and Greek. Thought I was going to be a professor of philosophy. I ended up selling wine for 10 years and loved it. Never really stopped. Your advice is definitely something that’s dear to my heart. I have pursued those passions and found enjoyment in ways that I didn’t know that I’d have before.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (27:24):
Absolutely. Yep.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (27:26):
It’s been great talking with. As we’re kind of wrapping down, I always like to ask some sort of fun fact. What are you drinking these days?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (27:32):
Well, I just got a really exciting shipment of wine from one of InnoVint’s clients, Carboy wineries in Colorado. And I think they’re not the largest, but they’re the fastest growing I believe. They have a really smart wine making team and they’re doing really high quality stuff. I just had their Teroldego, which is a varietal that they grow in Colorado. Being on the West coast, we don’t get exposure to wines like that. So it was so fun.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (27:58):
I’m from Colorado. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Colorado wine. Where are they located?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (28:05):
Let’s see. Where’s the grapes grown? I think they’re in Grand junction is where the grape region is, but they have some tasting rooms. I think they’re in Denver and Breckenridge and maybe one other spot. But they’re experimenting with all sorts of stuff and it’s just fun to take that. It’s fun to take my palette on the journey with them.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (28:25):
Absolutely. Describe it a little bit. I can’t even imagine a wine from Colorado. It is a very warm area, that grand junction area. I think it would be a great area for wine.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (28:34):
Really, really warm. And then from what I understand, you get a lot of curve balls weather-wise in the growing season that can like take you off course. It’s a challenging climate. But the Teroldego go at least was, it kind of reminded me of a Petite Sirah where it had a lot of density of color and flavor and the aroma profile was beautiful, but it was lighter on the tannin structure, really unique. It was really, really nice. It’s something that I think the wine making team is proud of there and they’re going to keep doing.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (29:06):
I’m going to check it out. That sounds fantastic.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (29:09):
Awesome. That’s great.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (29:10):
Well, Ashley, where can people find you online?
Ashley Dubois Leonard (29:12):
They can find out about InnoVint at InnoVint.us. That is our marketing website and you can learn all about what we do and our team and our product offering and how we can support all size wineries. If you’re making 2000 cases to a 100,000 cases plus, we have a solution for you.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (29:31):
That’s fantastic. Today we’ve been talking with Ashley Dubois Leonard from InnoVint CEO. Learned about her winery platform solution, just a fantastic solution. go to InnoVint.us to check it out and thank you very much, Ashley for being on the show.
Ashley Dubois Leonard (29:46):
Absolutely. Thank you, Drew.
Drew Thomas Hendricks (29:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Thanks for listening to the Legends Behind the Craft podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe, to get future episodes.