Small Biz

Bottletalk

Launched: December, 2006
Founded by: Emma Goddard, Mark Goddard, and David Percival
Number of employees: 3
Traffic: n/a
Founders' favorite wine at the moment: Cakebread Chardonnay 2003

What it does: Social network with tasting notes and user-generated wine database
How it makes money: Sponsorships and paid referrals to wineries and retailers

Husband and wife team Mark and Emma Goddard, along with partner David Percival, started Bottletalk last year and have expanded the site while keeping their day jobs. The site lets users share their wine experiences, rate and tag wines, and buy from online retailers. The London-based trio spent 2007 building their online community and plan to commercialize it in 2008. They decided not to seek investors, but instead to build the site slowly before trying to make money from it. Their challenge was juggling the enterprise with their professional lives--the Goddards both work in Web publishing, and Percival is in banking. "The biggest hurdle is making sure you put in all the hours you can and knowing that there will be no return for a long time," says Emma.

Secret to success: "For us, a careful organic approach has worked. There is little risk but slow growth, and [it] may not be the answer for a startup looking for quick returns."