Adam Ivor

Before the holiday break, I had the opportunity to sit down with Adam Ivor, Wine Executive MBA Alumn and Co-Founder of Gliding Eagle Inc., a startup venture that is changing wine logistics within international commerce, specifically in Asian markets.  I met Adam at the Gliding Eagle office in a humble business park in Napa to talk about this new adventure, how his education has served him, and what advice he would give to future Wine EMBA students.

SSU: In its purest form, what is Gliding Eagle Inc.?

Adam Ivor: We're a technology company at heart that specializes in international direct-to-consumer logistics; authenticity and transparency of products; and tracking from the source to the consumer. Essentially, we're a DTC platform.

That word "transparency" sticks out. Can you elaborate?

Real products. There's a lot of counterfeit products in the world, especially in China, and so the transparency means transparency of the product and the price. We also share the product information with consumers, where it's from and how it's made, what is the story of the wine you're drinking?  We offer the consumer a bunch of information on the wine that they've purchased, all the way from the history of the winery and vineyard, to the making of the product, to distribution.  Because it's international, a lot of times consumers can't read the label, but if you can scan the label that we apply and see the product information translated into your native language that adds a connection that didn't exist before.

And that's why Gliding Eagle is different.

Yes, we aren't just selling the wine. We're honoring conscious quality production. That is our mission. For example, if you're a hat maker in Italy and you make the best hats in Italy, you spend your time on your craft. You don't have the means, the resources, or maybe even the skills to access another market outside of your country.  Same thing for wine. We want winemakers to spend their time on their craft and allow us to offer them the support and resources necessary to share their products with a broader market.

You know a little about cultivating a craft, with over nine years of your career spent in winemaking. How has the transition from that to business operations been for you?

So, winemaking is just logistics. It's a big logistical game. International trade has always interested me. Up until now, there has always been a middle man in international trade or trade in general. The manufacturer of the good was depending on this middle man to tell the story of their product honestly and correctly and then to sell it for a fair price on the other end. And the consumer is also dependent on the trader. But as you can see, this doesn't always work. So what we're doing, is allowing our skilled craftsmen in Napa County the ability to tell their story directly to the consumer. Now, because everyone has a smartphone in their pocket, we don't need a middle man. You can scan the Gliding Eagle label and receive all the honest information you need.

So, I look at the DTC thing, here we are in 2016, we have the technology, we have the ability, why can't we offer an international wine club? It's a problem. Two million Chinese tourists came to the US last year. By 2018 we expect two million Chinese visitors in California alone. If we can't sell to them, that's a huge opportunity missed! And it creates a bad customer experience if a visitor wants to purchase our wine but we tell them no. It's a huge problem.

I read that your goal is to deliver the wine within four days. That's pretty ambitious!

Hong Kong is three days delivery, with FedEx international priority shipping. For China, the transit time, when the package is moving, it's about a week. Then you put customs in there and that's anywhere from 2-5 weeks.  It's a moving target with customs in China. We declare full purchase price of the item, again transparency. We have a customs clearance broker that was recommended to us by FedEx, so that's how we ended up with them, and the time really depends on customs. We can't control customs or how long that takes but we get a lot of information from our broker which we can relay to our customers. Communication between us and our customers is our biggest priority.

Any specific class or topic you took studied as a Wine EMBA student that has directly helped you with this project?

There's a lot of things as a whole that helped.  My undergrad was in enology so I had the scientific knowledge and production knowledge, but I really didn't have a firm grasp on business operations. The skills I learned in the program completely transformed the way I can market myself. I have an entirely well-rounded understanding of the business now, and it's helped a lot with my work at Gliding Eagle because I can see the process from all different perspectives.

Since school has ended, I'd like to think you have more free time but of course we know it can always fill up with other things, and working within a startup is of course time consuming. How do you deal with that work/life balance?

I try to make lists. I make lists of lists of lists. And I do one thing at a time. If I think about everything that has to be done, I'll never fall asleep. Just look at what's in front of you. Today I was bottling from 6am until 11:30 and now I'm here and later I have to go pour wine for Subterra....so I have two other wine projects on top of this startup venture [laughs] I keep myself busy I guess.  And it's about to get busier, my wife and I are expecting our first kid.

Congratulations! Wow, so you have a lot to figure out in the coming months!

[Laughing] Yes, my wife is a total saint. But really, the thing that I learned most from the program is that you just do it. You put your head down and you dive in. I have a lot of friends and colleagues who ask me about the program and they usually say that they just don't think they have time for it. But the thing is, we never have time for it. There's never a perfect time, for school, for a kid, for a new project...so at some point you just need to take the leap. Life doesn't stop so that you can start living. The program teaches you where your limit is, what you can handle, and it pushes you past that and you learn a valuable skill of balance and self-awareness. And that skill is applicable to everything.

We have our largest Wine EMBA cohort starting this spring. What advice would you give to our incoming students?

You get out of it what you put into it....And you're going to put on weight [laughs]. Something's got to give! I remember Clay Bilby saying he had to give up the gym and I remember thinking, I'm going to have to give that up too. 

You have to do the work, but I think even in my undergrad, it's similar, I don't remember every equation but the school work you do gives you that foundation of a well-rounded understanding that will affect all of your decisions moving forward.  Truly. You will make better decisions the more knowledge you gain. So, just enjoy the ride. It's over before you know it. Utilize the resources and contacts. You never know who you're going to meet and where it will take you, so just jump in and be present.