The Fizz Mini: Erica Davis is connecting with her community through sparkling wine—delivered
Erica Davis, co-founder of The Sip, speaks about raising VC money to start her wine business, how she uses her business to do good, and where she finds her joy.
Welcome to the first mini issue of The Fizz! Today’s issue is open for everyone, but in the future, mini-issues will be for paid subscribers only, along with tasting note posts. You can become a paid subscriber for The Fizz below.
For this mini issue of The Fizz, I spoke with Erica Davis, co-founder of The Sip, a sparkling wine and champagne subscription box that allows folks to sample different wines, finding their preferences in the process. The Sip connects drinkers with sparkling wines through a focus on delight and unpretentious enjoyment, while giving back to their local community through The East Oakland Community Project, which helps people in East Oakland experiencing homelessness.
In this mini-issue, we talk about how Erica and her co-founder Catherine raised the money they needed to start the business, how they work with local wine brands, and where they find their joy.
Margot: How and why did you start The Sip?
Erica: The Sip is a brand I started with my best friend and it’s inspired by our monthly girls nights. It helps you celebrate and elevate your everyday life. Our girls’ nights started as a nice way to relax and unwind together while tasting Champagne, but it soon became a challenge to discover new brands beyond the popular favorites we’d already tried. When we did discover a new Champagne house, it was even harder to figure out where to purchase the bottle. We tried to find a ‘go-to’ for Champagne discovery and it didn’t exist, so we decided to create our own.
Women, and more specifically Black and brown women, are marketed to buy big alcohol in very deliberate ways. There’s an expectation that we like sweet flavors and we drink pink wines. There are a lot of expectations about what we’re supposed to like, drink, and think. We’d rather have women figure that out for themselves, rather than us tell them.
We’re trying to reshape their first experience with new brands they haven’t tried before in a more approachable and beautiful format. We curate boxes that are designed to help you discover what you like and why, helping you ultimately understand your palate and save money on bottles that just aren’t right for you.
Margot: How do you work with The East Oakland Community Project? Why is it important for you to work with a non-profit?
Erica: Catherine and I are both from Oakland, California, and before creating any business plan it was important to us to give back to the community that gave us so much. It’s also important to us that our consumer knows she is making a positive impact on the world. For every Sip purchase we donate clean water to women and children through the East Oakland Community Project, a multi-service organization offering emergency and transitional housing in Alameda County. In 2021, we have donated over 2,500 gallons of clean water so far, and we’re just getting started.
Margot: Did you raise money to start your business? How did that go? What were the challenges, and what advice do you have for others fundraising?
Erica: We did. Initially we raised what is called a friends and family round. My experience has been hard, fun, and challenging but ultimately worth it. My biggest learning as a CEO with funding is not all money is good money—weird, right? Ultimately when picking a VC firm—yes you get to pick—you should view that the same way you do your co-founder. They are your business partners and their job is to help you succeed, especially at the pre-seed and seed round. This is so crucial to the company's success, and yours as a founder.
My advice to anyone fundraising would be stay focused, understand “no’s” are just the pavement to a “yes” and believe in yourself. Because if you don’t, who will? Don’t let the "no's" stop you, they’re just paving the way to your next "yes".
Margot: How do you choose the wines that are a part of The Sip Society?
Erica: We drink them! Because we know everyone's palate is different, the wine doesn’t have to be right for just my palate. My co-founder Catherine and I have opposite palates, for example. She loves sweet, whereas I am a big fan of brut (dry). So when we’re curating our boxes, we always look at the quality of the wine first and then craft experiences that will expose our consumer to various different blends, regions and dosages so they understand what they love. Through our subscription, customers will start seeing patterns and be armed with the ability to identify the brands they love. This ultimately will help them start making wiser decisions when they select wine, saving them time and money.
Margot: Do you have plans to work with any smaller, local Bay Area producers?
Erica: Of course. Our November box highlighted a Black and women-owned brand called Wachira. Their tasting room is actually right up the street from my home in Alameda, CA.
Margot: Oh awesome, I’m excited to see the upcoming lineup! How do you currently work with folks in your local community? Or in the wine community?
Erica: We try and participate in as many wine festivals as we can, but ultimately, when we can, we support members of our community by highlighting them on our platforms whether it's our website or our social media.
Margot: What's next for you—wine tastings? virtual happy hours? How do you connect with your audience?
Erica: A lot! We are excited about supporting more Black and brown wine producers, expanding our brand’s pledge Take A Sip Give A Sip to benefit another location in the Bay Area and working with BIPOC influencers in the wine industry. We also do an Instagram Live every Thursday night at 5:30 PM that is essentially a recreation of Catherine and I’s girls' night that inspired The Sip. We love to talk about wine, brands we love, we ask our audience who we should feature and of course, chat about the real housewives.
Margot: Where do you find joy in your work?
Erica: Everywhere. But mostly I find joy in knowing I am making a difference for others and making it a norm in my daughter's life to make her own way and be her own boss. I am a 3rd generation entrepreneur and I am happy to pave the way for my daughter to be a 4th.
Margot: Thanks for speaking with me—excited to see where The Sip goes next!
To support The Sip, follow them on Instagram, or sign up for a subscription or gift box. If you liked this mini-episode, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber! Feel free to simply share this post to a friend—it would mean a lot.