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LINDSAY BLAKELY
Managing Editor, Inc.com

It might be easy to assume that entrepreneurs with successful track records and celebrities with plenty of name recognition have a smoother time getting a new company off the ground. After all, they typically have the financial resources and connections to build a brand faster than the average founder.

But there’s a downside to having your reputation precede you. Case in point: When Cameron Diaz and serial entrepreneur Katherine Power set out to build a wine brand for consumers who care more about organic grapes and nutrition labels rather than vintages, some sectors of the industry responded with plenty of skepticism: Good luck getting your brand on shelves quickly. Why doesn’t Diaz just do a celebrity licensing deal? And what do they mean by “clean” wine, anyway?

But as soon as their company, Avaline, landed its bottles on shelves in July 2020, it started exceeding sales expectations. This year, Avaline will ship 80,000 cases of its wine via 6,000 retailers and a direct-to-consumer business. And both Diaz and Power made the cut for Inc.’s 2022 Female Founders 100. Read the exclusive story of how they tapped into consumer trends to build their fast-growing wine brand.