FICOD

Gary Vaynerchuck

• Founder
• VaynerMedia

From a young age, it was clear that Gary was a businessman. With a wealth of knowledge and an entrepreneurial spirit, Gary spent every weekend of his college years at his parents’ wine store. Recognizing the importance of e-commerce in 1997, Gary launched Winelibrary.com and helped grow his family business significantly from $3 million to $45 million by 2005.

In 2006, Gary began Wine Library TV which revolutionized the wine world. His wine reviews soon attracted over 100,000 viewers each day. A business visionary Gary also started Cinderella Wine, a flash sale website which features one wine per day beginning at 9PM EST for 24 hours sold at a severely discounted price. In 2011, he’s continuing his mission to expand palates and breakdown wine barriers with the launch of his iPhone app, Daily Grape.

Gary does not claim to be a ‘techie’, but in 2005, he began video blogging and is known as a true social media trailblazer! He has close to 1 million followers on Twitter and was included in BusinessWeek’s list of the top 20 people every entrepreneur should follow. Gary’s first business book Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion (October 2009) hit the lists in its first weeks. His second bestseller The Thank You Economy (March 2011), details the effect of social media on business and has become required reading for business leaders. In the spring of 2009, Gary and his brother AJ launched VaynerMedia, a new breed of agency that helps Fortune 500 companies find their social media voices and build their digital brands.