At Bright Cellars' newly remodeled office, wine is front and center.
The Milwaukee startup, which has built a wine delivery service that features a machine-learning algorithm that picks brands customers are likely to enjoy, is currently remodeling its Ward4 office space that it moved into about one year ago.
At 5,500 square feet it's nearly four times the size of its previous office in Ward4, where it moved to after relocating to Milwaukee from Boston once it finished the gener8tor accelerator program. Its space features high ceilings, an open floor plan, and plenty of timber beams. And the wine theme flows throughout.
Bright Cellars has a "wine cave," a space where it educates employees about the wines on its platform. The startup has two certified sommeliers on its staff who help get new workers up to speed on the company's offerings.
Bright Cellars has four conference rooms, each named after one of the wine brands Bright Cellars offers. The Mojave Rain room, for example, features a large conference table and a picture of a bear on the wall. Mojave Rain was Bright Cellars’ first exclusive wine.
The space is open and accessible, allowing the entire office to see what each different team is working on, CEO and co-founder Richard Yau explained.
"We tried to make the whole office into a collaborative space," he said. "The number one focus is creating an environment where we can foster energy, where we can foster creativity ... where people don’t feel glued to their desks."
Bright Cellars now has 49 employees, and Yau expects the startup to be at 55 workers by the end of the year. He said the goal was to build a space where employees felt comfortable, and where prospective employees would want to work.
The office has the feel of a space you might find in Silicon Valley, which is something that helps Bright Cellars stand out in the Wisconsin tech scene.
"We’ve got Milwaukee character, but we’re also a very clearly a high-growth, fast-paced startup," he said.
Last March, Bright Cellars raised $8.5 million in a round led by Revolution Ventures. Its other backers include Cream City Venture Capital, the early-stage venture arm of Northwestern Mutual, and Cleveland Avenue, a food-focused venture fund from former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson. Bright Cellars has raised more than $13 million to date.
Go inside its newly renovated space below.
