Why Did I Choose to Build a Seasoned B2C Project?

I’ve built a directory of winery hotels — a curated list of wineries with lodging, vineyard stays, and wine-focused resorts around the world. The idea is simple: help wine lovers find unique places to stay where they can not only sleep but also sip and savor. You can explore hotels by country, wine region, or even by the types of wine they produce.

Sounds lovely, right? But here’s the catch: it’s a very niche B2C project, and even more — it’s a seasonal one. Most people travel to wineries during the summer or harvest season. So, promoting it and getting traction won’t be easy. It might not bring fast growth or immediate validation. So why build it?

Well, this is my first business. I’ve never run a company before, but I’ve been a customer many times. I know what it feels like to search endlessly for something specific — like a winery with lodging — and come up short. I figured: if I start with a B2C project, I can better understand the consumer pain before jumping into a B2B solution later. It’s a learning path. I want to gain firsthand business experience by solving a problem I personally understand.

So, why wineries?

Because I used to work as a sommelier. I love wine, vineyards, and the whole world that surrounds them. When you’re building something from scratch, and the results are slow (as they usually are), passion is what keeps you going. You can chase trends, sure, but if you don’t believe in what you’re building, it’s easy to burn out and quit when things get hard.

There’s a chapter in The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel that really stuck with me — “Reasonable > Rational.” It says that in investing, the rational thing might be to buy shares in a safe, stable company. But the reasonable thing might be to buy shares in a company you love, whose product you believe in — because you’ll be more likely to hold onto it during tough times. The same applies to startups. If you build something you genuinely care about, it’s easier to stick with it long enough to see results.

So here I am — early in the journey, no big results yet, knee-deep in the hardest part: marketing. But I’m enjoying the ride. I’m learning. And most importantly, I’m building something I love.