The Local Wine Events website may be ugly as sin, but if you’re a wine lover, you’ve probably already got it bookmarked. This is a small ten year old business being run out of Pennsylvania with about a million page views a month.
It’s a pretty straightforward business. You go there to find local wine events. People who are having wine events pay to list them there, and there is lots of other advertising as well. 1,500 new events are posted each week.
Despite their size the site has gotten some big attention. Gary Vaynerchuck had owner Eric Orange on his show last year, and Apple has made their mobile site a staff pick and a Featured Web App for the iPhone.
And this small business is profitable. Last year the company, with four employees, had $250,000 in gross profits.