Eric LeVine didn’t set out to build a startup. He was a Microsoft engineer during the dot-com boom who just wanted to keep track of the wine he owned. So he built a simple spreadsheet — an “Excel for wine” — to organize his own cellar. Friends started asking for access. Then friends of friends.
In 2003, Eric put the tool online. That side project became CellarTracker.
Today, it has 10M+ users, tracks over $21B worth of wine, and has quietly become the most trusted platform in the wine world.
In this episode, Eric walks through turning a personal itch into global infrastructure, why obsession with data and community mattered more than monetization early on, and how CellarTracker now uses AI to help people know when to drink a bottle — not just what they own.
Make sure to check out CellarTracker at: https://www.cellartracker.com/
 
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