About Us

NapaWapa is looking for a Writer / Biz Dev Person to Join Our Team

Are you an outgoing writer who loves wine? Are you active on Facebook, Twitter, blog writing, and other social sites? Do you have a proven track record in business development? Then lets talk.

NapaWapa is an established startup, bootstrapping our way to success. By joining our team we'll cut you in on the ground floor with a generous equity offer. You'll be able to fully reap the benefits of your hard work.

If interested, send a cover letter/email and the URL to your LinkedIn profile to tony@napawapa.com.

What is NapaWapa?

We found there are 2 problems people face in drinking wine:

Wine experts are telling us what is good and what is not.
How do we know if we have the same tastes as they do? Its better to get a large group of people's opinions about whether a wine is good or not than 1 person's "expert" opinion.
It's hard to remember what you drank and whether it was good or not.
NapaWapa is the easiest way to score and keep track of the wines you drink. Its good to score your wine because then you can find out more easily what you like and don't like. You can use NapaWapa at the restaurant or the store to more easily pick the wines you'll like and avoid the ones you don't.

Company Background

Founded: June, 2010
Launched: September, 2011
Headquarters: Kirkland, Washington, USA
Founders: CEO - Tony Jacobson, CTO - Tom Wagner
Funding: Self funded

The Story of NapaWapa

Back in 2008 Tony Jacobson became curious about wine and began exploring the the wine section each time he'd go on his weekly Costco shopping trip. He noticed many of the wines had a score on the sign. He asked himself:

"Where does that number come from?"
"Who picks these numbers?"
"How come I never see a wine in the 60 or 70 point range?"
"Is there such a thing as a 100 point wine?"

Tony's curiosity exploded as he began researching wine scores on the web. He found out that most wine critics rate wine on a 50 to 100 point scale; found out that Robert Parker is the master of the wine universe; and wine critics have a ton of influence over our wine buying choices.

One weekend Tony threw together a prototype to score wines based on an algorithm that mimics the same way wine experts score wine. He brought it to parties and get-togethers and tried it out on friends and family. Everyone had a blast using it but he just toyed around with it from time to time.

In 2010 Tony shared his vision with Tom Wagner. Tom immediately saw the potential in Tony's idea. Tom brought his startup experience and technical knowledge to the partnership and together they set out to build NapaWapa.com.

What does the name, NapaWapa mean?

The NapaWapa name is an irreverent dig against the high-brow attitudes that most people associate with the wine industry. NapaWapa is about removing complexity from the wine world and making wine accessible to everyone. We believe wine is fantastic, wonderful, beautiful, and mysterious. We want everyone to enjoy the wonderful world of wine. NapaWapa, Power to the People Wine Scores!

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