Female Founders
BY EDDY GOLDBERG
W
ART PARTY!
Uncorking everyone’s inner artist
hen Nancy Bigley arrived at
Bottle & Bottega in 2011, it
was called Bottles & Brushes
and was doing all right as a small, mobile
pop-up business. The name wasn’t particularly memorable though, says Bigley,
whose mission was to transform the business into a national franchised brand. After
some brainstorming, she awoke one morning and knew “bottega” was the word she
was looking for.
For you non-artists out there, MerriamWebster says a bottega is “the studio or
workshop of a major artist in which other
artists may participate in the execution of
the projects or commissions of the major
artist.” For customers, it means a place
they can go to spend an enjoyable few
hours sipping wine and being instructed
in painting by local artists in a safe, comfortable setting.
Fortunately, since the company had
operated as a pop-up model before, there
NAME: Nancy Bigley
TITLE: Founder, CEO
COMPANY: Bottle & Bottega
SYSTEM-WIDE REVENUE: $4 million
NO. OF UNITS: 19 (2 corporate)
INTERNATIONAL UNITS: 0
GROWTH PLANS: 50% unit growth each
year over next 5 years
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE? Private
YEAR COMPANY FOUNDED: 2009
YEAR STARTED FRANCHISING: 2011
YOUR YEARS IN FRANCHISING: 24
were no studios and signage to change.
Bigley, who had spent time at Dunkin’
Brands, Mr. Electric (The Dwyer Group),
and American Leak Detection, began her
work building the newly christened brand.
The wine, along with the bottles in the
logo, stayed.
Stephanie King-Myers, who started
the company in 2009, 18 months before
Bigley came on board, is the artist in the
family. Bigley, who says she has “no artistic
ability whatsoever,” does, however, have an
affinity for art.
“That makes me our typical consumer,”
she says: people who don’t know how to
paint, never picked up a paintbrush before,
but who love and appreciate art. “Guests
come in with very low expectations. They
leave saying, ‘Omigod, I can’t believe I
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