Wine 2.0 Announces Launch OF 2008 Wine 2.0 Business Plan Competition with Vator.tv

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA, October 03, 2008 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Wine 2.0, the innovator in social networking and events in the wine industry, announces the 2nd Annual Wine 2.0 Business Plan Competition with partner Vator.tv. Last year's winner, Crushpad, a personal winery concept received $9 million in a Series B investment and credited the Wine 2.0 Business Plan Competition with providing added exposure to the investment community.

"The 2007 Wine 2.0 Business Plan Competition gave Crushpad a big boost of awareness within the investment community. It opened up a lot of doors for us, and ultimately we ended up with multiple investment options and were able to do the type of investment round that best suited our needs," said Michael Brill, CEO, Crushpad.

This year's competition is open to companies utilizing technology in the wine space and interested in raising investment capital. Presenting companies can upload a video pitch to the Vator.tv community and competition judging panel. This year's judging panel is made up of leaders in the legal, wine, technology and investment communities and includes:

• Alan Citron, Executive, Buzznet and former GM at TMZ.com,
• Bowen Osbourn, M & A, Demand Media
• Richard Rosenblatt, CEO, Demand Media, former CEO of Myspace.com.
• Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV,
• Steve Venuto, Partner, Orrick,
• Heidi Roizen, Founder Skinny Songs and former partner at Mobius Venture Capital,
• J. Smoke Wallin, Chairman, Wine 2.0, CEO Taliera Holdings, Chairman/Founder eSkye, Co-Chairman Wine Industry Technology Symposium, President of the Vanderbilt Business School Alumni Board and Former Chairman of WSWA

"Given the global economic challenges we face, never has it been more important than now, for creative individuals to take entrepreneurial risks. The Wine 2.0 Business Plan Competition is a fantastic opportunity for start-ups involved in the wine industry to vet their plan, network with like-minded entrepreneurs and raise their profile with the right investors," said J. Smoke Wallin, Chairman of Wine 2.0. "We are pleased to partner with Vator.TV and these excellent judges to create a world class competition," continued Wallin.

"Vator.tv has new business ventures joining our network every day. The wine space is experiencing as much activity and interest among start-ups and investors as anything we have seen. We are excited to partner with Wine 2.0 for the second competition after such a great turnout last year," said Bambi Francisco, Co-Founder and CEO of Vator.tv.

The 2008 Wine 2.0 Business Plan Competition will run through April when the winning company will be announced at Wine 2.0 San Francisco, it can be found at (www.vator.tv)

About Wine 2.0
Wine 2.0 is the innovator in social networking and events in the wine industry. Wine 2.0 focuses on the next generation wine consumer and breaks down the barriers to learning about, experiencing and enjoying wine. Wine 2.0 events feature the newest generation of emerging technology companies, services and communication tools that are changing the world of wine. (www.winetwo.com)

About Vator.tv
Vator.tv is the leading social media and networking site focused on emerging technology companies and private investment trends. Vator.tv allows startups to share their own narrative in their own voice in video and text, and enables others to follow those stories from one single dashboard. VatorNews is Vator.tv's newsroom, where anyone can create their own channel to deliver news and information about high-tech innovation and entrepreneurship.
Vator.tv is located in San Francisco, CA. It launched in June 2007 and is funded by angel investors, including Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Richard Rosenblatt, former Chairman of MySpace, Georges Harik, former Google executive who helped build Google's AdSense technology and Paul Buchheit, founder of FriendFeed, and creator of the first version of Google's Gmail.
Bambi Francisco is Vator.tv co-founder and CEO. She was a syndicated columnist and correspondent covering internet and emerging technology trends an investments across the public and private sectors for Dow Jones MarketWatch. Vator.tv is an extension of Bambi's passion to give investors an edge by exposing opportunities at the earliest stages. This is a focus she's had throughout her career. In 1995, Bambi created, launched and produced three shows for CNNfn, one of which was "Capital Ideas," a show on innovation focusing on IPOs and deals.

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