From Wine Writer to Tech Founder: Cathy Huyghe Is Helping Wineries Turn Data Into Revenue.
She Spent Decades Telling Stories About Wine. Now, Cathy Huyghe Is Modernizing the Industry.
ATLANTA, August 6 (Hypepotamus) - Cathy Huyghe has spent decades writing about wine. Through books she’s written and columns at places like Forbes, she’s introduced readers to the world found within a wine glass, and to the people, places, and businesses behind every bottle.
Now, her love of wine has evolved into a startup to watch — not in Napa or Sonoma…but Atlanta.
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Bringing Tech Into Wineries
Huyghe is the co-founder and CEO of the startup Enolytics. As its name suggests, Enolytics is a wine data analytics designed for wineries looking to drive revenue and accelerate growth.
The wine industry generates a lot of data from distributors, wholesalers, direct-to-consumer sales, tasting rooms, and wine clubs. Most of it sits unused in disconnected systems. But COVID, the sober-curious movement, and the rise of canned drink options are all larger factors pushing the wine industry to modernize how they use data to reach new customers.
Huyghe said the industry has to learn how to communicate with younger audiences and start thinking differently about growth opportunities.
And that’s where Enolytics comes into play.
Enolytics provides wineries a single 360-degree view of their business, a capability Huyghe says has become essential in an increasingly difficult commercial environment. Enolytics sits on top of popular POS and software solutions built for the wine industry. For places that rely on DTC sales, Enolytics can give action items to help retain wine club members at risk of leaving, identify opportunities to increase revenue, and ultimately improve budgeting and forecasting across the company. The platform can also help companies better understand depletion (something that can be costly for wholesale businesses).
Meet The Team
Enolytics has bootstrapped and is scaling through the revenue it is bringing in. While building Enolytics from her home in Atlanta, Huyghe is a frequent flyer to California’s wine country, where many of Enolytics' customers are centralized.
The startup works with companies that wine lovers will know, including Napa’s Caymus and PEJU, Lange Estate Winery and Brooks Winery in Oregon, and The Wonderful Company (JUSTIN, Landmark, Lewis Cellars).
Customer service has been central to Enolytics' growth.
"Customer service around data has been a very big deal in the wine industry. We're real people, with real faces and personalities, and we care. It's important to remember that wine is rooted in agriculture (a tough industry by any measure), and in relationships," Huyghe added.
Huyghe is building the startup alongside a small, specialized team. Huyghe’s husband, Chris Huyghe, serves as the startup’s co-founder and COO. Ron Scott, a security specialist, has been central to the company's infrastructure and technology development, working alongside Thiago Novato, whose focus is APIs and coding. On the sales side, Michelle van der Lugt joined as a business development rep and has grown into a broader role on the team, and Amira Makansi came on as a fractional CMO last year, an addition to the team that Huyghe said has been instrumental for the company.
At the Intersection of Tech & Wine
As a small team, Huyghe said Enolytics has leaned into Claude Team, Code, and Co-Work, which she said has helped particularly with automations.
“It's important that Enolytics embraced AI early on, and that it's part of our everyday work and life. Every process, every system, is informed by it,” Huyghe told Hypepotamus.
Maija Ehlinger
Atlanta's Tech & Wine Community
Huyghe points to a wide network of Atlanta institutions that have shaped Enolytics' path, including Atlanta Tech Village's South Downtown location, TBH Angels, the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative of Atlanta (WEI Atlanta), the Technology Executives Roundtable (TER), Leadership Atlanta, the Entrepreneurs Access Network at EY, and the local community around her alma mater: the Harvard Club of Georgia and the HBS Club of Atlanta.
She also credits Jennifer Bonnett, Sig Mosley, Jane McCracken, and John Yates, along with EY Atlanta's Regenia Sanders, Nit Reeder, Paul Bierbusse, Channing Wade, and Layken Culver as individuals who have been instrumental to Enolytics' growth so far.
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