We were lucky to catch up with Máire Murphy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Máire, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

One morning my partner woke up with an idea to reseal a bottle of wine. I agreed to us doing a prototype. Originally, they were designed as unique packaging for our Napa Valley wine but once I realized that open wine bottles would fit in the fridge door and not leak when laid on their side, I knew everyone who drinks wine would need a few of them. For one year I sold them to wineries to put their own logos on them but then a year later decided they needed a wider audience. We chose to put 6 fun designs on top of the caps and exhibited at the NYC gift show. They were a huge hit and one year later we had to stop making wine to keep up with the demands of the new business. We’ve invented and brought a new product to market every year since then and now have eleven products. All of them solve problems we had in our own lives before inventing these products. We love hearing from customers how genius our products are and how they’ve improved their life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My partner (husband) and I met through the wine business when I was the only female wine sales rep for a distributor on the East Coast and he was a VP for a large winery in Sonoma County. We started our first business in 2001 making wine. We sold that business in 2006 when our kid was a baby. We started our next business making Napa Valley wine in 2010 and invented the wine cap at the end of that year as a unique packaging idea. After our first trade shows we realized the wider appeal our product could have. Our retail customers kept asking if we had anything new. As a result, we have gone on to invent a product per year by looking at issues we’ve had in our daily lives and setting out to solve them. Initially we stuck with wine accessories informed by our years in the wine business. Then we branched out to complimentary items like our Cheese Vault for preserving artisan cheese. In 2018 we purchased a local company making canvas canteens and flasks – we were drawn to the company as we had the idea for our Farmer’s Market Tote – that product has now turned into our #2 product probably because it is such a multi-use tote. When we consider what sets us apart, we like to say, “no one does what we do” We’re former winemakers inventing products that have never been made before. We don’t just pick a color or fancy pattern and add it to existing products we actually reinvent the wheel – we believe all our products are superior to others that purport to do similar things – yes, even our corkscrew! With that product we changed the structure of the worm. That hadn’t been done in 500 years and ours means 30% less cork is displaced when extracting a cork with our patented ergonomic corkscrew.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

When we first came up with the idea for our namesake product, CapaBunga, we knew we’d need a prototype to make sure it would work. We had to have CAD drawings done and had to create a mold. We required about $5,000 to get started and funded it personally. Once we knew the wine cap worked, we started selling them quickly. We had to build inventory and of course that required more funding. We mostly funded inventory by selling what we had already created – thankfully our first product was relatively inexpensive so we could do this. As we developed more products funding inventory became more difficult especially as the cost of research and development and product cost was a lot more. We had to get banks involved. Fortunately, we had a long and very supportive relationship with our bank from our winemaking days. I think the bank were more open to lending to us as CapaBunga, as we were no longer making wine and our new products were turning into cash way quicker than the capital-intensive wine ever did. As a result, we were able to secure a number of loans. We are very proud to say we are now debt free as a company. Quite an achievement for a company with at least 11 products.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of our pivot stories combines all three – business, career and life. In 2006 we sold our first business to another larger $20m company – we opted to take shares in the other growing company rather than take the buyout. To make a very long story short we lost all of our investment 3 years later because of poor management by the parent company and an egomaniacal, misogynistic owner. We were both out of work and out of $500K when our daughter started kindergarten. For the pivot we borrowed $100K from our parents and started making wine again – yes, we got in more debt!! Out of that wine however came the idea for CapaBunga. We have worked diligently to dig out of the hole we were put in by the trauma of that loss in business. However, if it hadn’t been for that loss, I’m not sure CapaBunga, the business, would be here today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.capabunga.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capabunga/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/Capabunga
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3017227/admin/feed/posts/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Capabunga
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDpw5V2QuSOmsrtAuoBFG4g

Image Credits
Mark Reyes