We were lucky to catch up with Victoria Ngo Border recently and have shared our conversation below.

Victoria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

It all started after years of standing around and chit-chatting with friends after yoga classes, and if we ever wanted to actually hang out for longer, there always had to be a discussion on where to go, and then we’d have to get in our cars and drive to wherever was decided. The concept of Vinya, the first ever yoga studio and wine bar, came to us 6 years ago…pretty sure it was one of those shower “aha” moments. We wanted to create a community space where folks could get their yoga on and then hang out immediately after within the same space. There’s clearly a demand for it, especially in San Diego, where we have countless events combining yoga and alcohol, whether it be yoga classes at wineries/breweries or vice versa, social events at yoga studios. Vinya will be the first permanent space where people can do it all on a daily basis, uniting the community by holding space for people to come together not only in their yoga practice but also in their social lives. Through yoga, people are able to cultivate awareness within their minds and strength within their bodies, and the spirit of yoga will continue on in the wine bar, clear of judgement, with the ability to socialize and foster lasting relationships. The experience of Vinya will promote an active lifestyle full of love, kindness, and joy. Good things have a way of coming together.

Victoria, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Yoga started as a hobby for my husband and I, an activity we could do together as boyfriend/girlfriend 10.5 years ago. We never imagined we would find such deep love for it and certainly had no idea the journey it would take us on, now preparing to open the first ever yoga studio and wine bar. Everything I have done the past 6 years since we came up with the idea for Vinya has been for this. We call 2016 the year of everything – the year the concept for Vinya was born, the year we did our yoga teacher training, the year we did our wine certification, and the year we got married. It has been a process for sure, but we finally have an end in sight and cannot wait to be able to hold space for the community to some together. We do not come from money, and we don’t have investors…we’re just two people doing everything we can to make this dream a reality.

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

We’re still struggling with this one. As you can imagine, building out a 6,000 square foot space to serve the needs of both a yoga studio and a restaurant costs an insane amount of money. It’s certainly not ideal, but we are risking everything with one big SBA loan that doesn’t even cover everything. And even that was almost impossible to obtain since we had everything going against us, being younger first-time entrepreneurs with two of the worst possible business types even before Covid. We’re blowing through our savings, but we’ve been fortunate to have continued working during this time and also have the support of our families. To help with additional costs, we launched our own little crowdfunding campaign, essentially offering pre-opening specials on memberships, packages, and experiences.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

As two different business types in one, the yoga studio will provide supplementary revenue to the restaurant. I would never want to do one without the other. We’ll have memberships, class packages, and drop-in rates for yoga classes, and we’ll have a Wine Club membership on the restaurant side as well. Some of the yoga classes will offer incentives to purchase food or hang out after class, and all of the memberships will offer a discount to the restaurant. We will also have a retail area, selling yoga equipment, gifts, and wines by the bottle to take home.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vinyasd.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/vinyasd
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/vinyasandiego