Uncorking e-commerce

(Music begins. Video of two men seated at a table with a large collection of wine bottles stored behind them.)

(Video freezes and fades into upper right corner of screen. Another image of the sun setting on grape vines appears below it at bottom right. The two images are separated by a light-yellow color block. To the left is the video headline and the Wells Fargo red box logo is in the upper left of the screen.)

The Virtual Vineyards story: Finding innovative solutions for customers

(As video transitions to title slide, both still images resume motion. The two men engage in an unheard conversation and the grape image pans out onto the larger vineyard and then transitions into workers sorting the grapes. Music continues.)

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The idea

In the early 1990s, brothers-in-law Robert Olson and Peter Granoff had an idea for a start-up company: Virtual Vineyards, an online wine store.

(Music fades to background but is still heard as the video transitions to interview of Tim Knowlton. A professional title card appears that reads: Tim Knowlton, Wells Fargo E-Business Systems Consultant)

Tim Knowlton: They were a unique combination in that you had the business expert in Peter Granoff who understood wine. He was a master sommelier. And then his brother-in-law, Robert Olson, happened to be a tech genius.

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At the time, shopping online was a new concept.

Tim Knowlton: There was no concept of ordering online.

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Tim Knowlton: You called them on the phone. That was how the internet sales were going.

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Robert and Peter had another idea: real-time credit card payments.

(Video transitions to interview of Robert Olson and Peter Granoff seated at a table. Robert Olson is on the left, a professional title card appears that reads: Robert Olson Tech Entrepreneur and Virtual Vineyards Co-Founder)

Robert Olson: Well, we weren’t really going to launch the business without the ability to take transactions. Because I felt that that was really central to the business we were trying to build.

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Connecting with Wells Fargo

Their challenge, secure online credit card payments, had never been done before. Investors were unsure.

(Video transitions to interview of Robert Olson and Peter Granoff)

ROBERT Olson: “No bank is ever going to work with you, because you know, the internet’s not safe and it’s scary. And all those kinds of things.”

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They needed a way for customers to pay online and approached Wells Fargo’s then-CEO Bill Zuendt.

(Video transitions to interview of Robert Olson and Peter Granoff. Peter Granoff is on the right, a professional title card appears that reads: Peter Granoff Master Sommelier and Virtual Vineyards Co-Founder)

PETER GRANOFF: He not only understood what we were trying to accomplish, but was prepared to line up the resources at the bank internally. And we were off and running.

(Video transitions to interview of Debra Rossi. A professional title card appears that reads: Debra Rossi Former Wells Fargo Merchant Card Services Executive)

Debra Rossi: Well, that was my job at Wells Fargo. How do we help customers, small business customers? How do we figure out a solution that can help them grow their business?

(Video transitions to interview of Tim Knowlton)

Tim Knowlton: So a lot of the work was behind the scenes, not visible, was how do we get this new technology to interface with this old technology?

(Video transitions to interview of Robert Olson and Peter Granoff)

Robert Olson: Magic happened as far as I was concerned.

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The magic moment

In December 1994, VirtualVineyards.com went live and processed their first transaction: a case of wine.

(Video transitions to interview of Robert Olson and Peter Granoff)

Peter Granoff: It was literally within minutes of taking the server live on the internet.

Robert Olson: We got really jazzed about that because finally this thing was really happening.

(Video transitions to interview of Tim Knowlton)

Tim Knowlton: It was pretty exciting when it worked.

(Video transitions to interview of Debra Rossi)

Debra Rossi: We’re making history. We’re changing how business is going to be done.

(Video transitions to interview of Robert Olson and Peter Granoff)

Peter Granoff: And at some point, it just caught on fire.

Robert Olson: People suddenly switched from saying, I would never trust my credit card

on the internet to of course I buy on the internet. Timing is everything.

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Other customers soon followed in Virtual Vineyards’ footsteps.

(Video transitions to interview of Tim Knowlton)

Tim Knowlton: I was probably getting 100 merchants a week who wanted to sell on the internet.

(Video transitions to interview of Debra Rossi)

Debra Rossi: We were in the right place at the right time.

(Video transitions to interview of Robert Olson and Peter Granoff)

Peter Granoff: It’s kind of hard to grasp from where we sit today, how much has changed and how fast.

(Video transitions to an image of a newspaper article from 1994 featuring Olson and Granoff)

Robert Olson: I don’t think we would have started the business had we not been able to securely transact credit card transactions. I would have found something else to do.

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How often do you make online purchases today?

(Video transitions to interview of Debra Rossi)

Debra Rossi: To me, Wells Fargo was an innovator since 1852 this is just sort of like, you know, the the stagecoach online, moving the stagecoach at the speed of light. And I think when you have the customers, the focus, you know, innovation is easier.

(Video transitions into white screen with moving red, Wells Fargo logo.)