Maybe You Don't Need a Bottle

The highlight of Matt’s day at the Fast Company Innovation Festival was watching actress Elizabeth Banks on stage with Marian Leitner-Waldman, founder and CEO of Archer Roose — a wine brand whose whole idea is putting genuinely good wine in a can. Three things stuck. First, the storytelling partnership: Leitner-Waldman had Banks on her vision board and, about six years in, landed her not as a celebrity endorser but as co-owner and chief creative officer, the story engine behind a set of genuinely funny, award-winning ads. Second, the timeline — it took roughly six years to get Banks and over a decade to reach this bigger stage, a reminder to settle in for the long haul and enjoy the wins along the way. And third, the reframe that Matt couldn’t stop thinking about. Everyone says the wine industry is contracting — and through the traditional lens (fancier labels, more exclusive membership clubs) it is. But Banks, by her own admission, had felt like an outsider to wine’s snootiness, and this venture let her experience it differently: accessible, unintimidating, in a can you can pull from a cooler. Matt’s takeaway has nothing to do with wine. What you bring to the table — your skill, your message, your “wine” — can stay exactly the same at its core, while the packaging, the delivery, and the story around it change completely, and the market will see it as something entirely new. Looked at through the old lens, you’re fighting for a shrinking club. Looked at fresh, maybe you don’t need a bottle at all. The product may be the same; the package and the purpose can change. That’s how you find a new lane and a market hungry for what you offer, delivered differently — and it’s exactly the kind of obvious-in-hindsight move you spot by studying businesses outside your own. You don’t have to throw away what you’ve built. You may just need to repackage it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mattstone.substack.com