I have been an entrepreneur for as long as anyone close to me can remember. In high school I joined the family business, a liquor store called Shoppers Discount Liquors that my dad started. It wasn’t long before I became obsessed with collecting wine. In 1997, I began to recognize the importance of e-commerce; shortly thereafter,WineLibrary.com was born.

I used the site to grow the store from a $3 million business to a $45 million business, and it was just the beginning. Armed with a Flipcam and a NY Jets bucket, I started Wine Library TV in 2006 to share my knowledge and passion for wine with a community that desperately needed a fresh voice.

In the spring of 2009, my brother AJ and I launched VaynerMedia, a new breed of agency that would help Fortune 500 companies like GE, PepsiCo, Green Mountain Coffee, and the NY Jets find their social voices and build their digital brands through micro content and other storytelling actions. When I’m not spending time with my family, who mean everything in the world to me, I speak and share my experiences in business with people around the world, angel investing in start-ups like Tumblr , Path, Grand St and Uber, and randomly pop up on TV.

Julie Smith

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