15 Interesting Facts About Gary Vaynerchuk

His family had recently immigrated to United States from Belarus at the age of three and at the age of seven he was successfully selling lemonade. He always calls himself a “pure bred entrepreneur” which he proved right from the beginning. He not only opened a lemonade stand but in fact had it franchised. He had eight lemonade stands in Edison, New Jersey. This step paved his way for his future endeavors.

After his successful lemonade business, he came up with the idea of selling his baseball cards. He traded the baseball cards for thousands of dollars. He used to go to trade shows in malls on weekends and sell baseball cards. He was making $2000 to $3000 each weekend at just the age of 13.

Both lemonade stands and baseball card trading did well but didn’t last long. So, at 14 he joined his family business which was his father’s liquor store. The name of the liquor store was  – “Shopper’s Discount Liquors”. At first Gary worked at the back end but once he was 16 he came to the forefront and increased the sales.

As soon as he got to college he started reading more and more about wine. He sneaked copies of Wine Spectator to read up on the wine ratings. And when the internet was launched in 90s, he took advantage of this newly invented technology. He immediately convinced his father to start a website – winelibrary.com and sell wine online. From here the liquor store’s name got changed to Wine Library and the business made millions going from $3MM to $60MM

After launching his e-commerce website, Gary took advantage of YouTube and started vlogging in the year 2006. The name of the channel was WineLibraryTV where he used to taste and review different wines. He would entertain and educate his viewers about wine. His unique reviewing style attracted many across the world and the channel acquired a cult status.

Gary’s YouTube channel – WineLibraryTV  made him an immensely popular guy. He started being as the ultimate guru. Each of the wine tasting episodes were of 20 minutes and were uploaded every day. The show actually even completed 1000 episodes over the span of 5 years. But after that Gary stopped filming more episodes as he got busier with other stuff.

After the huge success of WineLibraryTV Show, Gary decided to start another vlog and website – Daily Grape. This new venture also featured him tasting wines and giving reviews. The website gave access to Gary’s Newsletters and a list of wines he will be reviewing. But this vlog didn’t achieve as much popularity as the WineLibraryTV did and it ended soon.

Gary’s popularity and magnetic charisma gave him the opportunity to appear on big TV shows. He appeared on national television shows like Ellen Degeners show and Conan O’Brien show. Ultimately throwing him into the limelight and paving his way for further entry into the entertainment industry.

It had always been Gary’s dream to appear on the Wall Street Journal’s cover. So, finally in the year 2006, Gary’s dream came true. His caricature appeared on the front cover of the Wall Street Journal. He was approached for this front cover appearance because of his growing popularity and influence over people. He had become a successful person at such a young age.

The appearance on national TV shows earned him a lot of fame but he hadn’t spoken publically yet! So, the next step he took was to speak publically. He became the public speaker and gave his first iconic speech. He gave a keynote at Web 2.0 in New York in 2008 that ultimately altered his career path.

The speech he gave in New York sky rocketed his career. It landed him with a 10-book million dollar with HarperCollins. This deal led him to writing his first book – Crush it! in the year 2009. The book broke records and it became the best international seller in no time. The book talked about following your passion, the key role of media, communication and marketing.

Now, that he was one step higher in his success, he started investing. He invested in companies like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Uber, Snap and Venmo. He was familiar with the big role of social media and its potential. He knew that millions of people could be reached through social media and it was going to be our future.

In the year 2009, Gary Vaynerchuk, with his younger brother, AJ Vaynerchuk, co-founded VaynerMedia. The agency focuses on telling the stories of large brands on social media such as New York Jets, NHL etc. The business expanded at a rapid pace and within six years VaynerMedia had clients like Pepsi-Co, Anheuser-Busch, General Electric and many more.

In the year 2014, Gary once again went on YouTube. He started a new vlog this time naming – The #AskGaryVee Show. In this show, Gary Vee takes questions from his viewers via Twitter/Instagram and gives spontaneous, unfiltered answers. He doesn’t sees the questions beforehand but rather on the spot. He answers honestly on topics ranging from marketing to family.

Again in the year 2014, Gary partnered with RSE ventures and formed a $25 million investment fund focusing on first round financing and incubation. Another venture of his BRave, which focuses on advising startups and TV networks on how to collaborate in today’s business environment.