Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST
I'm a 20+ year veteran in the wine and spirits industry who loves innovation. I'm interviewing those who are creating it from agriculture to glass. We will deep dive into their journey and provide insights to help yours.
We will discuss their major industry pain points and outlook for the future. If my guest has an item to drink or eat we will try it throughout the podcast. Come on the journey with us!
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Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST
From Chicken Adobo to AI Wine Pairings 🍷🤖 | Christy Serrato's Journey with PairAnything 🍽️✨
📢I talk🎙️with Christy Serrato, CEO and Founder of PairAnything👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁
Discover how Christy Serrato turned her love of Filipino cuisine into a tech-powered wine pairing startup 🍷🔥 Learn how PairAnything is changing the wine game with personalization!
In this Thirsty Thursdays episode, Jessie Ott sits down with Christy Serrato, founder of PairAnything 🍷💡 From delivering pizzas to launching AI-powered retail tech, Christy’s story is a masterclass in innovation, culture, and hustle.
🎯 Top Takeaways:
🚀 How a UC Davis pitch and Filipino dish inspired a tech startup
🍽️ Why personalization is the future of wine retail
🧠 AI, machine learning & wine: explained simply
🤝 Building tech with your customers, not for them
💥 Retailers + wineries win when you connect the dots
📣 Call to Action (CTA):
If you love wine, tech, and founder stories that actually matter, hit that subscribe button and drop a 🍷 in the comments!
🔔 Don’t miss more inspiring founders on @ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST — Subscribe now!
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Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn
Jessie Ott (00:29)
Hello, hello everybody and welcome to Thursday Thursdays. I am Jessie Ott and I have a good friend of mine, Christy Serrato, founder of PairAnything. Hello Christy.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (00:40)
Hi, Jessie, I am super excited to be talking to you.
Jessie Ott (00:44)
I'm so excited you're here. We've been talking about this for a year and you've had so many exciting things. believe a year ago you were enrolled in Techstars and it gets, I know I've been there, done that. So I know how intense it is and the commitment that it takes and all the great things that come from that. So, super, super pumped. were finally able to get you on the show. So where are you calling from?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (01:10)
I'm here in beautiful California in Davis where I went to school and also where I got my start with PairAnything. This community has supported me with my early start and continue to support me in terms of the connections to the wine industry. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (01:29)
That's fantastic. That's
awesome. So where are you originally from?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (01:33)
Gosh, that question is always interesting. I could say that I was born in the Philippines and in fact, it's kind of interesting that my heritage has played a role in inspiring PairAnything and what I could do to bring inclusivity to the wine industry. But I have traveled around 54 countries, but
Jessie Ott (01:37)
Thank
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (01:53)
In terms of where I grew up, it's California, the San Francisco Bay Area. It's the reason why I'm very excited to bring my career in technology to be able to help this industry that I'm very passionate about, that I feel is lagging in adopting technology, but also experiencing challenges with the demographic shifts, the change in consumer behavior.
And how do we help particularly the small producers in this industry that make up 80 to 90 % of the producers in the United States?
Jessie Ott (02:32)
Nice. All right. So you grew up in the Bay Area. So you went to high school in San Francisco?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (02:35)
San Francisco? That's correct, San Francisco Bear.
Mercy High School.
Jessie Ott (02:42)
Wow. So is that weird seeing all the changes that are happening in San Francisco?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (02:48)
Yes, it's a little bit, I would say, because you can look at it from technology lenses, political lenses, social lenses. And I realized that for us, you know, I learned to adapt and evolve because if you continue to compare how it was when I grew up, you know, when I was going
Jessie Ott (02:52)
Mm-hmm.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (03:10)
to private school, Catholic school in San Francisco, that's of a different time. And even when I moved back after college, it was also different. So I guess what gives me some perspective is how we have to adapt and evolve. it's the city or the area that I'm at, whether it's the Bay Area or Davis Sacramento region, I look at it as a
Jessie Ott (03:16)
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (03:34)
Northern California Innovation Hub. It is what you want to make it. You know, it really is what you make of it. And I look at it as, you know, the way we move forward. have 100 % faith that it's through applying technology, you know, particularly AI to realize, you know, productivity to address how things are changing to be able to not miss out.
Jessie Ott (03:38)
Okay.
Okay, nice. And where did you go to college? You got out of San Fran for a while?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (04:06)
Yes, and it ties to where I am now. I went to University of California Davis and I did not know that I would be back here in this town of Davis, but I'm very proud because they've been a very supportive community. And of course, UC Davis is pretty world renowned with its connection to the wine industry.
Jessie Ott (04:12)
Okay.
Yeah, for
sure. We'll just think of all the people that have come and gone to there and then all the outreach. So what degree did you get there?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (04:38)
It wasn't viticulture and enology, although in hindsight, I wish I did that. I majored in economics. What was nice though is a lot of my friends were from winery families and that's how I got introduced to it. you know, coming from a Filipino background, I didn't grow up in wine.
Jessie Ott (04:40)
Thank
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (04:56)
it wasn't on our dinner table, yet it's when I started traveling and being around more diverse people and trying diverse cuisines that I really immersed myself that wine and the culture of wine, it's intriguing, but also it enriches me, right? I knew that. And enjoyment.
Jessie Ott (05:07)
Right.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (05:20)
is very much tied to be able to pair wine with my cuisines. And I'm looking at it from a broader view of like many cuisines. Because most of us, honestly, I don't know anyone that just likes one cuisine, right? We're all more and more multicultural. And that's something that the industry also has to acknowledge that
consumer behavior, consumer tastes are evolving. The industry needs to look at people like me, people like you, people that are up and coming. And how is industry gonna be able to market to us, to be able to provide us this inclusive view around wine? The only way that I can think of, Jessie, to be honest, is to be able to provide personalization.
And that's why I'm super excited that this industry that we're in, it's an exciting time. I know we hear a lot of the doom and gloom and people drinking less, but you know, this beverage has been around for what, 8,000 years. It's something that's been only, right? And it's been enjoyed along with food. And so to me, my aha moment,
Jessie Ott (06:23)
Yeah, only.
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (06:33)
was like, OK, well, why not enjoy it with the diverse cuisines? That, I think, helps us be more inclusive, creates enjoyment, and now consumers can then trust what they enjoy because of the personalization. And it creates more customer loyalty and connection to the brands that want to reach out to a broader consumer audience.
Jessie Ott (06:56)
Okay, yeah, I love it. So once you graduated in economics, what did you do? Like, what was your journey like?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (07:05)
Well, I went the natural traditional route in banking and I did various roles. And interestingly enough, I got into making decisions, credit decisions specifically. And I'm glad I did that because that actually gave me a foundation for doing decisioning with pair anything, know, food and wine pairing decisions.
So as a banker, I learned about all the different data inputs from the user plus external data that's available and to be able to build a model that's fair and provides a decision with accuracy. Once I went into banking and was creating decisioning models that gave me an entryway into doing enterprise software,
And more recently, before I started Care Anything, I was securing online banking. And that really gave me a deeper expertise in various technologies, being able to integrate with different systems, and also making sure that
My specialty was particularly identity assurance. I was able to specialize in getting to know who that user is or that customer and making sure that all the experiences in that software is personalized to that user.
Jessie Ott (08:28)
Yeah, okay.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (08:29)
In the case of
banking, it's protecting, making sure there's no hackers. But in the case of pair anything, it's the personalization of that experience with that software.
Jessie Ott (08:38)
Okay, and so did you start pair anything as a banker?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (08:44)
No, it's really happenstance. So I went from banking, like I said, to doing enterprise software and then cybersecurity or online banking security. It was just really happenstance. I did not had it in my mind to start peer anything. Really, the catalyst for it was more personal. I left the Bay Area.
I moved to Sacramento area to be with my parents. And I would say that was my last role was to be caretakers for my parents. And I was in my mom's kitchen and she happened to be making my favorite Filipino dish, chicken adobo.
And you can imagine, like anybody with their favorite dish, you could smell the aromas. In this case, it was chicken immersed with vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, Baileys. And I had this thought, like, okay, I'm just going to grab some wine to go along with this Filipino dish.
And then I was lost. I did not know what would pair with that. And I called my friend who's a Samoyed. And we had a long discussion. Even at the time I tried to Google it, I realized that there aren't that many pairing suggestions for non-traditional, non-European cuisines.
Jessie Ott (09:58)
Mm-hmm.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (10:00)
And I felt really passionate about that. said, OK, I have some time. Let me explore it. And that was really the start. And I was very thankful that my alma mater, University of California Davis, happened to have a pitch competition. And I did that. So I pitched an idea, really a hobby idea at the time. And wow, I won.
And it gave, so you, so, so parenting got started with seed money from UC Davis through a pitch competition with $10,000. And that's how I got started.
Jessie Ott (10:25)
awesome!
Wow, $10,000 is a lot of money for a startup.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (10:44)
And especially for a
scrappy startup where we just try to be as resourceful, as you know, being a woman of color founder, we may not have as many funds available to us, yet you learn to figure things out. You learn to lean into your community, find whatever help and resources that you can, and you just continue moving forward.
Jessie Ott (10:59)
Yep.
Right, yeah, no, I hear you. Absolutely. once you got this money, like, what did you think? Like, what were you just like, okay, I'm going to do this? Did you did you think about it a little bit more? Like, what was the next steps?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (11:19)
Well, was sort of in a bit of a daze. I didn't deposit it for a month, yet I got...
I got a lot of press because of the UC Davis connection, right?
I'm so grateful for the wineries in the Sierra foothills of California because they reached out to me. And to this day, we have the same customers who are early adopters that are still with us. And so they were curious, like, how can we use technology to reach out to our customers? We know our customer base is changing. How do we stay connected with them? So we both had an idea that technology can play a part in connecting to more consumers.
Jessie Ott (11:56)
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (12:01)
What was nice about our approach, Woodpear Anything being very customer first, is we co-created with those early adopter wineries. And that was like right during the pandemic. So there were even more craziness that was going on that we had to navigate, yet it was great to have, for sure. And also it's important that those early adopter
Jessie Ott (12:19)
Yeah, but what a great idea for the right time.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (12:27)
customers that you have are aligned with your vision and also have that foresight to co-create with you. Because what started as a hobby idea now has transformed into something that the industry needs around hyper-personalization to be able to craft recommendations based on our individual preferences.
Jessie Ott (12:52)
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. So phase one was you already had all these wineries that wanted to connect with you as early adopters. So who did you go to or turn to to do the creation and the back end of the software?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (13:11)
What's nice when you have a career in technology, you develop a lot of friends and colleagues that know these things. I used to say I'm not a technologist. I've always come from the business side of it.
through pay or anything, I've become more technology savvy, yet I couldn't do it alone without some friends and particularly in my first startup, eFinance, which was an early FinTech back in the 2000, I lean on those people that know a lot about software development, particularly enterprise software, cloud services and building
these web apps using React, all these different technologies. And I learned along the way with them. What was nice though is I had a pretty robust network that I could ask someone and they really figured it out. And what was nice is anytime that I asked for something, they're able to help me. And to this day, they're continuing to help me. So deeply grateful for having that tribe.
Jessie Ott (14:09)
Well...
Yeah, for sure. Because I know what it's like to create that tribe. It could cost a lot of money. And, you know, maybe not, you know.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (14:18)
Yeah.
Absolutely, and in fact, I do like to pay forward in a sense that I do mentor a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs and I always tell them not to build anything, to actually go out and find your customers first and ideally co-create with your early adopters and then build from there.
Jessie Ott (14:41)
Yeah.
Yeah, I should have done that a little. I should have done a little bit better job of that, but that's okay. The product is here.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (14:46)
We're all learning. Exactly. However you
got it, you're there.
Jessie Ott (14:52)
We're there, we're there. Okay, so what's the next phase of that then? What kind of testing did you start doing?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (14:59)
We never had a perfect product. I was always a little bit embarrassed that, I wish I could have done this. I wish I could have done that. I just learned to move fast. Again, it was during the crazy times of the pandemic. And then since then, we would just release it when it's like 60 to 70 % there. And we would ask our customers to give us feedback or we would just know.
And then from there, we would make our improvements. So it's continuous iterations. And what I like about that is we never overbuilt or over-engineered anything. And we always had the customer top of mind when we're making any development decisions.
Jessie Ott (15:34)
Mm-hmm.
Okay, and what was your market that you were going after at the time? Was it restaurants? Was it retail? What was your first thought?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (16:00)
You read my mind, Jessie. We were like, I would say all over the map because when you're starting out, you think the whole world is your customer base. And we did that. We went after the small producers, the wineries, restaurants, wine shops, retailers, really anyone that would talk to us who are in the wine industry. And
Jessie Ott (16:02)
with it.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (16:25)
The accelerator that we were part of, you mentioned Techstars, they really helped us focus on identifying our ideal customer profile. And first we thought, well, because we got into Target and other retailers, we thought they were our ideal customer profile. But then we have to follow who is paying us to solve their pain point.
And we went back to the very beginning that is actually the wineries that are hurting the most, that actually needs the support to be able to navigate the difficult industry shifts that's happening. And so even though we were helping them in the retail store,
it wasn't the retailer that we're focusing on. They're just like a channel. They're the partners of the wineries. And so time and time through experiments, we realized that, yes, we could use our software at the wine shop like Bevmo. We could use our software in the restaurants. But where we see our best fit,
are with small, medium-sized wineries, even larger wineries that sell multiple channels like direct to consumer, as well as in the three through system through their retail distribution. And we've been able to demonstrate that we can increase sales up to 250 % through the use of our software to be able to align them of the consumer preferences and what is trending for that consumer.
customers in those stores.
Jessie Ott (18:09)
Can you walk through the technology or software that you're providing the retailer and how it kind of works?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (18:13)
Yeah,
so imagine I'm a shopper at my local store and you'll see a pair anything kiosk in the wine aisle. And why that's intriguing because before that, like you can go to any grocery store, they may or may not have a wine store. If they have a wine store, that's great. Very knowledgeable person. But even with a wine store,
Jessie Ott (18:19)
Okay.
but they're not always there.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (18:38)
Well,
yeah, so they're not there, right? And so then what?
Jessie Ott (18:41)
Fewer
and fewer now too, I feel like.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (18:44)
especially
with a labor shortage, right? And so I'm looking at hundreds and hundreds of wines. And the way the grocery stores organize the wines by country, by varietal, does not necessarily make sense for the consumer and how we shop. I have a shopping cart for what I'm gonna have for dinner, know, chicken, some vegetables.
who's gonna help me pick out a wine, right? And so I realized we can help create this connected experience where we just ask a few questions and you go up to the kiosk now and you could take a wine quiz, very short, it's personalized, and then you get recommendations. And the recommendations are not generic. What you get are wines that are sold in that store.
It's an opportunity for wine brands to stand out in the grocery aisle, but it's also an opportunity for the retail stores, not just to help their wine partners, but to create upsell and cross-sell increases for that shopper. We know from one of our grocery partners that if you have wine in a shopping cart,
it increases the shopper's spend by up to 65%. So it's a great win-win opportunity for the wineries who are our customers.
to also help their retail partners, where it's always a struggle, given that there's slim margins, it's always a struggle to stand out in the grocery aisle when these wine brands have to compete with some of the larger brands with larger marketing budgets. Now, with PairAnything, they have a competitive edge. It's digital, so it's definitely a lot more cost effective. Plus, they actually have the added benefit
of having the consumer data and insights that could help them even personalize the whole marketing of that wine.
Jessie Ott (20:44)
So I'm a shopper and I've got, like you said, chicken and vegetables. And so I go up to this kiosk and I put in my food and my, what I'm having for dinner and it'll output like examples of what wines would go good with that dinner. That's really cool. So I guess you created a database in the back.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (20:59)
Yes, exactly.
Jessie Ott (21:06)
and the back of the software for all the pairings of all the flavors. And I'm sure you've got all the different cuisine types as well, the ethnic and regular.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (21:15)
Yeah.
Correct. And it was kind of our unique approach because we started helping wineries with their direct to consumer. We were able to consume all these different varietals, particularly in the California. Now we've expanded it so that we can handle any varietals because we're looking at the wine attributes, right? And then we also work with some chefs and some food experts to look at the food side. And then we crowdsource a lot of information and then analyze it to look
at the different combinations. And then...
Jessie Ott (21:47)
Crowdsourced, what
do you mean? What did you do?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (21:50)
We web scraped a lot of sites that have recipe pairings. We were given huge amounts of database from our retail partners. And so we were able to consume a lot of those information regarding the wines plus some of the food suggestions. And that was the basis of our model. And from there, we've been building up from it and adding machine learning to improve the recommendations.
Jessie Ott (21:53)
Gotcha.
Nice.
Who are you using for machine learning?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (22:16)
Well, from the very start, we're on AWS, and we've been very happy with that. Obviously, we're open to new technologies. We like to keep things simple, honestly. A lot of the things that we do, we could definitely make it more sophisticated, but we only go as fast.
Jessie Ott (22:21)
Okay.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (22:38)
and as advanced as our customers. don't want it because we're operating on the basis that the industry that we serve, yes, they may be low tech, but really it's not about over engineering something. It's all about solving a problem.
And the smallest denomination of a solution that you can to solve that problem, the better because you can move quicker. You don't require a lot of resources. So you can have a longer vision of having an AI powered recommendation platform, which is what we're building towards.
but we're trying to be customer first. If we can solve it with the smallest amount of technology, we will because technology changes all the time. We want to be very agile.
Jessie Ott (23:21)
All the time, yep.
So question, given my background and I tried to put iPads in different things and stores, it came down to, well, where's the electrical outlet? And how are we gonna, you know, there's a lot more to it than just, you know, putting a kiosk in an aisle. I mean, how do you, how did you talk through this with your retail partners?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (23:46)
Well, we give them a lot of options, right? So at the core, parenting is a software company. That software, we can put it on a shelf talker. Like you can access it by QR code, which we've done. And you can also embed that software inside, let's say the groceries own mobile app.
We provide all those different options to use that software and be accessible in different ways, but also make it flexible to be integrated inside existing online or mobile platforms. We don't necessarily have to be the front end, but you're right. Having...
Jessie Ott (24:21)
So, Wick,
that's interesting. So if I'm in Albertsons grocery store, your software may be integrated with theirs. That is pretty cool.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (24:26)
Yes.
Exactly. That's what's exciting about it. We could...
And it could be the grocery's own apps. It could be Instacart, Uber Eats, right? We want to be that recommendation as a service that can be embedded inside any existing online and mobile platforms. But for now, we have our kiosk. And yes,
Jessie Ott (24:50)
That's great. Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (24:54)
It needs power. And so that's why we have to partner with our retail grocery store. Even though the wineries have paved the way, we still have to look at the store layout and figure out the right place for that kiosk.
Jessie Ott (25:08)
Yeah, yeah for sure. And then do you put it in front of the food you know that you're buying or do you put it in the wine aisle? You know I guess you just kind of learn what works for each location.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (25:13)
again.
Correct. And we're actually doing that right now. We have a national brand. They want to roll it out. They have 400 stores. We're starting with one particular state. So it's really exciting. And what's nice is that everyone is aligned. They have to do something different. The old traditional way of marketing wine no longer works. All those little shop talkers, the neck tags, even
when they have those little placards with the wine ratings for today's, yeah.
Jessie Ott (25:56)
Yeah, well there's so many
ratings that it's kind of gotten diluted, right?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (26:02)
And for
the younger people, it may not mean anything.
Jessie Ott (26:05)
Yeah. Which Jim Laube just died. I just read that today or yesterday. Yeah, did a lot for... He was young, 72?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (26:10)
Yeah.
Yeah, that's young. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (26:17)
That's really young, yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (26:19)
So that's why it's exciting right now because we know that the industry is changing, the consumers are driving the change, to be honest, and we're stuck in the traditional ways of doing things, which creates opportunities for us, right? And we have a lot of passionate people in this industry
Jessie Ott (26:19)
Huh. Anyway. Sidebar. Sorry.
Mm-hmm.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (26:45)
That's going to make it happen.
Jessie Ott (26:48)
So explain how this would work. So who's your ideal winery customer? And does the retailer, what's in it for them? they pay also or are they just sort of the upside of this whole program?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (27:04)
So
our ideal customer profile are the wineries, right? Which our sweet spot are really the small wineries. But we are in discussions with large wine producers. Where it makes sense is that they are having a hard time with their current marketing tools or strategies.
Jessie Ott (27:26)
strategies.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (27:27)
that they need to stand out for their consumers. Basically, it's a problem of not connecting with their own ideal customer profile. How are they going to find them? How are they going to connect with them? And how are they going to put their brand in front of those customers? That's the problem that we're trying to solve. And right now, what's interesting is that there's already a marketing budget.
Jessie Ott (27:36)
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (27:48)
the shopper marketing budget or market development fund that they allocate to help sell their wines in the retail stores. We're just providing the digital alternative to that. Now for the retail partners, what's in it for them? Well, when wine sales go up, of course the grocery sales go up, right? So they would love any help, especially when they're shorthanded. Like you said, they may not have a wine steward in the aisle.
They would love to have that help. having a tool that creates a connected experience, their shoppers, is a game changer. And then additionally, if we're able to provide insights about their shoppers that they can't get anywhere else, what a humongous bonus that is. So down the road, we, down the road, we can provide them
Jessie Ott (28:23)
Mm-hmm.
100%.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (28:42)
this value add of the analytics.
And that's something that we would love to co-create with the retailers and figure out how else we can add value to them. And it's all about, again, knowing the customer and how to create that personalized experience. And it starts with creating that connected environment, making that in-store experience elevated, but also to cultivate that return shopping experience.
Jessie Ott (29:12)
Awesome. Well, should we show the presentation you created? Okay, I'll get that ready.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (29:16)
Yes.
Jessie Ott (29:20)
There's your favorite meal right here.
Chicken adobo. So for you that are listening, we'll talk through the presentation. It's just a few pages that we wanted to kind of walk through to get sort of a better idea of the program and how it works. So I guess this is an idea, this is a look of what it looks like inside once you get going. Okay. She's got some mom juice on here.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (29:43)
You can...
Jessie Ott (29:46)
We've got a dessert with apple caramel cheesecake. We've got with a rose. We've got pulled tacos with a sauvignon blanc and then Lake County red blend with the chicken adobo. Yummy yum. That looks so good.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (30:04)
So we talked about
the challenge for the consumers, right? The walls and walls of wine. And this is how it is. You're faced with that. And if you advance to the next slide, so what I saw, first I had a consumer lens on, and I realized the industry is not talking to someone like me from a diverse background. Then I turned my lens.
Jessie Ott (30:14)
Yes.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (30:32)
and looked at it different way. Imagine if it's hard for us consumers, what is it like for all the independent wine brands out there trying to reach out to consumers like me? And so I wanted to be able to make that connection through PairAnything.
And so if you could advance, I'll quickly show you. What we have developed is we have our software that we now have in a kiosk. And with this kiosk, now we're able to learn about the wine. You can enter what am I having for dinner and to be able to come up with a specific recommendation that you can then purchase in the store. It's a very unique approach to how
you can personalize that shopping experience in a way, you know, having like a digital sommelier experience is how I would look at it. And so the problem that we're trying to solve really is now I know parents can be very subjective. You know, we're all unique. It's the reason why we ask a few questions just to make sure that it's not a generic response. And what we're trying to focus on really is to make it easy for shoppers who don't have a lot of time to research
Jessie Ott (31:29)
Okay.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (31:51)
you know, what goes with what, we're trying to make it easy for them to make that purchasing decision.
Jessie Ott (31:58)
Okay. Makes sense. Next slide.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (32:02)
Yes, let's continue. And so as I had mentioned earlier, what we heard from our retail partners is that they're very much vested in trying to support wine sales, right? Because it has a network effect, right? When you put wine in a basket, it actually increases how much shoppers can spend because they're then picking up, this wine goes well with like, you know,
chicken piccata, then I'm going to go get my chicken in the grocery aisle, plus get all the different ingredients along with that recipe. Now, what's nice about this is that you've actually enhanced that shopping experience.
and you've actually now created a unique connected experience because now they can scan the QR code on that kiosk to be able to maybe look at a recipe or if they want additional pairing recommendations, they can also get that. So it's not just having the...
Jessie Ott (33:05)
Do you have...
Do you have coupons?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (33:09)
We can't. mean, that's something that we want to co-create with our retailers. How else do they want to extend the connected experience?
Jessie Ott (33:17)
Yeah, buy this chicken, get a dollar off one way or the other. Yeah.
like increase in your basket ring.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (33:25)
so this is just a, we can play this and we can show it. You can see it real in real in a real life.
Jessie Ott (33:31)
That looks pretty good. We're watching Kristi eat sushi rolls and the key are me.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (33:39)
That's what our wine partner, Swiss wine importer, and imagine how hard it is for most independent brands to have to now introduce a wine that's from a small wine producing country, Switzerland.
Jessie Ott (33:45)
Yummy.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (33:55)
And some of these varietals like Petite Arvine, not many people have heard of it. So we're able to help even those, let's say obscure producers to actually stand out and find the ideal customer profiles that would appeal to that brand.
Jessie Ott (34:00)
Great.
Yeah, I mean that commercial just sold me and it should sell every sushi operator in the country. That's pretty awesome.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (34:19)
you
So that,
I mean, who would have thought that sushi would pair well with this sweet Swiss Alpine varietal called Petite Arvine. That's pretty phenomenal. And so on the backend, just because we're analyzing what consumers or shoppers are searching, based on that user interaction with our software, we have this amazing ability to now
Jessie Ott (34:36)
It is.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (34:50)
analyze for the retailers and for the wineries themselves what their customers are preferring. And also we can provide to them what's trending. And that's something that's valuable for the retailers because they may not have that information. And I know even for the smaller regional stores, they don't have the ability to be able to...
to know that much information. And so this is a great opportunity to not only just make recommendations and create an immediate sales opportunity, but to be able to have the trends and to now use this data to create an even more elevated experience. And that may actually help them how they want to run their wine and beverage program.
Jessie Ott (35:41)
Yeah, okay.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (35:42)
So again, this is like another added benefit for our retailers is they don't have to use this on the wine aisle. We've done some prototyping. We're on the...
Meet Aisle, they can create a QR code that also makes recommendations. It all depends on the kind of experience that they want. We can be on shelf talkers, the Aisle blades. There's many ways that they can use our software. We're just really taking their lead on where our technology can help.
make that wine buying decision easy. And from there, we can then make that recommendation, but also feed back a little bit more data about their shoppers.
Jessie Ott (36:30)
Very cool.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (36:31)
And I'm really excited that since we've got our start winning that UC Davis business competition, that we work with small producers, with large retailers, some really family-owned, several generations of wineries that are trying to provide their handcrafted wine.
to the customers that can appreciate them, right? And with all the, I would say the mass marketed choices out there, I think as consumers, we crave for something that's kind of unique, something that maybe aligns with our values, with our maybe dietary preferences or health and wellness preferences. So it's nice to have all these choices, but we want to be able to
cut through all the noise or the different choices, The overwhelmingness of assortments out there and to make it easy for us to get what we want and to make that informed decision and to be happy with it. And what we're trying to do with PairAnything is to create enjoyment by making that purchasing decision easy. And how we do that is really helping the producers connect with their ideal customers. And we love to partner with retail partners
that provides this benefit to their shoppers.
Jessie Ott (38:03)
Yeah, for sure. think you're, I mean, this is certainly unique. It's something that is not out there in the marketplace. So, I mean, you've come a long way and...
have really developed a great opportunity. couldn't come at a better time because people really do need something different to separate them from the rest. mean, Constellation is now selling all their wine brings like who would have thought? I mean, the world is just a different place and we've got to adapt to it. And the wine industry needs to adapt to the current marketplace. And so, we got to add in flow, we got to...
be prepared for whatever can happen. I don't think anybody in the world ever thought Constellation would ever get rid of winegrins.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (38:52)
mean, they're the
second largest wine company out there. And their exit is sending shivers in this industry. And this is what I mean about how things are changing really fast. It's really important to be open-minded, to put our customers, the consumers first, and adapt.
Jessie Ott (38:56)
Thank
Yep.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (39:14)
to how we can best serve them. We're still going to make these amazing products handcrafted with a lot of passion. You need to align it with the consumers that can share and appreciate that passion.
Jessie Ott (39:16)
Yep.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I can only imagine that there's so many wine companies out there. I need to connect you to Ben. Have I connected you with Ben Salisbury yet?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (39:42)
I know the name. Let's do that. I'm not sure. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (39:43)
He's,
he'd be a great resource and vice versa for your wineries. That's why I connected you with Isabel too, because I think there's some, yeah, I think there's some big synergies with what she's doing with the sensory data and analysis and scientific way to approach it, you know, within your tasting rooms and the, and how you could probably add a lot of that information into even your questionnaire.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (39:48)
Mm-hmm.
she's amazing.
And we're very much aligned, and I really appreciate that connection. We're very much aligned about the focus on consumer behavior and the use of the software to be able to make informed purchasing decisions. And there's definitely a lot more thought and research to do that. And this is reason why partnering with like-minded people
Jessie Ott (40:10)
You know?
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (40:34)
that see it in a different way that I do and to partner, to come together so that we can do something even more compelling. Doing it alone kind of limits you because you only have one perspective. Partnering with someone with a different perspective creates like this magnifying effect. That's why I really enjoy talking to you, Jessie. mean,
Jessie Ott (40:36)
Right.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (40:58)
You have this amazing platform where you're exposed to so many different amazing leaders in this industry, thought leaders, and you're able to distill that for the rest of us and to also be a power connector. I'm deeply grateful for that.
Jessie Ott (41:14)
good. I love connecting people where it makes sense. Like I just connected this brand here, Momo's Michellata mix. They were at the state fair and
I don't drink beer, but I was like, okay, I'll try it. He's an entrepreneur in Texas. He's from Austin. Let me try it. Well, it turns out this is the, this is, there's no tomato in here. It's all citrus. And it was the best, um, Micalata I have ever had. And so I'm like, well, maybe there's some synergies with some, this nonop, this go brewing nonop, I don't know if they do it, but I just, I see things and I'm like, I got to
I gotta connect these people because there's synergies there and it makes me happy to do so.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (41:58)
Well, I just want to highlight the way you express that and the passion. It's really inspiring because I felt your energy. It's like, I want to make the world a better place. And that's what I'm sensing, right? And I could do that by connecting people.
Jessie Ott (42:10)
Yeah.
Yeah, like you're saying, it's better to do it with a partner. You know?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (42:19)
everything,
everything is. Don't do it. Don't do anything alone. One, you know, the journey, you don't want it to be lonely. And you end up with a lot of time into it. It's so much more fun if you could do it with others. And how great to, to co-invent with somebody to learn. mean, there's a lot of learnings in this journey, right? And to also just, yeah, you know that. And we've, you know, we've spoken a couple of times.
Jessie Ott (42:33)
Yeah.
Yeah, lot of learning.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (42:45)
I've learned so much from you and I really appreciate just you being a sounding board, you helping me connect the dots has been tremendously helpful in my journey.
Jessie Ott (42:55)
Good. I'm glad I could help be his help. That's awesome. See, that's what it's all about. If a wireie wanted to get in touch with you or retailer, how do they get in touch with you?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (43:06)
They can get in touch with me on my website. They can also connect with me by email. It's, you know, Christy, C-H-R-I-S-T-Y at pairanything.com. I get called upon to speak. ⁓ it's a website. Correct. And I get called upon to speak at various conferences. So hopefully it's an opportunity to meet in person.
Jessie Ott (43:19)
And pairanything.com is your website. P-A-I-R anything. Yep.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (43:32)
And I'm really just a student and really aspiring to learn from as many people just like you, Jessie, and what I love to learn as well.
Jessie Ott (43:39)
Yeah, I'd love to learn.
And you've been killing it by getting out there. The amount of events and things that you're doing is really incredible. The amount of awards and celebration that you're getting, you're really getting the business out there. That's really to be applauded.
I think that's really amazing and the right thing to do to get out there and get as many views as you can on what you're doing, especially there in wine country. keep it up, keep on keeping on. Is there anything else you want to talk about before we switch kind of over to mentors and resources?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (44:10)
You
No, you're very comprehensive. I think I love all your thoughtful questions. think, yeah, that's good.
Jessie Ott (44:26)
Okay, good. We hit all the corners then. All right. Well, let's start with mentors. Do you have any that you would like to call out today or talk about that kind of was an instrumental in your, any part of your career?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (44:37)
Thank
my gosh, I've been so fortunate to get connected with the Bâtonnage community. They run a mentorship program that I think is very groundbreaking because you have
you know, people that are further along in their careers and they're able to, you know, match you up with them. So when I got started with PairAnything like I said, I was kind of new to the industry, very fortunate to get connected to this Bâtonnage community. And I got partnered with like amazing leaders in hospitality, in the retail, and learned a lot from them. In fact, one of my mentors was the head of adult beverage
at
Target, which obviously helped us open the door there and also allow us to create these amazing experiments which help feed into our product development. And also being able to talk to female winemakers has been amazing because they have the unique perspective. And I find it interesting that we have these
inspiring female winemakers and we know that wine, the majority of the wine purchasers are female, like 85%. In order to help some of these smaller producers that may be female owned, female led, why not...
mobilize women, empowering other women. I haven't quite figured that out, but I feel like if we can do a match-up of these amazing women, both on the consumer side and on the producer side, I think that would be a great way to help the industry forward. And then also in terms of mentorship,
I'm just trying to go back, because I actually call upon them often. But one that stood out is the founder of Sia Scotch Whiskey. So not wine, but the Sia Scotch Whiskey. I really admire her, and she's been a great mentor to me, because she's a Latina, again, a woman of color in the beverage industry. And I was very fortunate enough to win the Sia Scotch
Scotch
whiskey competition to support up and coming people of color entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry. just like UC Davis, I would say that was also part of my foundation with a little bit of the grant money that I got from there. It really helped with a start, but not just the grant money, but the thoughtful mentorship that she provided to me early in my journey.
Jessie Ott (46:53)
Very cool.
Nice. Awesome. All right. Well, what about resources? Any resources you want to share?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (47:16)
As a heel strapping
entrepreneur resources, I just was open to everything. There were several organizations and community. We mentioned, Techstars was a big accelerator for us. There was also the NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center. As you may know, Jessie, have the milestone. Right, we're milestone Circle Sisters, correct.
Jessie Ott (47:35)
Yes, Milestone Circles. Circle Sister. That's
right.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (47:42)
And the other one would be the National Association for Women Business Owners. Imagine having a community, in my case, the Sacramento Valley Chapter, being in a community of like-minded women business owners and entrepreneurs that know what it takes to build a business with limited resources or limited connections, yet we're there for each other.
It's a phenomenal feeling when you know that you're not alone and you have someone that you can lean on. It's nice to be able to have that community. And so I would say, you know, we all have resources that we may not be aware of, but definitely seek them out. I'm happy, you know, to serve as a resource for others as well.
I actively support many entrepreneurial programs in my community just because I know how much I benefited from it. I definitely would love others to have that same foundation to get to accelerate their journey.
Jessie Ott (48:44)
Nice. What about pain points? Do you have any pain points that you've experienced that you've overcome that was, you know, instrumental in PairAnything?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (48:56)
I don't
Jessie Ott (48:58)
Yeah, it's the journey.
It's a struggle.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (49:03)
Well, I don't know if it's exactly pain, but like the challenges that I encountered in a couple of times really is honing in on that customer. Because you think you know your customer, like I thought people like me are my customers, like the consumers. Then I realized consumers don't pay for an app. So that's not going to sustain the business that I'm building. You have to figure out who are the customers that
Jessie Ott (49:14)
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (49:31)
our challenge that are really looking to pay someone to solve their problem. So to me, that was like the biggest hurdle that I continue had to refine. secondly, I know people say it's like limited capital. Jessie, you know this, like not having the resources, right? How I overcome that, and I still overcome this to this day is you learn to be...
Jessie Ott (49:40)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (49:57)
scrappy and resourceful. Just assume that you have no resources, no financial resources, yet you're still going to get it done. It's an opportunity for you to really be inventive, to be resourceful. I mean, that's what it needs to be scrappy. You you gotta always maintain that mindset that you're gonna succeed, you're gonna
Jessie Ott (50:06)
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (50:27)
accomplish your dreams, hopefully with other people along the journey, but you are going to make it happen. I absolutely believe that in me that what I envision, I'm going to make it happen because I absolutely believe what I can contribute to this industry. And I want to do it. How it's going to happen may take time or not. It's just a matter of experiencing all the
Jessie Ott (50:30)
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (50:53)
the ups and downs of this journey and just having the resilience to not give up.
Jessie Ott (50:57)
Yeah.
Well, and that's, you know, I was going to say, I've asked a couple of people to define what an entrepreneur is and, you know, it's true grit, it's hard, it's a struggle, it's determination, it's all the things that you got to believe in yourself and you got to believe in your mission and you got to believe in your company that it's going to work because you got to convince everybody else it's going to too, you know.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (51:20)
One thing I would
adjust is for all of us, for me and for you and for others, for now, let's stop thinking that it's hard. Let's just not think about that it's going to be hard. Let's just assume that whatever is in front of us, we're going to accomplish and overcome. Let's put our intention that it's going to be easy, right? But enough of us thinking that.
Hopefully we manifest an easy path to our goals.
Jessie Ott (51:51)
Yeah.
Yep. Just have to take on one obstacle at a time. And you focus all the energies you manifest, you get it, you find a solution, then you go to the next one.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (52:03)
And Jessie,
I got you, right? And I hope that you got me too. We're there for each other. And why would we not succeed, right? mean, we're two amazing founders here, two amazing entrepreneurs trying to make the world a better place. Who would not want to support us?
Jessie Ott (52:09)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Absolutely.
Exactly. My thoughts exactly. What is your outlook? I know that we've kind of touched base on it a little bit, but do you have any anything you want to talk about in terms of the wine industry? Or even in terms of your own business?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (52:35)
So three years forward, what I envision really is the consumer has ownership of their preferences, right? Because right now we share a lot of data already each time we go online, each time we fill out a form and we don't own that data. We relinquish it.
Jessie Ott (52:51)
Hmm.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (52:56)
Because of my background in technology and identity assurance and what I'm doing with PairAnything, I'm trying to imagine that yes, we can create a personalized experience. We can help sell something that that consumer would want, but why not give ownership of the taste preferences or any kind of, you know, preferences to the consumer so that
It's up to them that owns it, not some of the big tech companies. I don't know how PairAnything will achieve that, but I feel like that's a little bit of where it's heading. We're trying to make recommendations that is catering or tailored to the consumer, but I hope there's a space and opportunity to empower the consumers as well.
Jessie Ott (53:42)
Mm-hmm.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (53:49)
to own their preferences and they are able to share it with all their various vendors and partners. And it doesn't go to just one big tech company that kind of owns that data and we're all kind of just at its mercy, to be honest.
Jessie Ott (53:53)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah for sure. Okay, awesome. Well, before I go to my last question, I'm going to just take a guess and, you know, using the word assume that one of your passions is Remy Martin, Hennessy. You've got some good, good products back there. I'd love for you to give us a tour. Is that a Whistle Pig?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (54:22)
okay.
my gosh, so
yes, we've talked about wine, but another passion of mine are definitely spirits, right? I'm very partial to bourbons, but of course, cognac, armagnac. My particular favorite right there is rum, particularly the Zacapa XO.
Jessie Ott (54:47)
you
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (54:47)
It's, I find it to be one of the best rums made from the solera method. And you haven't even seen the attic. I have, I think 600 bottles of wine and probably equal that amount in spirits. So it's the place to be for a party, for sure.
Jessie Ott (55:04)
What?
Why do you have wine in the attic? Is it refrigerated or cooled?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (55:10)
Yeah,
there is, yeah, it is. It's definitely cooler. I have a wine cellar that's obviously for the wine that keeps it refrigerated. But the cellar is the coolest place for us to put the spirits. If you have a favorite, I would love to see if I have it.
Jessie Ott (55:20)
Yeah.
I wouldn't even know where to start. 1200 bottles is amazing. That's a great collection. The problem is some of those wines, you know, they don't last forever, but you probably know what you're doing.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (55:30)
Yeah. When I see you...
Yes.
Well, I've been very fortunate that a lot of my wine friends have given me some. What I try to do is when I research something, like, because there's so many varietals out there, there's so many regions. I've been in 54 countries, but I'm sure there's still countries that I would love to visit. I try to study regions and then immerse myself. That's how I, you know,
Jessie Ott (56:01)
Yeah.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (56:02)
learn to taste different wines and also learn about the terroir and just the culture of that wine.
Jessie Ott (56:10)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. That's really amazing. I didn't know that about you. That's really cool. Okay, that sounds good. Any passions while outside of work?
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (56:14)
Well, I would love to surprise you next time I see you.
I wish I could say that I'm a great cook. I'm not. I do know how to make, I do enjoy, I love food. It's something that I get excited about. If we ever eat together, I get so immersed with all the different aromas. I wanna learn.
Jessie Ott (56:26)
But you enjoy it.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (56:39)
the history of that dish. I want to learn about the person that prepared it. It's just something that's very fascinating because to me, food, like wine, connects us as people and the sharing of the food together, it's what enriches us and binds us together. So I find that very, very meaningful. The whole practice of eating is very meaningful for me. And like I said, I wish I'm a better cook, but I do like to be around people that love to cook.
They're just like the most amazing people because I see the same passion in how they prepare it. They always do it with love and who would not want to be around that?
Jessie Ott (57:15)
Yeah, agreed. Yeah, obviously I'm in the same passion boat with f n b Innovation and the whole thing. So I'm with you, girl. Yeah, it's making me hungry.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (57:21)
Of course!
Yes, I can't wait to surprise you with
what I think hopefully you'd like and hopefully have an opportunity to make you the one and only dish that I know how to make.
Jessie Ott (57:38)
Yes! Chicken adobe! I'm excited! I'm very excited. That will be really awesome. One of these days, one of these days I'll get out of the, I'll get out of the cave, you know, the office cave and see people in the real flesh. It's funny. I've met a lot of people I've never met, you know, obviously through podcasts, but yeah, yeah, for sure.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (57:39)
Correct.
We'll plan on it.
We'll have to make it a point, yeah.
I'm actually...
Jessie Ott (58:01)
I had a chance
and we missed it when you were in Dallas and it was a bummer.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (58:04)
Yes, for the
total solar eclipse.
Jessie Ott (58:08)
Yeah, yeah, we ended up going out in the middle of the country. It was so fun. her, my wife's best friend from high school, her dad loves trains. And so he's got, there's a train track and we literally rode on trains all over this place. It was so fun. And then, you know, obviously
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (58:24)
I love trains.
Jessie Ott (58:26)
They it's a it's I don't want to call it a cult but it's a following people love trains and they go from train to place to train. So there's like 30 other people there that were you know there just to watch the eclipse at the train area. It was so fun.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (58:30)
Yeah.
That is such a unique
experience when you think about it. Like you're combining two different interests, right? Like a phenomena, a natural phenomena, plus your passion for trains.
Jessie Ott (58:43)
Yeah, it was pretty unique.
Yep.
And then we made, made, my wife and I were in charge of drinks, so we made a couple of cocktails and it was fun. We weren't supposed to drink, but we hit it well. Or not. know.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (59:02)
you were able to partake on
your other passion.
Jessie Ott (59:06)
The other week combined all the passions. Yeah, it was fun. Well, Christy this has been a delight. I'm so glad we finally were able to connect up and get you on the podcast and tell your story and get the word out there about PairAnything. I'm excited for you guys this year.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (59:09)
That's amazing.
Jessie, thank you so much. You as a friend, as a colleague, as a thought leader in this space, I just value you. having me on this podcast, it's like a highlight. It's gonna be the highlight of the year for me. It is, because...
Jessie Ott (59:42)
Thank you.
Christy Serrato, PairAnything (59:45)
It's being able to talk to someone of like mind, someone who absolutely inspires me. And we get to talk about things that we're both passionate about. So really, really the best conversation I ever had. So thank you. Hi girls. I will take you upon it. Thank you so much.
Jessie Ott (59:55)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, well, you're welcome. can, you can come on any time. Alrighty, bye bye. Alright, so, this is gonna...
