Wine is best enjoyed chilled. However, putting it in the fridge takes time, and using ice can dilute the drink’s flavor. With VoChill, you don’t have to worry about any of that. The device is a wine glass chiller that can keep your beverage at the perfect temperature at all times. Founders Lisa and Randall Pawlik, pitched their business on Shark Tank but didn’t get a deal. As of 2023, VoChill is worth an estimated $5 million.
About the Founders
Lisa and Randall Pawlik are a married couple based in Austin, Texas. Randall is a self-proclaimed tinkerer who is skilled in CAD design, and Lisa is a communication graduate from The University of Texas at Austin.
As a kid Randall always loved the idea of starting a business. He used to sell pecans to his teachers and grapefruits from his family’s farm. Moreover, he was fond of dismantling machines to understand how they worked.
His partner, Lisa, first worked as a business development associate at the Australian Trade Commission and spent ten years at HEB as an innovation research analyst and marketing manager.
Founding the Company
The Pawliks are wine enthusiasts who like to take their time while drinking. While enjoying wine at a bar, they got tired of their chilled wine quickly losing its perfect condition due to the Texas heat.
They wanted something that would preserve the temperature without obstructing the wine-drinking experience. This inspired Randall to design a stylish chiller that can hold an individual wine glass and always keep it cool.
Randall worked on stemmed and stemless versions of the product. Both have to be placed in the freezer before use. His wife decided to leave her steady job to serve as CEO of VoChill, which launched in 2020.
Getting on Shark Tank
Finding investors and manufacturers took longer than expected, but the VoChill founders were fortunate to find a number of business partners who have a strong belief in the startup. The company hasn’t had any trouble attracting media attention and has featured on NBC News and USA Today.
They also got a huge boost in sales as Oprah Winfrey named VoChill one of her favorite list of things in 2022. The company’s early sales were respectable, but Lisa and Randall Pawlik needed to scale the business. The couple were thrilled to grab a spot on episode 10 of season 14 and got to pitch in front of guest Shark Gwyneth Paltrow.
After Shark Tank
After VoChill’s episode aired in January 2023, they experienced the infamous “Shark Tank effect”. Appearing on national TV is a million dollar ad and the business should have made at least $100,000 in revenue from the publicity.
Currently, there are two ways to get your hands on the wine glass chiller. The first is through their website, VoChill.com and the other is through Amazon. On Amazon, the stemmed version of the product is selling well and has a rating of 4.6 stars from 800 reviews.
Overall reviews are positive but some customers have complained their drink didn’t stay cold for long. Some of the reviews were from people who received it as a gift and praised its snazzy design. It seems to be a popular present for Christmas and Mother’s Day!
Over the years a lot of wine products have been pitched on Shark Tank but with mixed success. ProntoBev was also a wine chiller, they got a deal with Kevin O’Leary but the company flopped and is still in the prototype stage. But then there’s Copa Di Vino which is now worth $25 million! Fingers crossed VoChill can become the next huge success story on Shark Tank!
