The Wine Glass That Broke the Internet (Or At Least My Comments Section)
Why the best customer research sometimes comes from your comments section
It’s been a minute. Two months, actually. And a lot has happened - Pizzana is full steam ahead with some exciting things in the works, I’ve been doing a lot of partnership work with LinkedIn, just returned from an incredible wedding celebration in St. Moritz Switzerland, celebrated a 50th birthday in Nashville, and somewhere in between all of that, my wine glasses went viral.
Not in the way you plan for. In the way that only the internet can deliver - completely sideways, totally unscripted, and honestly kind of amazing.
It started with a comment on a video about Pizzana’s Cacio Club loyalty app, of all things. Someone commented that they loved Pizzana, but hated our wine glasses. That comment quickly rose to the top of the pack. Over the next few days as that video continued to build momentum, something remarkable happened - thousands of our customers and thousands more people who have never even set foot in a Pizzana, started showing up to debate the merits of our stemware. What makes an acceptable vessel for wine, or an unacceptable one. Whether a stem is a right or a privilege. If the glass makes the wine or the wine makes the glass.
I am not exaggerating when I say it became a national debate.
And here’s what I love about it: there was so much value in those comments. Real, honest, unfiltered customer feedback that I never would have gotten from a survey or a focus group. As someone who has always believed in looking for trends - not reacting to every single piece of feedback, but watching for patterns - this was not a trend. This was a tsunami.
The part that really made my ears perk up? People telling me they were avoiding ordering wine at Pizzana because of the glasses. As anyone in the restaurant business knows, alcohol sales are everything. When customers are opting out of wine because of the vessel it comes in, that’s worth paying attention to.
What I also realized, reading through comment after comment, was that I had done a terrible job of telling the story behind our glassware. We chose our wine glasses intentionally. Pizzana is an Italian-inspired concept, and the vision was always to replicate that bodega or cafe feeling you get in Italy - casual, unpretentious, wine poured straight from the bottle into a simple glass. We wanted it to feel like you were sitting at a little table somewhere in Naples, not at a formal tasting.
When I explained that, something shifted. I watched people go from “she clearly knows nothing about wine” to “oooooh, I get it.” A few vocal critics became converts. That moment reminded me how much storytelling matters. Not just for marketing, but for creating context around every decision you make as a founder. If people don’t understand the why, they’ll fill in the blank themselves, and they won’t always fill it in kindly.
Of course, not everyone was moved by the Italian bodega vision. There is a very passionate, very vocal contingent of people who will not drink wine without a stem and consider the stemless glass a personal affront. I respect the commitment.
And then - just when I thought I had a read on the room - the supporters arrived. “We love those glasses, don’t change a thing.” “All the coolest restaurants in Brooklyn have those.” Which, as someone who has spent time innovating in a space where being early often means being misunderstood, I found deeply gratifying and a reminder that taking the unexpected path often comes with friction.
So here I am. A week ago wine glasses were not on my radar. Now I am poring through catalogs, debating stem widths and goblet sizes, and having conversations with my team that I genuinely did not see coming. We are in full analysis mode.
This is the beauty of being a forward-facing founder. When you keep the channels open - when you actually show up, read the comments, engage with your customers - you get information that you cannot buy. Sometimes it’s hard to hear. Sometimes it sends you down a rabbit hole of Riedel versus Zalto debates at midnight. But it is always worth it.
The customers who care enough to tell you what they think are the ones who want you to get it right. That’s not noise - that’s information. And if you’re paying attention, it can change things — sometimes in ways you never expected, like reconsidering a design choice you thought was settled, or realizing you’ve been sitting on a story you forgot to tell.
More updates on the great Pizzana wine glass decision to come. In the meantime - stem or no stem? I genuinely want to know.
XO,
candace
P.S. I've been thinking about bringing some video content to Substack - conversations with some of the remarkable female founders in my world. Would that be something you'd want to see? And if so, are there particular topics or even specific people you'd love to hear from? Reply and let me know - I read every response.
No stem. I find them to be a hazard. I have knocked over a few glasses in my time. So glasses with stems scare me lol. They do set a certain tone though and do present a certain sophistication however, I prefer and do enjoy drinking from a glass that I can hold in my palm. Sounds weird, but I feel connected to my drink. Like, when having a hot drink, I prefer to hold the body of the mug instead of the handle. It feels more intimate.
Yes to video!!!!!