Charity spills from Hope Wine sales

Young. Energetic. Smart. Experienced. Socially responsible. Full of hope.

The eight 20-somethings behind Hope Wine embody all those qualities and more.

While they represent the entrepreneurial spirit that defines their generation, their goal is “to grow Hope Wine into one of the largest and most recognized brands of wine in the United States and at the same time donate millions of dollars to charity.”

Kristen Senseman, 24, Alyse Gome, 28, Brandon Hall, 25, Tom Leahy, 29, Jake Kloberdanz, 24, Tiffany Goodman, 24, Sarah Gora, 24 and Blake Perry, 25, are friends and business partners combining charitable causes — AIDS, autism and breast cancer — with three varietals of wine, and marketing the concept to restaurants and grocery stores from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Before starting their own company, the group worked as sales reps for one of the industry leaders in the wine-making business.

While they described it as a difficult job because they worked such long hours, Senseman said they were a “family” and were reluctant to name the company they left in January because “we loved our experience there, and don’t want to invalidate that experience by having people think we left for negative reasons.”

Kloberdanz was the first to leave and his friends described him as the mastermind behind the operation — the “go-to-guy” and the one who saw an opportunity to take retail sales and a “good cause” to a new level.

Leahy said when they were selling wine to grocery stores Kloberdanz realized that retailers who normally wouldn’t get excited about the product they were pushing would get very excited when there was a “charitable push” behind it.

Trouble was, that “push” only lasted for a short time.

“Jake thought, why just capture that one month or six-week period of sales when you can do something like have a year-round push and still have the money go to a charitable organization?” Leahy said.

They don’t have an office, they don’t have any other staff and they personally deliver bottles and cases of wine to their customers themselves.

And they’re still working long hours, but for all of them, there’s purpose behind their endeavors.

“Every day when you come home, you feel so good about what you’re doing,” Senseman said.