Parija Kavilanz, (CNNMoney) – When Laura Bartlett came home from dinner with an unfinished bottle of wine, she had no idea it would spark a new business.
“I’d lost the cork and just sealed it with Saran wrap and a rubber band,” she said. “It worked but [my son and I] joked that it looked liked a condom.”
A year later, in January 2014, she and her son Mitchell Strahan took their idea to Kickstarter. The campaign raised just over $9,000, surpassing their goal of $7,500.
From there, the duo relied on Facebook to find customers and distributors. Strahan said they try to respond personally to each fan on the page.
“We started to get direct messages from private wineries in Australia, Spain and France and cruise ship companies,” said Bartlett. “These are people we’d normally never have access to.”
They also use Facebook to showcase viral advertising efforts.
“I recently went to a winery in Texas and my car was painted with the company slogan and logo,” said Strahan. “We launched a ‘spot the car’ campaign on Facebook to get people interested.”
The Wine Condoms started selling last month on the company’s website, and Bartlett hopes to have them in retail stores soon.