Five Minutes With Angela Marotta & Melissa Paolicelli, 2016 Start-up Award Winners

Angela Marotta, CEO & Melissa Paolicelli, General Manager
Two Sisters Vineyard
Start-Up Award

About Their Business

Two Sisters Vineyards, owned by sisters Angela Marotta and Melissa Paolicelli, is a private, family-owned corporation with a purpose to offer a full service prestige destination winery with on-site tasting and retail, restaurant, corporate facilities and offices located in a desirable area of Niagara wine country. It operates from a 76-acre estate in historic Niagara-on-the-Lake. From the start, the vision was to craft Ontario ultra premium VQA wines comparable to international benchmarks.

What does winning this award mean to you?

“The nomination in itself was an honour. The category“start up”, that in itself is representative of all those women who have taken the leap and level of risk to start a business from the ground up. The level of risk that all nominees have taken include monetary risk, emotional risk and most of all the time taken away from our loved ones to set the foundation for a business that you envision to be successful and have longevity. Winning in this category gave us the confidence and reassurance that we have started with the right business plan and vision. That we have tapped into our market the right way and we are producing wines that are highly respected and well regarding as our wines have almost all garnered international and national awards and have scored almost all above 90.”

What have you learned from your years in business?

“What we have learned is that no matter how the economics changes, we will not compromise on the quality or vision we have for our brand. We would look towards reassessing the costs related to the operation than sacrifice on the costs required to continue to produce exceptional wines and service for our patrons and customers. We’ve also reaffirmed how important it is for business leaders and proprietors of any business to understand every aspect of the operation. In our case it is understanding farming, processing of grapes and wine-making, retail and merchandising (including product placement), overall customer service and customer experience and employee standards. As proprietors, we have the responsibility to lead by example and set the foundation now for a well- run and managed business. We are establishing that magic formula that will be followed by generations to come.”

If you were in a room full of entrepreneurs, what is the one piece of advice that you would give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Melissa – “Regardless if the market sways due to various economic factors, never sacrifice the quality or the standards of your product. Evaluate other areas of the operation before you cut costs on production standards.”

Angela – “Take it slow. As women and mothers, we cannot do everything well all the time, you are a better decision maker when working from a clear focused mind than a foggy confused mind.”

About the Staples Start-Up Award

This award celebrates the achievements of an entrepreneur who, in a minimum of three years and a maximum of five years, has developed her business into one that’s ready for the next level of growth. The recipient has been successful in building a profitable business since its inception, and can share a comprehensive and sustainable business plan.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR 2017 NOMINEES! THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION IS JUNE 19th.

Submit your Intent to Apply Today!

Other Awards

Micro Business Award: This entrepreneur owns a small business that generates annual revenues under $1 million.

Telus Trailblazer Award: The recipient of this award is a true trendsetter. She has recognized a new market, product, service, technological advancement or opportunity and led the way.

Social Change Award: This entrepreneur is an exceptional leader of a non-profit or charitable organization dedicated to helping others.

RBC Momentum Award: This entrepreneur has successfully capitalized on opportunities to deliver 10% or more growth, year-over-year for three years or more. 

TEC Canada Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship: This entrepreneur has launched and built one or more successful companies with a track record of growth and profitability over a period of at least 10 years.