Just In Time for Holiday Gifting and Entertaining, Lasso Launches, Offering Same Day Delivery of Wine, Spirits, Specialty Foods, and More

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Lasso (www.lassoit.com) launched an online service offering on-demand, same day delivery of wine, spirits, specialty foods, and more from the best local merchants, just in time to assist busy holiday party throwers, party goers, and gift givers. To celebrate its launch, the company is offering San Francisco area residents free same day delivery. A lifeline for anyone who needs to put together a memorable last minute event or gift, with Lasso you can order a bottle of champagne, fresh cheese, & charcuterie and have it delivered in less than two hours or up to 30 days in advance. Available on desktop and through an iPhone app, Lasso currently serves San Francisco with more markets coming soon. Lasso is the first online service to provide same day delivery of spirits in San Francisco.

"Lasso's mission is to help reconnect people with the best local stores in their community, starting with artisan beverage and food purveyors," said Adam Zbar, co-founder and CEO of Lasso. "During our pre-launch trial, we were excited to see unexpectedly fast sales growth and large order sizes validating the strong latent demand and product market fit for our service."

"We built Lasso to make shopping locally as easy and convenient as shopping online," added co-founder and CTO Braxton Woodham. "During the hectic holiday season, we offer the fastest and easiest way to host an event and send gifts locally."

The company also announced it closed a $1.7M seed financing round led by PivotNorth Capital and including investments from Baseline Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, and Relevance Capital. High profile angel investors include Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO Joyus, former president of Asia/Latin America, Google; Ted Meisel, former CEO Overture (acquired by Yahoo for $1.6B); and Lars Albright and Andy Miller, co-founders of Quattro Wireless (acquired by Apple for $275M). The company will use the funds to develop the service, build technology and scale the business.

"At PivotNorth, we like world-class founders disrupting very large markets with innovations in computer science," said Tim Connors, PivotNorth's founder. "Lasso has architected a first-to-market service that connects consumers with local inventory in the $4.7 trillion local retail shopping market."

Lasso supports small businesses and plays a pivotal role in extending their distribution and providing an important new revenue channel.

"Especially during the holidays, our bandwidth to acquire new customers and distribution channels is limited," said Ray Bair, owner of Cheese Plus in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood, which is one of Lasso's merchant partners at launch. Added Michael Priolo, an owner of The Jug Shop, "Since working with Lasso, we're pleased to say we've seen an increase in our wine and spirit sales, generating thousands of dollars a week in additional revenue for our store."

Just in time for the holidays, Bair and Priolo have curated their top local gifts, luxury gifts, holiday cocktails, and gift baskets on Lasso that are sure to impress any party host or guest and can be delivered within two hours. A few special items they recommended include:

• Robert Lampert Fruitcake – Locally made based on Robert's grandma's recipe;
• Fog City Gift Basket – Our favorite basket of local artisan goodies;
• Imperial Grand Reserve 2004 – Wine Spectator's 2013 Wine Of The Year Award;
• Veuve Clicquot Champagne – Comes in regular and magnum sized bottles;
• Hemingway Daiquiri – Celebrate the holidays with one of Papa's favorites.

To order same day wine, cheese and more, or for more information, please visit www.lassoit.com or download the iPhone app: http://bit.ly/12rqRqw. To inquire about joining Lasso's online marketplace, please contact [email protected]. To follow Lasso on Facebook and Twitter, go to http://www.facebook.com/lassoit.com and @lassolocal.

About Lasso
Lasso (www.lassoit.com) is an online service offering on-demand, same day delivery of artisan wine, beer, spirits, and soda as well as fresh cheese, charcuterie, sweets and more from 5-star rated wine, spirits, and gourmet food shops. The company is the first online service to provide on-demand, same day delivery of spirits in San Francisco, and all alcohol on Lasso's site is sold by licensed California retailers. Built by a Webby-winning team, Lasso is available on the web and on mobile and was recently featured by Apple in their "Entertainment Made Easy" App Store section. The company has raised funding from PivotNorth Capital, Baseline Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Relevance Capital and several angel investors. Lasso is headquartered in San Francisco in the historic Firehouse 8, and currently services San Francisco.

SOURCE Lasso