Hot Gossip: A Conversation with Jen Pelka

Jen Pelka's Une Femme Wines

The founder of The Riddler and Une Femme wines on working with the best, surviving compounding loss, and building a wine brand that went to space.

Jen Pelka has built her career around one principle: always work with the best. From staging at Danielle restaurant with a single Crate & Barrel knife to founding The Riddler champagne bars and creating Une Femme wines, her trajectory reflects audacious vision paired with operational discipline.

In this conversation, Jen discusses the period when COVID forced her to close The Riddler, her house burned down in wildfires, and she lost her father, and how she transformed that compounding loss into strategic fuel for building what she believes will be the best canned wine company in America. She shares her "first, best, or only" positioning framework, the mechanics of setting SMART goals that enable bold asks, and why she's determined to prove that a woman-led wine brand can achieve a banner-level exit.

This episode offers tactical insights on leadership, the operational value of strategic clarity, and why resilience functions as a decision rather than a disposition.

Listen to our full conversation with Jen Pelka on Hot Gossip, available on all podcast platforms.

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