In 2023, Jamila Conley attended a winemaker’s dinner in Seattle, and as the night commenced, she was surprised that out of the nine winemakers in attendance, only two were familiar to her. “It was a celebration of Black women and wine,” she recalls. “I’m someone who loves wine and has a strong passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I remember looking around this dinner and thinking, ‘Who are all these winemakers I didn’t even know I could be supporting?’”

At the time, Conley was a corporate executive with two decades of experience at companies including T-Mobile, Amazon, and F5. She had an interest in wine sparked by time spent in France during business school, but “it was at that dinner where something changed for me,” she says. “I started getting extremely interested in understanding the operational barriers in wine and what diversity looks like in the wine industry.”

In the weeks and months that followed, Conley couldn’t stop thinking about a potential mission-driven venture in wine. She was still working in tech, and at the same time, involved with the One Seattle Civic Partnership committee, which aimed to revitalize downtown in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic. Realizing that a wine bar in the heart of Seattle would bridge the gap between her interests, Conley secured a space on Second Avenue near Pike Place Market and opened WeRise at the start of 2025, focusing on pours from underrepresented wineries and winemakers.

“The vast majority are from Washington,” Conley says of the BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women-owned labels, “but we have wines from South Africa, California, Oregon, and all over the place.” Part of her mission is helping smaller wineries that aren’t in a traditional distribution pipeline, and she lets winemakers come in weekly to host tastings and spread the word about their product.

But WeRise isn’t just about the producers; it’s important to Conley that every single person who walks through the door feels comfortable, regardless of their level of familiarity with wine. “I wanted to build an inclusive space where people can come in and say, ‘I don’t know anything about wine,’ or ‘All I know is that I like red wine, but I don’t know anything about grapes,’ and we have an opportunity to explore that with them.”

Last fall, WeRise launched its private label to extend the brand’s reach—Conley has her sights set on spaces like airport lounges, sporting arenas, and corporate team-building events—and continue amplifying winemakers and enlightening patrons. “It’s fun to see people open up their palette,” she says, “and not be afraid to order something new.”