WineCredit was founded in 2013 by Patrick Stella. Patrick began WineCredit in order to address the lack of credit available in the fine wine industry. Patrick began his career at Millennium Partners investing in junk bonds and synthetic debt derivatives. He continued to work as an investment professional at several firms, focusing on market high yield debt and project finance transactions until he shifted his career path to work in the wine industry full-time. Patrick is a longtime collector and connoisseur, having worked in the fine wine trade as early as college, when he spent a summer interning in the wine division of Sotheby's New York. Patrick graduated from Stanford University.