Raghav Kher has started companies around online marketplaces (Imandi.com); IT automation (Rendition Networks); and movie rentals (India’s Seventymm).

Now, the Seattle area entrepreneur, inspired by a trip to Oregon’s wine and beer country a few years ago, is going after his true passion: Beer.

Kher has partnered with former Rendition Networks engineer Rick Lamareaux to build a new social networking and daily deal site called LetsPour, which is attempting to transform the way consumers find new craft beers and wines.

Kher says he loves nothing better than a glass of chilled beer on a sunny afternoon. But he actually came up with the idea after asking friends for suggestions on beers and wines, keeping a list in his pocket of their top picks.

“The list started growing longer and longer and I quickly realized that some of these products were not easily available — so I thought why not build a site where users can recommend beers and wine they love, ask questions, post comments and finally buy their favorite beverages? Hence, LetsPour was created and is now the social commerce site for craft beer and wine,” he says.

Raghav Kher

The idea is that a beer lover in Cleveland could find a hot deal on exotic malty beverages from Oregon or Washington. Kher notes that most of the beers sell out in less than 30 minutes.

While the craft beer business may not seem that large, Kher points out that it draws about $10 billion annually and is growing 15 percent year-over-year.

For whatever reason, we’ve come across a number of beer-oriented sites recently, including Oregon’s TapLister.

Kher, who also helped get online language learning site LiveMocha off the ground, likes to think big. And he’s certainly attempting to do that with LetsPour, which today announced that it has more than 100,000 members and unveiled a new smartphone app (initially for Android with iOS expected later this month) at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado.

“We expect to build a large business within this segment,” he says.

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