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Interviews Building a Functional Beverage that Works: Insights From Michael Colangelo
Functional beverage founders know: the idea is the easy part. The hard part is making sure your product is feasible to manufacture, shelf-stable, and something that consumers keep coming back for. That’s where Michael Colangelo, flavor chemist and founder of MC Flavors, shines. In a recent Dry Atlas webinar, he ...
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Interviews What Do Investors Actually Look for in Non-Alc Brands? A Conversation with Jeff Cantalupo
The non-alc beverage space is changing fast, and not every brand is keeping up. New trends pop up by the dozen: functional ingredients, hybrid drinking, and phrases like “social wellness.” Jeff Cantalupo, founder of Listen Ventures, has been paying close attention. As an early backer of wellness brands like Calm ...
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Culture Why is Gen Z Really Drinking Less? And How Non-Alc Brands Can Respond
Gen Z is drinking less alcohol than previous generations. That much, we know. But the why behind this trend is more nuanced than the usual headlines about health consciousness and sober curiosity suggest. A 2023 Gallup survey found that just 62% of adults under 35 say they drink alcohol, down ...
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Latest articles
Formulation What Comes After Adaptogens
For years, functional beverages sold a promise: drink this, feel something. Adaptogens became a primary lever of this segment, with brands betting that consumers leaving alcohol still wanted a beverage that altered their state, and that these ingredients could deliver it. Consumers do want an alcohol alternative that “does something.” ...
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Finance Inside Big Alc’s Invest-to-Acquire Playbook
A large beverage company rarely walks up to a non-alc brand and buys it outright. A slower, more deliberate pattern has emerged over the past decade: a minority venture stake first, several years of observation, then a move to full ownership once the brand proves demand. Three major completed conversions ...
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Distribution What It Actually Takes to Get Into Whole Foods
Many beverage founders treat a Whole Foods buyer meeting as the finish line. The reality is the opposite: the meeting is roughly the midpoint of a process that can run three to five years from first contact, and the common missteps happen long before anyone responds to an email. At ...
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