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BevNET Live NYC 2026
Welcome to the official presentation playlist from BevNET Live NYC 2026, which took place in New York, NY on June 10+11.
Hear directly from some of the beverage industry's most influential entrepreneurs, retailers, investors, and operators as they share strategies for navigating today's beverage landscape. Sessions explore emerging brand performance, retail expansion, fundraising, AI and technology, operational scaling, category disruption, route-to-market strategy, manufacturing, and the evolving relationship between brands, consumers, and retailers.
Featured speakers include Athletic Brewing Co-Founder & CEO Bill Shufelt, Culture Pop Founder & CEO Tom First, Bai Founder Ben Weiss, leaders from Whole Foods Market, Walmart, The Vitamin Shoppe, New Fare Partners, KarpReilly, Morrison Seger VC Partners, and many more.
Videos
State of the Market: Emerging Brands at Mid-Year
Examining the beverage marketplace for trends in consumer, retail, investment and brand performance issues from experts who are in the mix on a daily basis.
Founder Interview: Tom First on the Challenger Mindset
Culture Pop CEO Tom First, a longtime entrepreneur, investor, and board member, shares strategies for keeping brands nimble and lean, with a focus on catching category leaders over the long term.
Retailer Profile: Vitamin Shoppe
Vitamin Shoppe is one of the key stops for functional brands establishing a national footprint. Nicolletta Payne heads beverage decisions for this nutrition and supplement retailer.
Meet the Investor 1: Elly Truesdell, New Fare Partners
Truesdell has spent her entire career building brands, first as a Whole Foods Forager, now as a CPG investor. She discusses the ways she recognizes and fosters breakout potential in her portfolio.
Entrepreneur Interview: Catching Up With Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss, the founder of Bai, sits down for a conversation on entrepreneurship, brand building, investment, and the state of the beverage industry as he launches new brand Crooked Pop.
Disruption at Scale: A Conversation with Athletic Brewing CEO Bill Shufelt
Athletic’s rise has reshuffled the deck of beverage categories. Shufelt shares how he's navigated explosive growth and what he’s learned about raising capital, brand positioning and category creation.
Exit Interview: How Dirty Shirley Cleaned Up
Longtime beverage marketing veteran Adam Kost discusses his lean startup, proof-of-concept strategy, the key insight that gave Dirty Shirley the oxygen it needed to grow.
Meet the Investor 2: Hank Spring, KarpReilly
KarpReilly Managing Director Hank Spring discusses capital deployment and the investor/entrepreneur relationship that takes place as brands mature and scale.
Retailer Profile: Walmart and the Next Generation
How is the world's largest grocer adjusting to meet the next generation of world-changing beverage brands?
Retailer Profile: Launching and Maturing with Whole Foods
A rare founder–buyer conversation on what makes a pitch resonate, how brands can build productive retailer relationships, and what growth actually looks like once you’re on shelf.
New Beverage Showdown Semifinals
12 beverage brands pitched in the semifinal round, including Shinzo, Lyflo, Disco Fizz, Purple Drop, BRAUSE, Cabu Latte, Gingerbug, Umma Juice, Flying Ostrich, Lemonday, Dirty Virgo, and Dad Grass.
New Beverage Showdown Finals, Part 1
Watch Cabu Latte, Dad Grass, and Dirty Virgo pitch in the first round of the New Beverage Showdown finals.
Trip Planning: Inside Breakout Brand Channel Strategy
Trip's got quite an itinerary for its U.S. retail endeavors; its founders take us through their channel calculations and the hard choices they've made on where to focus for momentum.
Meet the Investor 3: Rogers Healy, Morrison Seger VC Partners
Venture Capital firm Morrison Seger, or “MoSe”, has quietly – and quickly – become one of entrepreneurial beverage’s most active investors. Founder Rogers Healy breaks down his perspective.
AI and Online Retail: Brand Building Meets Agentic Commerce
In a special tactical presentation, sales, marketing, and tech experts share a concrete playbook for making your brand legible to AI agents — without gutting what makes it human.
New Beverage Showdown Finals, Part 2
Watch Umma Juice, LYFLO, and Brause pitch in the second round of the New Beverage Showdown finals.
The State of Cannabevs: Strategy on Deadline
With federal regulations about to put this fast-growing industry into a time-out, we look through the lens of brands, distributors, and lobbyists for potential futures for this fast-growing segment.
Term Sheets in the Trenches: Finding the Right Capital Fit
Partners from Morrison & Foerster and Habitat Partners evaluate the fundraising environment from how investors are evaluating beverage opportunities in 2026 to the most common mistakes founders make.
The Long Run: Lessons from the Founders Who Stay (And One Who Came Back)
At least 10 years after first launching, these founders are still leading notable companies, pivoting, racking up wins, absorbing setbacks, finding investors, adding retailers, and spending money.
New Beverage Showdown Winner Announcement and Interview
The 28th edition of the New Beverage Showdown took place during BevNET Live NYC 2026 on June 10-11 in New York, NY. See who won and hear the judges feedback!
Taste Radio Studio - Day 2 Interviews
Watch Taste Radio Studio interviews with Anjali's Cup, Pizza Wine, and H2ALL.
