The VentureFuel Visionaries

Meet the 2022 New York MilkLaunch Champion: SPYLT, a high-protein, low-sugar, creamy, dairy-based chocolate "Energy Drink" loaded naturally with essential nutrients like calcium, B vitamins, potassium, vitamin D, and protein. SPYLT is not only focused on high-quality ingredients but is obsessed with the environment and that is why it comes in an aluminum 12 oz. can because of its environmental benefits over plastic. Join us as we sit down with SPYLT’s Founder & Chief Brand Officer, Josh Mendenhall to talk about why he founded SPYLT, the opportunity for dairy based drinks in the $61.2B global energy drink market & what this year’s accelerator means to him and his company as they seek to keep Gen Z consumers connected to the dairy category.

This week we sit down with Silvia Santiago, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Maestra Ronera, Master Blender at Destilería Serrallés. Besides being responsible for the entire manufacturing process, starting with purchasing sugarcane molasses up to bottling the finished product, blending, and tasting distillates and aged products is part of Silvia’s daily work. Destilería Serrallés is a rum producer located in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and is best known for its Don Q rum brand. Serrallés is Puerto Rico's oldest family-owned company. We speak with Silvia about her career and how she became the first female Master Blender in Puerto Rico – anchored by a lifelong curiosity and love of learning; how to preserve time honored tradition while ‘shaking the tree,’ to drive change and the human side of innovation; finally, we discuss sustainability: Don Q is one of the most environmentally sustainable distilleries in the region – if not the world; Silvia shares with us why sustainability matters to the manufacturing process, the company and the people at Serrallés.

Can startups help to end senior poverty and enable dignified aging in place? Paolo Narciso, VP of Product and Program Development and Optimization at AARP Foundation and Nima Roohi Co-Founder and CEO of Blooming Health share their collaboration reduced friction, overcame barriers and drove impressive results such as a 500% increase in enrollment, 82,000 engagements and staff time reduction from 57 days to 30 days. All as part of the AARP Foundation Innovation Program.

IWSR Drinks Market Analysis is the leading source of global beverage alcohol data and trends across 157 countries. Chief Strategy Officer, Brandy Rand, shares what’s next in the drinks space from substituters to blenders, shared occasions to consumer evolutions, from new behaviors to sub-channels and walks us through the Metaverse, Low/No Alcohol, Cannabis and Sustainability. She is a featured speaker at industry events from BevNet and Tales of the Cocktail and provides regular commentary on the beverage alcohol industry for the WSJ, Bloomberg and CNN.

Join us this week as we sit down to discuss the upcoming NY MilkLaunch Food & Beverage Product Innovation Accelerator Final Pitch Event, scheduled to take place on Thursday, August 25 from 5 to 7 p.m. ET. Fred Schonenberg, our Founder, CEO & Host has the tables turned on him, as he is interviewed by Vanessa Rosado, our Head of Brand Strategy about this year’s innovation program. NY MilkLaunch is accelerating 6 dairy-based startups and is part of New York State Dairy Promotion Orders’ initiatives to transform the dairy aisle with products that are designed to appeal to the next generation of milk consumers. Visit: NYMilkLaunch.com to learn more.

Recorded at our most recent Event, What’s Next Now: Beer, Wine & Spirits, we sit down with Gene Song, Chief Revenue Officer, Amass; and Jen & Manuel Aczualdez, Founders & Owners, Drink Good Spirits to get their take on what consumers are looking for, how entrepreneurs can breakthrough the clutter and why differentiation + fundamentals will be key to their continued success.

Recorded at our most recent event: What’s Next Now: Beer, Wine & Spirits, Fred and Vanessa walk us through how the team at VentureFuel evaluates startups; and they share a short list of ventures they’re watching in the alcoholic beverages space.

Recorded at our most recent event, What’s Next Now: Beer, Wine & Spirits, we sit down with Alice Ponti, Senior Director, Front End Innovation, Anheuser-Busch; Seth Yassky, Director of Strategic Alliances and Education, Proximo Spirits; & Ryan Malkin, Malkin LAW P.A. to discuss the areas ripe for innovation and how to overcome industry challenges to driving change.

Natache Volpini is the global head of digital consumer innovation for Heineken, where the team was recently celebrated with a bevy of Cannes Lines for their Metaverse launch of Heineken Silver. She has spent 20 years driving innovation, marketing and digital at multinational companies like Warner Media, Mondelez, Viacom and Ambev. We chat about connecting with new consumers, web3, crypto and the future of beverages. Cheers!

Rachel Weiss is VP of BOLD Ventures, the venture capital fund of L’Oréal, where she invests in new and disruptive business models in BeautyTech. Rachel lives and breathes convergence, embracing all things pop culture, beauty, and technology. Part technologist, part futurist, part investor, part maker and operator she has long been at the forefront of innovation and an early adopter on the value of startup and corporate collaboration. We talk about the value of working with startups from a corporate perspective, how VCs balance strategic and financial imperatives as well as the future of beauty and what role web3 will play in our lives.