Innovative trendsetters? Profitability-minded business plans? Big, big revenues? All of the above? Trying to figure out just what a major beverage strategic is looking for when it goes into M&A mode is not that simple.
At BevNET Live Summer 2025, GHOST Lifestyle co-founder and CEO Dan Lourenco – who recently sold his business to Keurig Dr Pepper for just shy of $1 billion – Humble Growth founding partner Nick Giannuzzi, longtime KDP executive Lou Prignano, and Vital Proteins founder Kurt Seidensticker (sold to Nestlé Health Science in 2020) sat down for a panel discussion to crack into just what exactly the industry giants want.
“There’s probably three or four different ways [to get stategics’ attention],” Seidensticker said. “One is just developing that relationship directly with them early on so they get to know you and you can share insights with them on how the brand is growing. The other is just brute force and getting noticed.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above for more on how Ghost and Vital Proteins approached their exits, why brands need to have upwards of $500 million in revenue to be in the acquisition conversation, and why selling to a strategic may not be the right move for every company.