As part of BevNET Live’s commitment to providing entrepreneurs with strategic advice in managing and financing their beverage ventures, the event will feature a panel that engages entrepreneurs, investors and advisers in a discussion of the changes that take place within a beverage company after key investors come on board.
Taking place on June 7, the second day of the two-day BevNET Live event, the panel, “Investors on Board: Life after Independence” will feature the founder/CEO’s of O.N.E. and ZOLA, Rodrigo Veloso and Chris Cuvelier, both of whom are running fast-growing entrepreneurial beverage companies that are now majority-owned by other entities. At a time when both beverage companies and private investors are once again targeting beverage companies for the growth capital necessary to create scalable brands, their insights on the way an entrepreneur’s role can change with financial infusion will provide valuable food for thought for the BevNET Live audience. Topics will include independence, communication with investors, and managing the expectations of new stakeholders.
They will be joined on the panel by past and present beverage investors Brian Krumrei, a Principal of TSG Consumer Partners, and Brent Knudsen, the Managing Partner of Private Capital Growth. Between them, they represent investment entities that have enabled entities like glaceau, Cytosport, and other brands to achieve vastly expanded availability and revenue. Serving as a bridge between investors and entrepreneurs on the panel will be Bob Burke, the founder of the Natural Products Consulting Group, who has been on both sides of the divide, working as an executive and as an outside consultant with beverage and other consumer product companies at all stages of growth and financing, from strategic planning and attracting investment to serving on boards and coaching CEO’s.
The panel will take place during the afternoon of June 7 at the Sheraton Tower Hotel in Times Square, NYC. Combined with a series of other investment-focused presentations and discussions, including sessions on the how investors value innovation, building a beverage company you can sell, and profiles of strategic investors like Tata and Coke’s VEB unit, there has never been a better chance to absorb more information about financing an entrepreneurial beverage company for success.