A rocky divorce last summer saw Cost sue the company he founded to prevent the use of his name on zero sugar products, but today the dust, along with the lawsuit, has settled and both parties are looking to the future with ventures new and old.

The first day of BevNET Live Winter 2017 in Santa Monica probed the coffee category for answers on how entrepreneurs can handle competitions and asked retailers and consultants about how they think ecommerce is changing the marketplace for beverage.

BevNET’s Best of 2017 come from growing companies and startups, identifying rising stars and the most important trendsetters. We honor the products, the plays, the packages, the leaders and brand who were the hardest working, or just the cleverest.

KeVita co-founder and former CEO Bill Moses is teaming with private investment firm Clearlake Capital Group L.P. to launch Disruptive Brands, a new platform aimed at investing in and supporting innovative emerging brands across the consumer packaged goods spectrum.

Approaching its third anniversary, plant-based non-dairy creamer brand Nutpods is heading into 2018 with its eye on the grocery channel as the brand enlarges its brick-and-mortar footprint with 3,000 new retail accounts and new funding from past investor CircleUp.

In the second installment of a three part series on valuation, guest columnist Stu Strumwasser, founder and managing director of Green Circle Capital, examines the methodology for actually arriving at fair market value for growth-stage natural products companies using comps and other tools.