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DV FLAGSHIPNov 2016 – Jul 2025

Distill Ventures

The accelerator founder-led drinks brands wanted to be part of.

Nine years building the brand, marketing, and comms engine at Diageo-backed DV. Brand Manager to Director. Over £320M invested across 35+ founder-led drinks and CPG brands.

£320M+
Portfolio investment supported
35+
Founder brands in portfolio
3,000+
Qualified global applications
15K
LinkedIn growth (zero →)
Brand strategyCategory buildingM&A commsThought leadership
THE REMIT

Build the accelerator founder-led drinks brands would want to be part of.

When I joined DV in 2016, it was a Diageo-backed idea more than a brand — a thesis that the next wave of drinks innovation would come from founders, not corporations. There was no visual identity, no voice, no platform, and no funnel to get those founders in the door.

My remit was everything outside the investment decisions. How the market understood DV. How founders found it. Why they'd trust it enough to pitch us over a dozen other doors. It turned into nine years of the most energising work of my career, and the relationships that came out of it are the reason I'm still doing this.

THE APPROACH

An integrated brand engine, not a marketing team.

Four things working in one loop. Positioning gave content a POV. Content gave press a reason to call. Press gave the funnel credibility. The funnel gave positioning the evidence it needed.

The hardest move was treating DV's own brand with the same rigour we asked founders to bring to theirs. Clear category POV. Distinctive voice. An identity that didn't look like corporate venture. Content, events, and LinkedIn all feeding each other instead of running as separate campaigns.

The best drinks brands don't wait to be discovered. They define their positioning, lean on their own expertise, and pull people in. The same logic works for the funds backing them.
WHAT WE BUILT

Seven moves that held together.

Each piece worked on its own and made the others work harder. Brand-building that moved the numbers, not just the look.

  • Fund positioning. A POV the market could repeat, and the language founders still use to describe the space.
  • Category platforms. Non-Alc, New World Whiskey, Agave. Each a white paper, a media moment, and a founder community in one.
  • Thought leadership. Essays, films, and reports that travelled through the trade and back into the funnel — a few of them live on the Published page.
  • Press + media. Cultivated relationships at NYT, FT, Forbes, The Economist.
  • Founder community. Flagship summits, salons, and salons that made DV the room founders wanted to be in before they pitched.
  • Pre-Accelerator. A $10M inclusive investment programme that opened DV's pipeline to founders from underrepresented communities — 300+ applications in year one, partnerships with Soho House and Founderland, and a new generation of brands on the platform.
  • The acquisition funnel. Content pipelines, digital engagement, and targeted outreach delivering 3,000+ qualified applications.
THE OUTCOME

A fund founders could find, understand, and trust.

DV didn't win by outspending anyone. It won by showing up first in research, clearest in positioning, and warmest in relationship, before a pitch email ever went out. Founders arrived pre-sold on what it stood for. Partners came because DV was where the category conversations were happening. The portfolio got a brand halo that made retail, distribution, and co-investor conversations materially easier.

That's what I now bring to the drinks and CPG brands I work with, and to the funds backing them. Same craft. Different starting point.

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