I've been early five times. Here's the pattern.

Every beverage category has a moment before anyone agrees it's real. I've built inside that moment five times in nine years, never around one brand, always around a platform that can outlast any single product or regulation. Almost nobody moves until the risk is gone, which is exactly when the opportunity is gone too.

2017: I entered beverages through Tinley Beverage Company, one of the first movers in adult-use cannabis beverages, building the largest contract manufacturer of cannabis beverages in California.

2019: I saw the early non-alcoholic movement and built Beckett's with my now-partner Tom Cortez, taking it national through Total Wine & More, where it is now the No. 3 non-alcoholic spirit in the chain.

2022: We saw hemp-derived THC beverages early. We built infused and non-infused lines on purpose, so no single regulatory outcome could take the business down. That same instinct is what protects founders now, with federal hemp THC regulation arriving.

2024: Everyone started calling it "functional beverage" like it was new. It isn't. I drank Gatorade as a kid.

2026: Functional + Effect: a felt benefit from an approved ingredient. CBD beverages taught the industry why this matters. They were hot, then they weren't, because consumers never actually felt anything. If someone feels something in the first fifteen minutes, their mind decides it works. That's the whole category.

The pattern hasn't changed in nine years. Categories rarely look obvious until they're crowded. The founders who win build the enterprise before anyone agrees it's real.

Where do you see the next category before everyone else does?

The full playbook behind building ahead of a category, and knowing when to move to the next one, is in GROW Vol. 2.

If this is your week, request a call with Douglas. The introductory call is free.