Billion-Dollar Beverages, Family Holding Chess & Appliance Disruption

💧 Liquid Death: From Meme to Market Powerhouse

What started as a “punk joke in a can” is now one of the fastest-scaling beverage challengers we’ve ever seen.

Growth trajectory:

• 2019: $3M

• 2020: $10M

• 2021: $45M

• 2022: $130M

• 2023: $250M

• 2024: $330M

The company has raised over $200M in equity, most recently at a $1.5B valuation, and last month added 4th & 1 Ventures (with its roster of 100+ athletes/influencers) to the cap table.

For context, Celsius did $1.4B in 2024 revenue and trades at a $15B market cap. If Liquid Death can sustain its cultural edge, investors see room for Celsius-like multiples.

Rare air for a CPG challenger brand.

☕ JAB Consolidates Its Coffee Empire

Keurig Dr Pepper just announced it will acquire JDE Peet’s for $18.4B. On paper, a mega-deal. In reality, an empire move.

Why? Both companies are controlled by JAB Holding (the Reimann family). By combining them, JAB unifies its global coffee assets into one roof.

The JAB Coffee Playbook:

• 2012–13: Acquires Peet’s Coffee & Caribou Coffee

• 2014–15: Creates JDE via Mondelez merger

• 2015: Buys Keurig Green Mountain for $13.9B

• 2018: Merges Keurig with Dr Pepper Snapple → KDP

• 2020: IPOs JDE Peet’s at ~$17B valuation

The merged group now does ~$25B in revenue, positioning KDP to compete directly with Nestlé’s Nespresso and Starbucks’ global licensing engine.

This is family holding company chess in action.

⚡ Copper: Reinventing the Kitchen Appliance

Appliances have been stagnant for decades. Enter Copper.

The startup just raised $28M ($20M equity, $8M debt) at a ~$75M post-money valuation to scale its battery-powered induction stove:

• Plugs into a standard 120V outlet

• Packs a 5 kWh battery for peak/off-peak optimization & backup

• Qualifies for a 30% federal tax credit

• Already shipped ~1,000 units, targeting 10,000 by 2026

• Retail price: ~$6,000

This isn’t just an appliance. It’s a consumer energy device, a reframing that makes it both a functional kitchen product and a node in the home-grid ecosystem.

It’s the insurgent home playbook (Our Place, Caraway, Casper) but with an energy + sustainability wedge big enough for venture dollars.

🎙️ Podcast Highlight: Mack Weldon’s Brian Berger on Scaling After DTC

In this week’s episode, I sat down with Brian Berger, Founder of Mack Weldon, to unpack how the menswear brand scaled—and how growth has shifted since the early DTC playbook days.

We cover:

• 👔 The early spark that led to Mack Weldon’s launch

• 📈 Evolving from basics to a lifestyle platform

• 🛒 Why DTC-only was limiting, and the pivot to omnichannel

• 💡 What founders today should know about scaling profitably in a very different environment

This one is a masterclass on building durable consumer brands, not just fast ones.

🎧 Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify.

That’s it for this week.
If you liked this issue, forward to a friend who obsesses over brand strategy, capital flows, or exit timing.

In the Money – following the flow of capital in consumer

P.S. We love talking to brands interested in exiting in the next 3-18 months. If you know of any brands interested in exiting, or any firms trying to help port cos manage turnarounds, we'd love to share a POV.

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