November 2025 - What’s Brewing?

Written By Brian Wade

Welcome to Showcase Venture’s first newsletter!

This is a peek behind the curtain of how we invest, how we think about different sectors, the all-stars in our network, and where we are focusing our time. We will publish these semi-regularly; think every month or two.

We’ve been very busy over the last few months:

  • In September, we closed our first investment into an emerging beauty brand. We are excited about the early progress and value creation we are driving in the business.

  • Alli Folk joined us as a principal to support sourcing, investment activities, and portfolio company value creation. She brings a ton of experience and passion for consumer investing. When she is not discovering the next great brand, she is likely taking ballet lessons in NYC.

  • Finally, we have sourced over 140 investment opportunities since launching in February. Over 60% came from our network of actors, musicians, executives, and others in the media and consumer industries.

This newsletter focuses on:

  • The rise of ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages in the face of declining overall alcohol consumption

  • An interview with Shane McCassy, a brand builder with 20+ years in CPG and beverage

  • The sectors and themes we are digging into right now

  • The latest from our partners at The Sandbox

  • Brian’s addiction to LinkedIn Games

Alcoholic Beverages: Areas of Opportunity, Despite Sobering Times

Beverages represent a nearly $300 billion industry in the US, with most consumers drinking or purchasing some type of packaged beverage every day. The industry is filled with innovation to keep up with changing tastes and lifestyles of consumers. Due to their importance in the consumer market, we’ve been watching these trends and want to share some interesting insights we observed on the alcohol side of the industry.

Ready-to-drink beverages (aka RTDs), which Nielsen is proclaiming as the “4th category”, are the bright spot of growth in the BevAlc industry.

  • The total industry grew 4% to $13 billion in 2024, while the rest of the industry declined.

  • Certain formats like spirit and wine-based RTDs are growing quickly, while others like hard seltzers are slowing or declining.

  • ABV ranges from 11% cocktails to low-alc and non-alc options, reflecting the varied consumer preferences.

  • Consumers are gravitating towards RTDs given their taste profile, single-serving convenience, low-calorie claims and attractive branding.

Alcohol consumption is declining, with only 54% of adults saying they drink (down from the 62-64% range from 2001 to 2024), and sales of beer, wine, and spirits were down 1% to $112 billion.

  • Health concerns are driving consumers to moderate their drinking, or abstain altogether.

  • Economic concerns are leading consumers to downtrade their purchases, especially with premium wine and liquor; this limits the ability for producers to increases prices to drive growth.

Why we like RTDs

  • RTDs are at the center of R&D and innovation, with consumers rapidly adopting new formats, flavors and packaging - this creates consumer dollars that are up for grabs.

  • Retailers are looking for new products to offer their consumers and are rewarding brands that can demonstrate high velocities with additional shelf space.

  • Our marketing/PR skill set, network of experienced operators and close relationships with potential celebrity partners are unique advantages that can help build brands, access distribution and encourage consumer trial.

Network Spotlight – An Interview with Shane McCassy

Shane McCassy

We are excited to put the spotlight on Shane McCassy, brand builder with 20+ years of experience in CPG working with brands like Oakley, Alpinestars, Muscle Milk and now GYM WEED. 

He loves talking to industry colleagues or potential partners about his new beverage, Gym Weed.

Showcase Ventures: What is the biggest change you’ve observed in the beverage landscape post-COVID?

Shane: Things move slower, both with retailers and distributors. Many buyers work remotely and retailers are maybe doing 1 reset per year and seem less risk adverse in making changes.

Showcase Ventures: In 2025, what wins with consumers and why?

Shane: Consumers care more than ever about what they put into their bodies and care about the integrity of the products, clean labels, fun brands and transparent philosophies are what wins. 

Showcase Ventures: What innovation excites you most for the next 12–24 months?

Shane: Functional foods and drinks that add value to things we use every day. Hydration, Protein, Energy, Bars, etc.

Showcase Ventures: What aspects of operations and execution set a great beverage brand apart from an average one?

Shane: Really understanding your supply chain, its weak points and areas for opportunity with scale in the future.

Lightning Round…

SV: Most underrated channel right now?

Shane: Natural.  It’s where trends start.

SV: Weirdest flavor you want to build a beverage around?

Shane: Spicy beverage flavors done right.

SV: Dream collaboration?

Shane: Rihanna. No need to explain 

Where else are we spending time?

We conduct in-depth research and leverage our network to understand how industries are evolving, how businesses operate, and create introductions to leading companies and founders. Here are some areas where we’ve been spending time lately:

Let’s Work Together

  • We love companies that have a proven product, are generating revenue and slightly profitable, and are looking to raise $5-15 million for growth and expansion. If that is you, reach out!

  • Let’s explore together! Some of the areas where we are digging in include solution-oriented beauty, alcoholic RTDs, supplements, digital content distribution, and luxury hospitality. We are expanding our network and greatly appreciate introductions to interesting companies, executives and advisors!

  • Work with our portfolio! We are especially looking for great social media strategists, public relations with beauty and/or beverage experience, beverage sales and distribution experts, and/or supply chain advisors.

From The Sandbox

There is a lot of exciting stuff happening at The Sandbox:

Our partnership with Sandbox gives us incredible access to A-list talent and senior executives, provides unique operational insights only available to those operating daily in the industry, and allows us to bring a creative mindset towards the brands and companies we back.

Source: LinkedIn

One Last Thing: LinkedIn Games

We want to highlight the delightful, random things we encounter on our travels.

This month from Brian: About a year ago, I first saw it – a pop-up in the LinkedIn app suggesting I try one of their new puzzle games. Since then, I’ve been hooked.

If you haven’t tried them, check them out. The games are simple to play, yet they get progressively more difficult from Monday to Sunday. They have a great design and stats that make it moderately competitive. It has become part of my morning routine. I currently have (as of Wednesday, November 12th) streaks of 90 days for mini-Sudoku, 239 days for Zips, 374 days for Queens, and 397 days for Tango!

I also love the sneaky business strategy. Some product managers found a way to make LinkedIn the first app I open every morning. I also enjoy watching the product evolve – recently, they added leaderboards where you can see your daily ranking against your connections. It’s brilliant, and I’ve already seen more of my connections playing the games daily.

The games are such a random and quirky, yet very genuine, feature of the app. They make the humblebrags and AI slop in my feed tolerable.

Brian Wade
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