Danny Stepper

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Taste Tomorrow Ventures; Co-Founder & CEO, LA Libations at taste-tomorrow-ventures

Reviewed Updated Jul 6, 2026

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Location El Segundo, California
Check Size Up to $2M into companies with under $20M in revenue (per TTV Fund I disclosure)
Last Verified Investment Harken Sweets (Seed (TTV's 8th investment; co-invested with Selva and GRTSHT)) — May 13, 2026
Social LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a early-stage
Sector Focus
beverages food-brands cpg better-for-you-snacks functional-beverages consumer-brands

Background

Danny Stepper is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Taste Tomorrow Ventures (TTV), a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm launched in 2025 that invests in early-stage food and beverage brands 12. He is simultaneously Co-Founder and CEO of LA Libations, the emerging-beverage incubator he founded with Dino Sarti in the mid-2010s, which functions as an “emerging beverage category captain” for major U.S. retailers and served as the operating platform out of which TTV was spun 32.

Stepper’s operating career began in 1994 stocking shelves for Coca-Cola at a Food 4 Less in Pacoima; he was promoted 14 times over nine years within the Coca-Cola system, eventually running the Costco relationship that would later generate over $1B in business for his own companies 3. He took a four-year Hollywood detour producing films — brokering a $45M Adidas brand-equity deal for the Goal! trilogy, then co-founding Madvine, an entertainment-marketing venture inside Relativity Media — before returning to beverages to launch LA Libations 3. Coca-Cola served as LA Libations’ anchor customer until it withdrew its services agreement in 2019, at which point Molson Coors rescued the company 3. LA Libations reports having incubated or scaled brands including BODYARMOR (grown from $100M to $1.4B in revenue before Coca-Cola’s $8B acquisition), Core Water (sold to Keurig Dr Pepper for $526M), ZOA Energy (with Dwayne Johnson), HAPPY Coffee (with Robert Downey Jr.), BERO (with Tom Holland), and PLEZI (with Michelle Obama and Stephen Curry) 3. In 2024, Stepper acquired and relocated The Beverage Forum industry conference to Manhattan Beach; the April 2026 edition attracted 1,300+ industry leaders 3.

TTV launched publicly in late May 2025 with a $30M debut fund (TTV Fund I), backed by strategic LPs including Ball Corporation (packaging) and Advantage Solutions (retail services), with a final close expected in late summer 2025 45. Stepper co-founded TTV with LA Libations co-founder Dino Sarti and former PepsiCo and Disney executive Scott Guthrie; the three principals bring more than 80 combined years of operating experience in consumer brands 4. TTV writes up to $2M per investment into companies with under $20M in revenue 6.

Stated Thesis

Taste Tomorrow Ventures publicly describes its focus as backing “mission-driven consumer brands disrupting established categories,” with an early-stage-to-Series-A remit across functional beverages, better-for-you snacks, sustainable packaging solutions, and health-forward consumer brands 47. On the fund’s launch, Stepper framed TTV’s diligence lens around three attributes — purpose, momentum, and leadership:

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Seth Goldman and Just Ice Tea as our first investment — it’s a brand that embodies the purpose, innovation, and momentum we want to partner with.” 7

He has separately positioned TTV as the institutionalization of LA Libations’ longstanding brand-picking work, telling Easy Reader News that the fund and its associated $330M debt facility for purchase-order financing together represent a full-stack capital layer around the LA Libations retail-access platform 3.

Inferred Thesis

Analysis is based on 8 disclosed TTV Fund I investments cited in press between May 2025 and May 2026 47891011. TTV is one year old at time of research, so the sample is small and sector patterns are early — but the pattern is unusually coherent for a first-year fund.

Sector distribution (8 verified investments): - Ready-to-drink beverages: 4 of 8 (50%) — Just Ice Tea (organic iced tea), Happy Products (canned coffee), Chamberlain Coffee (RTD coffee), Cove Soda (functional soda) 789. - Better-for-you snacks & candy: 3 of 8 (38%) — Better Sour (plant-based sour gummy candy), Harken Sweets (date-sweetened chocolate), Don’t Quit (better-for-you snack) 10119. - Adult beverages / spirits alternatives: 1 of 8 (13%) — Bero (Tom Holland non-alcoholic beer) 9.

Stage distribution: Predominantly seed-to-Series-A. Better Sour (2023-founded), Harken Sweets (2023-founded), and Just Ice Tea are seed-stage bets on 2-3 year old brands; Chamberlain Coffee and Happy Products are more established brands where TTV is entering at growth 781011. Per TTV’s stated criteria, portfolio companies have <$20M revenue at time of investment 6.

Founder profile patterns: TTV consistently backs celebrity-adjacent or category-veteran founders whose brand equity accelerates retail placement — Seth Goldman (co-founder Honest Tea) at Just Ice Tea, Robert Downey Jr. and Craig Dubitsky at Happy, Emma Chamberlain at Chamberlain Coffee, Tom Holland at Bero 789. Better Sour (Bella Hughes & Semira Nikou) and Harken Sweets (Katie Lefkowitz) are the operator-founder exceptions 1011. This is consistent with LA Libations’ pre-TTV pattern (BODYARMOR/Kobe Bryant, ZOA/Dwayne Johnson, PLEZI/Michelle Obama, BERO/Tom Holland) 3.

Distinctive edge: Unlike a typical VC, TTV pairs capital with LA Libations’ retail-placement channel into Kroger, Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and other national retailers 311. Portfolio companies are described as gaining access to LA Libations’ vertically integrated marketing, merchandising, and distribution services rather than just a check 3.

Geographic focus: U.S.-only in disclosed portfolio. All eight investments are U.S.-headquartered brands.

Co-investor patterns: Small sample, but observed co-investors include Robert Trone (Total Wine & More co-founder) on Just Ice Tea’s later $9M round, Polar Strategic Ventures, and — on Harken Sweets — Selva and GRTSHT 1211. TTV appears to prefer participating-with-strategics or leading small seed rounds rather than syndicating with generalist consumer VCs.

Notable gaps: No alt-protein (Impossible/Beyond-style), no restaurant/hospitality tech, no food-service SaaS, no dark-kitchen or delivery infrastructure, and no ag-tech in the disclosed portfolio. TTV is a brand-level CPG fund, not a food-tech or food-service-platform fund.

Portfolio

Confirmed Taste Tomorrow Ventures investments (8 of 8 disclosed to date) 7891011:

Company Year Stage Source
Just Ice Tea 2025-05-29 Early-stage (TTV’s 1st investment; participated later in Just Ice Tea’s $9M round led by Robert Trone) 712
Better Sour 2025-06-17 Early-stage (TTV’s 1st food investment) 10
Chamberlain Coffee 2025 Growth 9
Happy Products 2025-10-28 Early-stage (TTV’s 4th investment) 8
Bero 2025 Growth 9
Cove Soda 2025 Early-stage 9
Don’t Quit 2025 Early-stage 9
Harken Sweets 2026-05-13 Seed (TTV’s 8th investment, co-invested with Selva and GRTSHT) 11

Portfolio table represents all 8 publicly disclosed TTV Fund I investments as of research date. Chamberlain Coffee, Bero, Cove Soda, and Don’t Quit are named in the Just Drinks summary of the TTV portfolio 9 but do not have discoverable individual press releases with exact investment dates; ordinal position within Fund I is inferred from press-cited count.

In Their Own Words

Stepper on TTV’s diligence criteria at fund launch 7:

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Seth Goldman and Just Ice Tea as our first investment — it’s a brand that embodies the purpose, innovation, and momentum we want to partner with.”

Stepper on the operating philosophy that carried over from LA Libations to TTV 3:

“We’re an emerging beverage category captain.” — Stepper, describing LA Libations’ role for major retailers, Easy Reader News, June 2026

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder quotes about working with Stepper or Taste Tomorrow Ventures could be verified from press or podcast transcripts as of research date. TTV is one year old, so most portfolio founders have not yet had time or occasion to describe the working relationship in independent forums. A future research pass should check BevNET’s founder-interview series, the Business of BEVs podcast, and Beverage Forum session transcripts for independent testimonials as the fund matures.

Sources

  1. Taste Tomorrow Ventures, LinkedIn company page, accessed July 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/company/taste-tomorrow-ventures↩

  2. Everything Startups, “Taste Tomorrow Ventures - New VC Funds,” accessed July 2026. https://www.everythingstartups.com/vc-funds/taste-tomorrow-ventures↩↩

  3. Mark McDermott, “The Davos of Beverages: How Danny Stepper built an empire and brought 1,300 industry leaders to Manhattan Beach,” Easy Reader News, 2026, accessed July 2026. https://easyreadernews.com/the-davos-of-beverages-how-danny-stepper-built-an-empire-and-brought-1300-industry-leaders-to-manhattan-beach/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  4. “Taste Tomorrow Ventures Launches $30M Fund with First Investment in Just Ice Tea,” Business Wire, May 29, 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250529471185/en/Taste-Tomorrow-Ventures-Launches-$30M-Fund-with-First-Investment-in-Just-Ice-Tea↩↩↩↩

  5. “L.A. Libations Investment Wing Taste Tomorrow Ventures Debuts $30M Fund,” BevNET, May 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.bevnet.com/news/2025/l-a-libations-investment-wing-taste-tomorrow-ventures-debuts-30m-fund/↩

  6. Taste Tomorrow Ventures investor profile, PitchBook, accessed July 2026. https://pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/847249-93↩↩

  7. “Taste Tomorrow Ventures: $30 Million Fund Launched With Just Ice Tea As First Investment,” Pulse2, May 2025, accessed July 2026. https://pulse2.com/taste-tomorrow-ventures-30-million-fund-launched-with-just-ice-tea-as-first-investment/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  8. “Taste Tomorrow Ventures backs Robert Downey Jr-co-founded coffee brand Happy,” Refreshment Magazine, October 28, 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.refreshmentmag.com/news/taste-tomorrow-ventures-backs-robert-downey-jr-co-founded-coffee-brand-happy↩↩↩↩↩↩

  9. “Coffee maker Happy attracts Taste Tomorrow Ventures investment,” Just Drinks, October 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.just-drinks.com/news/coffee-maker-happy-attracts-taste-tomorrow-ventures-investment/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  10. “Taste Tomorrow Ventures Invests in Candy Disruptor Better Sour,” Business Wire, June 17, 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250617895458/en/Taste-Tomorrow-Ventures-Invests-in-Candy-Disruptor-Better-Sour↩↩↩↩↩↩

  11. “Taste Tomorrow Ventures Announces Investment in Harken Sweets,” Business Wire, May 13, 2026, accessed July 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260513729185/en/Taste-Tomorrow-Ventures-Announces-Investment-in-Harken-Sweets↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  12. “LA Libations founders back Just Ice Tea through new fund,” Just Drinks, 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.just-drinks.com/news/la-libations-taste-tomorrow-ventures-just-ice-tea/↩↩