David Begg
Shilen Patel
After leading a team at Guinness that turned around 20 years of brand decline, and over 10 years consulting in which he helped dozens of founders realise their potential, Shilen started Distill Ventures with his Co-founder, Frank Lampen, in 2013.
As the world’s first drinks accelerator, the company helps entrepreneurs scale their business in three ways: providing cash investment, mentoring partners to help them become better business leaders, and tapping into an extensive and experienced network of drinks experts. While Distill Ventures’ approach is unique to each entrepreneur, the goal is always to give founders the tools to make better decisions and fewer mistakes while allowing them to remain fully in control of their business. To date, Distill Ventures has committed in excess of £60 million to more than 15 founder-led drinks brands around the world.
Shilen’s passions lie in providing start-up entrepreneurs with the guidance and expertise to launch into markets disruptively, and developing the non-alc drinks category. Distill Ventures has played a pivotal role in the acceleration of leading non-alc spirit, Seedlip, and Shilen cites his career highlight as meeting Ben Branson back in 2014, after which he helped turn Seedlip into what it is today, while creating an entirely new drinks category.
William Fugard
Craig Hutchison
Paul Thomas
Ben Branson
Ben is the Founder of Seedlip and Æcorn Aperitifs, the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirits and aperitifs. His mission is two fold: Solve the dilemma of ‘what to drink when you’re not drinking’ and continue his family’s 300 years of farming heritage.
With offices in the Chilterns, Los Angeles and Sydney, Seedlip is now available in 25x cities including New York, Barcelona, Shanghai & Singapore and served in many of the world’s most awarded bars, restaurants and hotels including 350x Michelin * Restaurants & 9/10 of the world’s best cocktail bars.
Ben was named as one of the Top 50 most influential people in food and drink by The Telegraph and awarded Young Achiever of The Year by The Drinks Business. He continues to pioneer the non-alcoholic category forward with the launch of Æcorn Aperitifs in Selfridges and The Savoy in May 2019.
Ben Lee
