Index Laboratory Process Work About Intake
Foreword Beverage Lab · Fractional Innovation Officer

Foreword.

The space between a compelling beverage concept and a commercially viable product is where most ideas stall — whether you’re a startup founder with a napkin sketch or a category leader launching your next line.

Closing that gap takes someone who has lived on both sides — the creative studio and the production floor — and can move fluently between them.

Operator-level experience in liquid development, brand building, and commercialization — with the business and financial fluency to support you whether you’re fundraising a concept or revitalizing a legacy.

01
Laboratory
Services and engagement structure
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02
Process
Three phases from discovery through launch
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03
Work
Brands founded and client engagements
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04
Intake
Start an engagement — submit a Technical Brief
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Laboratory
An embedded innovation practice across a limited number of organizations. The scope scales. The depth doesn’t.
01
Liquid Development & Formulation
Flavor architecture, ingredient strategy, and bench-level formulation work — translated into commercially viable specifications. From first bench trial to production-ready spec: what to make, why it will sell, and how to build it right. Not recipe tinkering; product leadership.
02
Commercial Scale-Up
The hardest step: going from pilot to a 10,000-case production run without losing what made the liquid great. Process transfer, co-packer sourcing and qualification, specification development, and hands-on launch oversight through first production.
03
Brand Strategy & Positioning
Product-market fit, category positioning, and the narrative that makes your brand worth caring about — and worth paying for. The brand voice, package messaging, and visual language have to earn the liquid inside the can. Built on where the market is going, not where it’s been.
04
Financial & Investor Support
Investor presentations, financial modeling, and the business architecture that turns a compelling liquid into a fundable, scalable company. Built for founders approaching their first raise or next round — not generic decks.
05
Supply Chain & Raw Materials
Ingredient sourcing, supplier qualification, raw material specifications, and the procurement strategy that protects your margins and your quality as you scale. From specialty botanicals to bulk sweetener contracts.
06
Go-to-Market & Launch Oversight
Channel strategy, distribution roadmap, and the week-by-week execution that gets your product on shelf and keeps it there. Engagements don’t end at launch — the work continues through first reorder and into what the market is telling you.
07
Enterprise Operations
For established producers managing product quality at scale — budgetary oversight, SOP development, QC analytics and drift monitoring, and root cause analysis on production variances. Includes supply chain cost review. Available as a standalone retainer engagement.
Process
Three phases, no ambiguity. Scale changes who’s at the table, not what needs to be considered.
01
Phase One
Discovery
A deep audit of your brand, your liquid, your market position, and your ambitions. Most clients leave this first conversation with a clearer picture of what they’re actually building — and what’s standing in the way.
  • Brand audit & competitive landscape
  • Category & trend analysis
  • Liquid review & commercial feasibility
  • Margin & pricing structure review
02
Phase Two
Innovation
Liquid strategy and flavor architecture grounded in commercial reality — what tastes exceptional, what scales cleanly, and what the market will actually pay for. Vision becomes specification.
  • Flavor concept & architecture
  • Bench formulation & iteration
  • Ingredient & supplier strategy
  • Nielsen & category data analysis
03
Phase Three
Launch
Commercialization, co-packer sourcing, and go-to-market execution. The transition from pilot to production run is managed end-to-end, with active oversight through launch and the first reorder cycle.
  • Co-packer sourcing & qualification
  • Commercial spec & process transfer
  • Distribution & channel strategy
  • Launch oversight & first-run support
Work
Brands founded and client engagements.
Brands Founded
Funk Factory Geuzeria
Project Funk Factory Geuzeria
Scope Founder — spontaneously fermented beer pioneer, Madison WI
Status Founded 2013
Untitled Art
Project Untitled Art
Scope Co-Founder — nationally distributed brewery, creative innovation
Status Founded 2018
Green Canvas
Project Green Canvas
Scope Founder — functional beverage brand
Status Founded
Florida Seltzer
Project Florida Seltzer
Scope Founder — regional hard seltzer brand
Status Founded
Client Engagements
Abita Brewing Company
Project Abita Brewing Company
Scope Innovation strategy & product development
Status Engagement
RMBR Kombucha
Project RMBR Kombucha
Scope Formulation, scale-up, commercialization
Status Engagement
Big Grove Brewery
Project Big Grove Brewery
Scope Innovation leadership & brand extensions
Status Engagement
Partners
Ahead of the Curve Strategy
Project Ahead of the Curve Strategy
Scope Strategic alignment partner
Status Partner
About
Fractional Innovation Officer & Beverage Entrepreneur

I’m Levi Funk — a beverage entrepreneur and Fractional Innovation Officer who has spent over a decade building brands that challenge convention. I founded Funk Factory Geuzeria in 2013, pioneering spontaneously fermented beer in the United States, and co-founded Untitled Art in 2018, a nationally distributed brewery known for creative boldness and relentless product innovation.

Success in this industry requires a specific overlap of skills that rarely live in the same building: the intuition to know what a liquid should look like. The science to personally formulate it. And the experience of an operator who has built brands from concept through commercial production, navigated co-manufacturers, and built national distribution.

I serve as an embedded innovation practice for a limited number of clients — from growth-stage brands to established regional producers — providing executive-level oversight of innovation, quality, and commercialization from the inside. I am the partner who ensures your vision is technically sound and backed by the category data required to know what the market will support before the first bench trial.

Levi Funk
Funk Factory Geuzeria
Founder · Est. 2013 · Madison, WI
Untitled Art
Co-Founder · Est. 2018 · Waunakee, WI
Foreword Beverage Co.
Fractional Innovation Officer · Est. 2024
Technical Brief

Foreword operates as a Fractional Innovation Officer — embedded in a limited number of client organizations at a time. Engagements are scoped to where you are. Submit a brief and expect a response within 24–48 hours.

hello@forewordbev.com