Heidi Otto

Heidi Dillon Otto is a beverage-industry brand and innovation strategist who spent roughly 20 years in the natural and organic beverage and food categories before joining Distill Ventures. As a brand marketer and innovation strategist she led several start-up companies from inception through launch and into in-market success, developing a specialty in lifestyle brand authenticity, consumer and trade marketing connectivity, and product innovation.

She joined Distill Ventures — the Diageo-backed drinks accelerator co-founded in 2013 by Frank Lampen and Shilen Patel — in 2018 as Portfolio Director for North America. In that role she spearheaded the North American portfolio's brand marketing and consumer strategy and led the firm's U.S. Non-Alcoholic drinks acceleration portfolio and program, serving as an advisor and mentor to founders across categories from white spirits to whiskeys.

In June 2020 she was appointed Managing Director of Distill Ventures North America, overseeing the direction and operation of the North American business and its team of specialized drinks executives. In May 2023 she was promoted to Chief Executive of Distill Ventures, taking over from co-founder Frank Lampen, who moved to a chair role. She has been a prominent voice on diversity in the drinks industry, helping design and champion the firm's pre-accelerator program for underrepresented founders.

• Invests in founder-led beverage brands across both spirits and non-alcoholic categories, providing capital plus hands-on brand-building, marketing, and scaling support (an accelerator-and-invest model rather than passive capital).
• Stage: Early-stage/seed through Series A; Distill Ventures typically leads rounds and follows on as brands scale.
• Check size: Pre-accelerator investments of roughly $250,000–$500,000, with successful brands eligible for substantially larger follow-on investment over time.
• Strong stated commitment to diversity of ownership — the firm earmarked $5 million over 12 months (announced June 2021) to back early-stage founders from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and gender groups in the US and UK.
• Heidi has described working with founders "much earlier in their brand-building process" through the pre-accelerator as "particularly exciting," reflecting a thesis of getting in early and helping shape brands before a broader pitch/investment process.