Licensed To Distill

What Licensed To Distill does

Licensed to Distill (LTD) is a US-based hospitality marketing company founded in 2023 by Jabin Troth (CEO & Founder) and Jeremy JF Thompson (CMO). It operates at the intersection of spirit brands, bar and restaurant operators, and professional bartenders, providing trade-driven content creation, distribution, and marketing services. Its core assets are a 1.4M+ follower social media network across Instagram and Facebook (86.8M+ trailing-year video views, 292K+ shares, 793K+ likes) and a proprietary content library spanning education series, brand stories, and experiential episodes such as 'Bartenders Meet Beekeepers,' 'Grilled and Distilled,' and '1 Cocktail 3 Ways.' Underlying technology is primarily video content production and social distribution rather than a software platform; LTD has no app, no public API, and no SDK.

The company monetizes through two principal streams. The first is bespoke Brand Partnership Services for spirit brands—custom-built proposals covering trade access, bartender advocacy campaigns, content production, hospitality event activations, and menu-placement influence; pricing is investment-based rather than packaged. Named enterprise clients include Diageo World Class US, Volcán de Mi Tierra, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, Barr Hill Gin, and Azunia Tequila. The second stream is the Hospitality Growth Workshop, a 4-week cohort program for bar and restaurant operators priced at $2,500 per participant and capped at 20 operators per cohort. Go-to-market is sales-led (custom proposals, inquiry forms, interest-list enrollment) layered with community-led and event-driven motions (Bar Convent Brooklyn activations, food-and-drink pairing events). LTD does not publish revenue, has not raised institutional funding, and operates with a small team led by two experienced hospitality executives.

Name

Licensed To Distill

Legal name

Licensed to Distill

Website

https://licensedtodistill.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Licensed to Distill is a US hospitality marketing company that creates video content and trade-driven campaigns for spirit brands while running cohort-based growth workshops for bar operators, leveraging a 1.4M+ follower network across Instagram and Facebook.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Hospitality Trade Marketing Services

NAICS

Record Production and Distribution (512250), Sound Recording Industries (5122)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Alcoholic Beverage Tours & On-site Experiences (Brewery/Winery/Distillery) (THAFALAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Spirits Distillery Tours & Tastings (Whiskey, Rum, Gin, Vodka) (THAJAGAF), Spirits Distilling & Brands (CRADAIAC)

Keywords

• Spirits trade marketing
• Hospitality brand partnerships
• Bar operator consulting
• Cocktail content creation
• Trade-driven distribution

Headquarters

HQ city

Huntington Beach

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Brand Partnership Services: Custom-built partnership proposals for spirit brands focused on trade access, advocacy, education, and adoption. Partnerships include content creation, trade distribution, bartender-driven campaigns, and hospitality events. Investment-based model where knowing budget allows allocation to highest commercial impact activities.
2. Hospitality Growth Workshop: Live, interactive small-group workshop for bar and restaurant operators. 4-week program with 2x75-minute sessions per week (8 sessions total). Capacity limited to 20 operators per cohort. Fixed price of $2,500 total investment.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Licensed to Distill is a hospitality amplifier that helps spirit brands, bar/restaurant operators, and bartenders grow through content, trade-driven distribution, and scalable marketing systems. Its core commercial offerings are custom brand partnership programs for spirit companies and a 4-week small-group Hospitality Growth Workshop for operators, supported by an educational video library and experiential content series distributed through its 1.4M+ social audience.

Product overview

Licensed to Distill is a hospitality amplifier that operates as a services-based company rather than a software platform. The company offers three core service areas: Brand Partnership Services for spirit brands seeking trade-driven distribution and marketing; a Hospitality Growth Workshop for bar and restaurant operators; and an LTD Video Library providing educational content for bartenders. The video library includes sub-series such as the '1 Cocktail 3 Ways' education series, 'Bartenders Meet Beekeepers' brand experience series, and 'Grilled and Distilled' food and drink pairing series, along with the Diageo Bar Academy 'SHAKEN AND STIRRED' podcast collaboration. The company does not offer a unified software platform with modules but rather distinct service offerings focused on content creation, trade marketing, and professional education for the hospitality and spirits industry.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Brand Partnership Services Custom-built partnership programs for spirit brands providing trade access, advocacy, education, and adoption through bartender-driven content, trade distribution, and hospitality events. Engagements are scoped around client objectives, timeline, and investment level and cover content creation, trade campaigns, and on-premise activations such as Bar Convent Brooklyn.
• Hospitality Growth Workshop A 4-week live, small-group workshop for bar and restaurant operators covering marketing structure, audience targeting, messaging, content evaluation, and conversion optimization using AI-assisted frameworks. Priced at $2,500 total investment per participant with capacity capped at 20 operators per cohort across 8 live 75-minute sessions.
• LTD Video Library An on-demand educational video platform for bartenders hosting content categories of Experiences, Education Series, Brand Stories, Teasers, and Interviews with cocktail tutorials, brand stories, and industry interviews.

Quantifiable outcome

• Spirits brands achieve measurable sales growth: Volcán saw +218% in Florida, +67% in New York, +50% in Texas, +44% in California
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Traeger GrillsflagshipGTM or Marketing Partner · 31 March 2026Featured partner for 'Grilled and Distilled: Pairing Chefs and Bartenders' series. Episodes pair pitmasters with bartenders to create food and drink pairings. Episode 1 featured Doug Scheiding (Texas) and Episode 2 featured Chef Claudette Zepeda (SoCal), both powered by Traeger Grills.
• Bulleit Frontier WhiskeyflagshipGTM or Marketing Partner · 31 March 2026Featured spirit partner for 'Grilled and Distilled: Pairing Chefs and Bartenders' series. Episodes showcase Bulleit cocktails alongside Traeger Grills-powered BBQ. Series explores cultural storytelling through food and drink pairings.
• Diageo Bar AcademycoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 6 September 2023Licensed to Distill x Diageo Bar Academy podcast 'SHAKEN AND STIRRED' hosted by Tristan Stephenson. Video podcast featuring Jabin Troth sharing insights on increasing following, maximizing content creation, and social strategies for personal brands and bars. Episode released September 6, 2023. The partnership positions LTD as an industry thought leader within Diageo's professional bartender network.
• Diageo World Class UScoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 6 September 2023Content strategy and production partnership for Diageo's World Class US competition and programs. Delivered measurable outcomes: +157% YOY views, +99% YOY reach, +304% YOY shares, +250% YOY follows. The content stopped behaving like brand content and started behaving like industry content.
• Barr Hill Gin (Caledonia Spirits)flagshipGTM or Marketing PartnerAward-winning gin partner for 'Bartenders Meet Beekeepers' series celebrating bee importance in agriculture. Episodes feature urban beekeeping (NYC, San Francisco, Miami) with cocktail content using Barr Hill Gin. At Bar Convent Brooklyn, Barr Hill showcased 40,000 bees and announced planting of 73,000 square feet of new pollinator habitat.
• Volcán de Mi TierracoreGTM or Marketing PartnerCase study partner showing trade-driven distribution results across 4 US markets (FL, NY, TX, CA). 16 featured accounts, 1M+ total reach, 1K+ shares. YTD sales growth: Florida +218%, New York +67%, Texas +50%, California +44%. Juliana Sarria, Global Consumer Engagement & Marketing Director stated: 'LTD has built something far more valuable than impressions and engagement metrics: trust and credibility.'
• Azunia TequilacoreGTM or Marketing PartnerBrand story video content showcasing tequila production from harvesting to bottling at family-owned estate in Jalisco, Mexico. LTD team traveled to document authentic production process on family-owned and operated estate.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• SevenFifty Daily: SevenFifty Daily is a B2B trade publication and platform for the alcoholic beverage industry, covering wine, spirits, and beer. It serves the same audience of brand teams and operators that LTD targets, with a media-first monetization model that complements LTD's services-plus-content approach.
• Liquor.com: Liquor.com is a major consumer-facing spirits and cocktail content site with recipes, brand stories, and educational content. It monetizes via brand partnerships and licensing and shares LTD's bartender-education and brand-storytelling content verticals.
• VinePair: VinePair is a digital drinks media company producing articles, video, and newsletters about wine, spirits, beer, and cocktails. It has a comparable audience profile (spirits-curious consumers and trade) and a similar advertiser/partnership revenue model, making it a relevant comparator for content-distribution scale.
• Imbibe Magazine: Imbibe is a drinks culture magazine covering cocktails, coffee, beer, wine, and spirits with a strong bartender and bar operator audience. It targets the same on-premise and enthusiast readership that LTD reaches, with overlapping brand partnership and content distribution models.
• Chilled Magazine: Chilled is a cocktail and spirits lifestyle publication featuring recipes, bartender profiles, and brand storytelling. Like LTD, it serves as a content-driven bridge between spirit brands and bar professionals, with comparable print/digital content and brand partnership monetization.
• Tales of the Cocktail: Tales of the Cocktail is the premier spirits and hospitality industry event and education platform, producing conferences, seminars, and content for bartenders and brand ambassadors. Like LTD, it operates at the intersection of spirits brands, bartenders, and bar operators, but historically through events rather than digital content distribution.
• Punch (Punch Drink): Punch is a drinks media brand covering cocktails, spirits, and bar culture with strong video/editorial content and a subscription model. Like LTD, it monetizes through brand partnerships and uses editorial content to bridge consumers and trade, making it a comparable content-plus-brand-partnership business.
• BevNet: BevNet is a B2B media and research company covering the non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverage industry. It serves beverage brand teams with editorial content, data, and events, comparable to LTD's brand-marketing services for spirits clients.
• The Spirits Business: The Spirits Business is a leading global trade publication covering the spirits industry with news, features, and analysis. It targets the same brand and bartender audiences as LTD through editorial content and commercial partnerships, making it a comparable trade-media business.

Emerging players

• BarSmarts (Beam Suntory): BarSmarts is an online bartender education and certification program originally built with Beam Suntory. It overlaps with LTD's bartender education and workshop products, but is owned by a single spirits producer rather than serving as a neutral multi-brand platform.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@licensedtodistill
• Facebookfacebook.com/licensedtodistill
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/licensed-to-distill
• Instagraminstagram.com/licensedtodistill

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Licensed To Distill