Little Saints, the functional alcohol-free spirits brand founded by Megan Klein, has been named No. 103 on the 2026 Inc. 5000, Inc. magazine's annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. It was the highest-ranked beverage company on this year's list, and by the company's account the No. 1 beverage company and No. 3 food-and-beverage company overall. It is the first adaptogenic non-alcoholic spirits brand to make the ranking at all.
The headline number deserves a footnote. Little Saints' own announcement highlights 53 percent revenue growth from 2024 to 2025, but the Inc. 5000 is scored on three-year growth, and on that basis the company reported 2,699 percent growth from 2022 to 2025. Inc.'s founder profile puts concrete figures behind it, describing annual revenue climbing from roughly 9.5 million dollars to 15 million as the brand expanded into Whole Foods. However you frame it, this is no longer a promising startup story. It is one of the fastest-growing private companies in the country, and it happens to sell no alcohol at all.
Klein, a former environmental lawyer and vertical-farming entrepreneur, launched Little Saints in 2021 and self-funded its first year before building it into a digitally native brand. The company says it has now sold more than five million beverages and reached over a thousand stores nationwide, including a national rollout in Sprouts, where it says it is the fastest-growing non-alcoholic beverage, and Whole Foods in California. Its St. Oak whiskey alternative was named Best NA Spirit of 2025 by BevNET and has become the best seller. Klein appeared on the Season 16 premiere of Shark Tank and turned down the offers she received.
The Cr(af)ted Take
It is tempting to read a ranking like this as good news for one brand and move on, but the more useful signal is about the category. Functional alcohol-free, the segment that still draws the most skepticism for leaning on adaptogens and wellness language, just produced one of the fastest-growing private companies in America. That is a kind of external validation the category has been short on. Not a trend piece or a survey, but a three-year growth curve steep enough to rank against every private company in the country.
What is worth studying is the discipline behind it. Little Saints did not chase every shelf at once. It built direct-to-consumer first, expanded into retail selectively, led with a genuinely functional proposition rather than an imitation of a spirit, and, tellingly, walked away from Shark Tank money rather than dilute the plan. For a category still proving it can scale beyond niche wellness branding into real consumer packaged goods, that combination of a clear proposition and the patience to protect it may be the actual lesson. The growth number is the headline. The channel discipline is the story.
Original reporting: BevNET →