Got milk? Belinsky does—minus the lactose. The Boston native grew up chugging chocolate milk after basketball practice, but when he became lactose-intolerant, he switched to alternative milks. Frustrated by the fillers and synthetic additives in milk substitutes, he and cofounder Manny Lubin created Slate, hawking zero-added-sugar, high-protein milks and lattes—without added protein powder. “The way I describe it is you put milk through a Brita filter,” he says. Cows are still involved: Slate simply skims the milk, then filters out the natural lactose sugars. The startup launched in 2019 after a popular Kickstarter campaign and an appearance on Shark Tank. Since inception, Slate has sold more than 15 million cans of milk at more than 12,000 locations, including Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods and Wegmans. Investor interest has been frothy. Backers include the cofounders of RXBar, Halo Top and Drizly, as well as OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder, who cumulatively have poured in $25 million.