Poppi

Poppi went from $3M to ~$550M in revenue in four and a half years

Poppi launched the first week of COVID in March 2020 and did about $3M in year one, then $22M, $50M, $200M and $500M+ before selling to PepsiCo. Allison Ellsworth calls the run lightning in a bottle.

“And so that first year we were in market, I think we did about $3 million in revenue. And then the next year was $22, $50, and then the big jump was from $50 to $200 million, and then $500+ to then be sold. So it was like 4 and a half years to almost $550 million, which is crazy growth.”

TikTok as modern sampling: 300,000 views beats 30 Whole Foods samples

Poppi was one of the first founder-led brands to go all in on TikTok. Because it was digital-first from day one, it broke out in places like Fargo, Cincinnati and Houston instead of the usual LA/NY/Miami-first rollout for better-for-you brands.

“But when you grow up with a digital-first mindset within the business from core day one, We had people like, I think at one point one of our top targets was like Fargo, North Dakota, and all of these like Cincinnati, Ohio, Houston, Texas. And so when you're a true digital-first brand, you can really break through and go to more places quicker. It's like a modern field day marketing type tactic, right? Do you want to stand in a Whole Foods and give away 30 samples, or do you want to, uh, do something and educate and put paid behind it and push your ads out organically to the FYP page and get 300,000 people to see it?”

Steal thisTreat short-form video as your in-store demo: put founder-made content and paid spend behind it to reach towns your retail rollout hasn't hit yet.

Poppi went on Shark Tank at $500K revenue, with a second job paying the mortgage

Before the rebrand, Mother Beverage had done about $500K selling apple cider vinegar drinks at farmers markets. With the founders working 80-hour weeks, a kid on the way and Stephen working a second job, Shark Tank was the lifeline. Rohan Oza invested.

“Mother Beverage at the time, we'd done about $500,000 in revenue. And it was that point of like, if we don't get investment, we can't sustain this, right? We were working 80 hours a week. We had a kid, a kid on the way. Steven was working a second job just to pay our mortgage. And you can only be in that rat race for so long. And so Shark Tank was just this beautiful opportunity.”

Treat Amazon as an awareness channel, not a profit center

Poppi raised roughly $70M and spent it all on brand building: Super Bowl ads, TV, creators, pop-ups with 50 Cent. As a board decision it sold on Amazon from day one, accepting thin beverage margins because Amazon reaches so many American households.

“We aren't a traditional D2C company. We're actually not a D2C company. We were 100% on Amazon from day one, which was a decision we made as a board. To do that. And it was such a good decision, but you, you don't make a lot of money on Amazon as a beverage. And so we saw it as a great marketing tactic for awareness because it's in so many households across America.”

Steal thisIf a channel can't make you money, ask whether it can make you famous; price it as a marketing line item.

A Super Bowl spot costs $6–11M before production and 7 follow-up hits

The Super Bowl media buy runs $6M to $11M for a 30- or 60-second spot, before production and the roughly 7 follow-up linear ads needed to sustain it. Poppi waited until it was in almost every US grocery store, said 'soda' 17 times in the ad, and tripled its brand awareness overnight.

“It depends on if you do a 30 or 60. They're anywhere from $6 to $11 million. It's a standard price for everybody. But what is the cost if you're going to hire to do it? A director, a film crew, and then how do you sustain that afterwards? So you hit people at the, at the Super Bowl with a Super Bowl ad. you gotta hit 'em about 7 more times with more linear ads, right?”

Poppi bought its first Super Bowl ad 5 days out on the remnant market

Poppi made an evergreen brand spot, realized it was Super Bowl-worthy, and found an unused slot on the secondary market through a friend of someone at a TikTok dinner. Big companies often buy several spots for their brands and resell the ones they don't use.

“But it's what big companies do is they'll buy a bunch of Super Bowl ads, say like for a bunch of their brands. And sometimes they end up not using 'em at the end. And they'll go on the market for like secondary buy on the remnant market. found one. I was like at a dinner with someone at a TikTok event, and they're like, yeah, I think one of my friends has one.”

Steal thisBefore ruling out premium ad slots as sold out, ask about remnant inventory that big advertisers end up not using.

Embarrassment is the most underexplored emotion in success

Allison Ellsworth argues that fear of looking stupid holds most people back from pitching, starting a company or posting online. Poppi leaned into that discomfort, for example by reformulating its root beer and then publicly posting the bad comments that prompted the change.

“I think embarrassment's the most underexplored emotion when it comes to being successful in life. I think a lot of people say to themselves like, oh, I wanna go pitch this idea in a meeting, but what if I sound stupid? Or, I wanna start a business, but what if no one cares? Well, I wanna make a TikTok, but what, maybe I'll look ridiculous and like people will think weird of me.”

Same liquid, new positioning: going mass instead of niche made Poppi

Mother Beverage was a niche apple cider vinegar tonic for gut health. Poppi kept essentially the same drink, repositioned the need state and occasion as soda, and it took off. Ellsworth says founders often make their idea too niche.

“So I think a lot of people with starting a company, they try to get a little bit too niche. And apple cider vinegar mother beverage was really niche. That's a great example. It was for people that, you know, my grandma told me I should drink that, or like, yeah, that does help my tummy. But the second we switched basically this exact same liquid over, we changed positioning and the, and the need state and the occasion to soda, it blew up.”

Steal thisBefore changing the product, try repositioning it into the biggest familiar occasion it can credibly serve.

Be 10–15% better than the nostalgic norm, not 10x

Against Silicon Valley's '10x better' mantra, Allison Ellsworth says CPG winners take a product people already love, like soda, and make it a bit better. That moves the purchase decision from the head to the heart. Poppi sold the familiar flavors with 89% less sugar and played down the prebiotics.

“So you tap into emotion and you make something that they grew up with just a little bit better, right? That's what we did at Poppi. We have cola, we have root beer, we have cream soda, we have all of these flavors that people grew up— and we're just, we're better, right? And so instead of being like, hey, we're Poppi, we also have ashwagandha and lion's mane, and we have 38 other ingredients that nobody actually cares about, versus, hey, we're gonna make this 89% less sugar, you're gonna get all the same flavors you grew up with, and we're really good.”

Steal thisPick a product with built-in nostalgia, improve it by one clear benefit, and leave the other features off the label.

Design the can journey: cute, then delicious, then 'wait, it's healthy?'

Poppi dropped its 'be gut happy, be gut healthy' messaging after learning that consumers didn't care. It ordered the experience instead: the can looks cute, the drink tastes great, and only when shoppers flip it over do they find out it's good for them.

“And so we just started leaning into our consumer journey was we wanted someone to pick up the can and say, this is so cute. We wanted them to drink it and be like, holy crap, this tastes amazing. And then to flip it over and be like, wait, this is so good for me too. And it was intentional and it's an easier journey in versus that niche health consumer.”

Steal thisLead with looks and taste on the front of the pack; save the health claims for the back as a pleasant surprise.

Poppi was the Lakers' official soda but couldn't be sold in their arena

Before the sale, Poppi pieced together 180 direct-store-delivery distributors. Exclusive pouring contracts held by the big soda companies still kept it out of venues like the Lakers' arena, Madison Square Garden, Taco Bell and Subway, which is why joining a big-three distribution network matters for growth.

“For example, we were the official soda of the Lakers and could not be sold in the stadium because it was a Coke contract. We can't be at Madison Square Garden. We can't be at Taco Bell, Subway. You can't, you can't be at any of these places. So if you really want to grow, you have to have that distribution arm because of all of those contract places.”

Poppi went silent on Pepsi for a year, then sold after passing $500M in revenue

PepsiCo floated an early offer, and Poppi cut off contact for over a year. After passing $500M in revenue, the founders reopened talks, reasoning that fewer buyers can afford a $1B company. Pepsi bought 100% (not a two-step earnout deal) and diligence took about 6 weeks. 99.9% of employees held equity.

“we should probably reignite some of these conversations because it's a lot easier to, you know, buy a $500 million company than a billion-dollar company, and there's less buyers, and it's a whole thing. And look, we're having these conversations, and it's always about timing, And Pepsi came to us and they're like, hey, we see what's happening here. This is incredible. I know we haven't talked in a year, but we wanna reengage the conversation.”

Steal thisTurn down the early offer, keep growing, and reopen talks before you outgrow the buyer pool.

Rohan Oza blew up a $1.6B offer holding out for $2B

Before the Pepsi deal, another acquirer offered Poppi $1.6B. Rohan Oza wanted $2B and threatened to walk out of the room, which killed the deal, but Poppi was already talking to Pepsi. Pepsi eventually paid about $1.95B.

“At one point, there was a company trying to buy us and Rohan, like, they offered us 1.6, he wanted 2, and he would like threaten to get up in the room. It like blew up the whole thing. But it was kind of like we were, we were in talks with Pepsi at the time, so it was like there was like no harm, no foul.”

Rohan Oza's reposition: "Make chicken great again"

Shaan passed on investing in Gymkhana's Indian sauce line because few people cook Indian food at home. Rohan Oza, who helped build Smartwater, Vitaminwater and Poppi, reframed it: most meat-eaters' home meals are chicken, so the sauce should be sold as the thing that makes boring chicken taste great.

“And so similarly with Gymkhana, he goes, We're going to make chicken great again. He's like, what? He goes, it's not about use this when you're going to cook Indian food once in a blue moon at home. It's of people who eat meat, 85% of their meals at home are chicken.”

Steal thisReposition a niche product around the most frequent, boring occasion your customer already has instead of a rare special one.