Allison EllsworthCo-founder

Yes, my grandfather, father, and sister were all entrepreneurs, so it ran in the family. While my parents divorced and I was raised by a single mother working minimum wage, I was always told that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. Additionally, dancing five days a week built my confidence on stage.

I spent seven years visiting doctors for bloating, severe acne, and chronic inflammation, only to be told I had typical girl problems. I researched gut health online and discovered apple cider vinegar. By cutting gluten and drinking vinegar, I cured my issues and wanted to create a gut-health tonic that actually tasted great.

Our first recipe was way too strong, containing three tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, which caused digestive issues. Customers at the farmers market asked if they had to drink the entire jar, signaling it was too powerful. We also learned to stop complicating flavors, shifting from orange cinnamon to simple orange soda.

Working in oil and gas required me to travel and manage multi-million dollar projects independently without a boss on site. I had to negotiate directly with landowners and native reservations. This taught me the self-starter, self-reliant mentality that is critical for any entrepreneur building a business from scratch.

Opening our own manufacturing plant was a massive capital drain that consumed our resources. Unless you have no other choice, startups should avoid manufacturing and use co-packers. While managing our facility taught us how to scale our liquid, spending all your early capital on manufacturing is a major mistake.

I am fearless about failing and do not let money define my identity. We sold both of our cars, maxed our credit cards, and almost lost our house right before going on Shark Tank. My husband Stephen worked a second job to cover the mortgage, and a timely tax return saved us from quitting.

I was highly focused on health and did not want to add sugar, which led to big fights with my husband. He secretly added cane sugar to our samples at Expo West to make them taste like real soda. The reception was so positive that I realized five grams of sugar was a healthy, mass-market compromise.

We were doubted every step of the way. Grocery stores had no idea where to shelve us, constantly debating whether we belonged with sparkling water, functional beverages, or traditional soda. We faked it till we made it by maintaining strong conviction in our story, eventually running a Super Bowl ad to establish ourselves as soda.

When Expo West was canceled in March 2020, we had to throw away our launch playbook and focus entirely on Amazon, Instacart, Target, and Walmart websites. This digital marketing approach had no zip codes, allowing us to build rapid national brand awareness and establish top-performing stores in middle America from year one.

I posted a simple, authentic video sitting down and telling our founding story, which generated one hundred thousand dollars in Amazon sales in twenty-four hours. This success shifted our entire strategy toward paid and organic TikTok marketing, helping us grow our email and SMS subscriber list to a million in one year.

To break through the noise, you must be willing to make a fool of yourself. Whether it is dancing on TikTok, standing at a farmers market pitching vinegar, or negotiating numbers you do not fully know, experiencing embarrassment is a natural byproduct of putting yourself out there to build a brand.

It is a pool of capital set aside to capitalize on sudden cultural trends and activations, like sponsoring get-ready-with-me videos for Coachella or sending drinks to celebrity parties. It allows you to invest in long-term brand awareness and relationships without demanding an immediate, tracked return on investment.

We found that giving equity turned influencers into authentic owners who advocated for the brand. Our early advisory agreement with Olivia Munn showed us she would post about Poppi on vacation because she felt part of our journey. We structured a similar, highly successful deal with TikTok star Alex Earle.

Once we brought in senior leadership, we established a structured equity pool that increased as employees were promoted. I am the face of Poppi, but the engine is driven by our team. Our 1.95 billion USD exit to PepsiCo made over forty-four of our employees millionaires, changing their lives.

We created the modern soda wars, functioning much like Coke and Pepsi. Even though we sat on different shelves (Olipop in the cold set, Poppi on the shelf-stable set), our rivalry generated double the awareness for the prebiotic category, allowing us to collectively own ninety-eight percent of the market.

To build a global brand, we needed massive distribution to access stadiums, college campuses, and subways, which were previously off-limits due to legacy contracts. PepsiCo also provided operational synergies, laboratory resources, and significant cost savings on aluminum cans.

Poppi was my fourth child, and handing it over felt like sending a kid off to college. It was a very emotional transition, and nobody prepares you for that feeling of loss. I hired a business coach, worked through my feelings, and realized that having a purpose is far more important than money.

Poppi was my fourth child, and handing it over felt like sending a kid off to college. It was a very emotional transition, and nobody prepares you for that feeling of loss. I hired a business coach, worked through my feelings, and realized that having a purpose is far more important than money.