OLIPOP is having fairly per week.
First, they engaged in a snark war with rival low-sugar prebiotic soda model, Poppi, in the course of the Tremendous Bowl — and by all accounts got here out the victor.
Poppi reportedly spent $16 million on a one-minute Tremendous Bowl advert that includes well-known content material creators — and despatched 32 fully-stocked merchandising machines to social media superstars. The advertising stunt fizzled out quick. Prospects complained on social media that giving wealthy folks free drinks was ludicrous and that the model might have donated the machines to colleges or hospitals, or put these funds towards decreasing the drinks’ costs.
OLIPOP jumped in, fanning the flames with feedback like “32 machines instances $25K per machine yikes” and “we do not have merchandising machines however who desires a jersey !!”
we do not have merchandising machines however who desires a jersey !! https://t.co/FZtTfZc4hU
— OLIPOP (@drinkolipop) February 9, 2025
Second on OLIPOP’s hit parade: the corporate made an announcement that certainly had many cans popping in celebration.
Simply seven years after its launch, after closing its Collection C with J.P. Morgan, OLIPOP has hit a $1.85 billion valuation.
For anybody who thought the thought of a more healthy soda would fall flat, apparently clients had been thirsty for simply that. The model is offered in almost 50,000 shops throughout the U.S., together with Walmart, Goal, Wawa, Complete Meals Market, Kroger, Costco and Starbucks.
Ben Goodwin, the 39-year-old co-founder of OLIPOP, advised Entrepreneur in 2023 (again when the corporate was solely valued at $200 million) that the enterprise was impressed largely by weight and well being struggles in his early teenagers. He stated he misplaced 50 kilos at age 14, which led to a lifelong obsession with more healthy diets and train.
“After dropping out of school, I grew to become a relentless researcher on the microbiome and product formulation and finally went on to develop the formulation for OLIPOP,” he stated, on the time.
Goodwin additionally shared his recommendation for entrepreneurial thinkers who, like him, have an ideal concept and keenness, however do not know whether or not they’re fairly prepared to begin.
“I feel folks do not essentially have to have the total imaginative and prescient of the top sport after they start,” he suggested, including that market response offers you the suggestions you must know what your product is doing proper, the way it can enhance, and the way your organization can develop.
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And for these in search of funding, he pressured the significance of working with buyers who “deal with you with respect, take the time to take heed to your imaginative and prescient, and are enthusiastic about your small business.”
If a possible investor feels the necessity to dominate conversations and acts like they’re the savior of your organization? “Keep away from them,” Goodwin says. “We have now a functionality to develop by nice imaginative and prescient and energy,” he says. “The long run is just not fastened, neither is our means to facilitate that change.”
Watch Entrepreneur’s dialog with Ben Goodwin in its entirety here.
Dan Bova
