Welcome to a new episode of Power

Players. I want to welcome in my guest

for this episode, which I think is going

to feed my fascination with all things

consumer products. That's Olip

co-founder and CEO Ben Goodwin. Ben, did

I say that right? Cuz I've been passing

your cans in the stores for years. Did I

Did I get it somewhat right?

>> So close. So close.

Ollipop. Ollipop.

>> You just just a little more annunciation

on the li and you are in the zone. All

right. But great to be here with you,

Brian.

>> It's good to see you.

Where did that name even come from?

>> You know what? [laughter]

It's not It's not like the sexiest uh

origin story in the world. You know, I'm

sure everybody's going to remember this

word, but the the Ali is short for

igiosaccharides.

Uh which is a family of prebiotic fibers

that's in the product. And then pop is

short for soda. Uh, you know, I did have

a kind of like a the precursor

beverage uh company before uh Lollipop

uh which was a probiotic soda and we

were kind of younger and launched on the

West Coast and that product really

stayed in kind of the natural health

markets on the West Coast and and then I

had to fold it and started a Lollipop.

At the time, I was calling it a

probiotic soda and uh the folks in the,

you know, shopping the natural stores

didn't like the word soda. They wanted

the soda flavors. Our top seller was

root beer,

>> but they didn't want it to be called a

soda. And so when I launched Lollipop, I

had this suspicion that in the Midwest

they would be more open to the idea of a

healthy soda. And in the Midwest, they

call soda pop. So that's where the name

structure came from. And and I think I

was proven right. I think that when we

went into the Midwest, um there was a

lot less kind of consternation around

the idea. Uh and it really clearly

signaled what the product was.

>> In my head, Ben, um I'm like, well,

Ben's still uh new in the space. I I

still remember when this product

launched. And then I zoom out, you know,

as I was prepping for this. I'm like,

Ben's kind of like a veteran. Uh you're

like an OG in the beverage space at this

point.

>> Yeah.

Like how did that even happen? Like when

that when when did that happen?

>> Yeah. I mean I dropped out of college at

So I So I'm I just turned 40 and I

dropped out of college at uh 20 and you

know like a lot of young people who want

to get into the health and wellness

industry. I was kind of attracted to the

siren song of beverage. Uh and uh my

first first cut my teeth um helping a

friend start up a kombucha company. and

uh and you know and then I was in the

you know doing demos at stores and

telling people it was it was good for

them but I didn't really know why. Oh I

started to look up in theory why is

kombucha good for you and it's the

>> it just sounds good. It just it sounds

good. It sounds

>> it's it helps the microbiome in theory.

I've kind of changed my tune on kombucha

a little bit. There's not it's not

actually particularly scientifically

supported but yeah I mean that was 20

years ago. Um, and I had a whole

beverage venture prior to uh Lollipop

that was about seven years long. Learned

a lot of really valuable lessons. And

then Lollipop's been running for about

eight years at this point. So, turns out

uh turns out time flies and all of a

sudden you're you're an OG.

>> Yeah. I still remember when it came out

I was going down think I don't know what

store it was. I'm like, "What the hell

is that?" And um that sounds really

interesting. I'm like, I don't know why

I need to have this, but I just feel

like I need to have it. Like, it just it

all worked. It really It was like one of

the first products of its kind

>> for sure. I mean, yeah, Olive Pop was

the first, you know, this the category

is kind of called the prebiotics of the

category now, which I'm not terribly

into that name structure because our

product has a lot more in it than just

prebiotics. the majority of the kind of

rest of the folks who came into the

category really just kind of hung their

hat on on prebiotics and so I understand

why the name structure went in that

direction but yeah I mean we we created

the category um Poppy launched you know

18 24 months after we uh after we did

and then there's been a million other

folks including the big strategics now

who have gotten involved in the space

but um yeah it was definitely first of

definitely first of its kind and really

built on a very simple premise which is

um soda is the largest you know category

in beverage outside of alcohol. Um we

can see the kind of dilatorious effects

of soda on anyone's health who consumes

too much of it. Um we can see the kind

of metabolic health uh issues that we

have in this country that are spreading

to all the kind of industrialized

countries. And so what if there was a

way to take that a massive category,

which by the way just has so much

nostalgia and actually means so much to

so many people. And what if we could

take that and actually turn into a bit

of a Trojan horse where it not only

wasn't uh you know a delivery agent for

kind of chemicals and and sugar and but

it could actually be a delivery agent

for healthy ingredients. You know we've

now done a bunch of research around our

product. We have a relationship with

Purdue. We finished human clinical

research on blood sugar stability and

A1C levels. We just finished a piece of

GLP1 research in humans. That's

incredible. Um, so we really are

delivering on the promise of an actual

healthy product that's sciencebacked,

but for most of our our our customers

who just enjoying it, it's like it's

great. It's a great way to get a soda

and to not do something damaging for

your body.

>> What I I saw this stat. It was recent. I

think it was Coca-Cola earnings like

their Coke Zero is up double digits.

They're also their the diet soda

business. It's not just Coke, it's

PepsiCo, too, and other players like it.

Why are these diet and zero sugar

formulations having a moment again?

>> It's still soda.

>> Yeah. I mean I think that well so one of

the things that's interesting just

before I kind of speak to that is you

know what what one of the kind of cool

things about this category what we've

seen from our data is uh we actually

convert more full so uh sugar soda

drinkers than diet soda drinkers. um

which so it's it's nice in that way

because the full sugar um you know soda

consumer is still a much larger total

sector section of the of CSD consumers.

But I mean I think that diet sodas and

and zero sodas the number one issue that

people have with soda and you know

arguably appropriately so is the really

high sugar content. Um, and so if you

can kind of get over the taste hurdle

um, for a diet option, then by all

means, and I think that I think GLP-1

medication probably helps people as well

because you know your your resiliency

towards um, uh, around the kind of your

discipline around your eating and

drinking decision goes up during that

time period. And so if you can use that

moment to switch a habit uh then a lot

of people are taking that uh are are

doing that. Now we also do find that uh

GLP1 users deeply overindex on

functional server consumption as well

which is you know our category. Um but

yeah I think that that's that's a part

of it and and I think that you know

awareness is very high. I mean according

to the CDC

uh nearly 50% of Americans either have

pre-diabetes or type two diabetes and so

obviously that's being driven by uh a

big portion of that is being driven by

uh sugar consumption.

>> You know I'm glad you mentioned the

GLP1s because you know it is really you

know you'll talk to a lot of executives

like we're not seeing impact yet in our

results. I mean a lot of them yeah they

are they are seeing it and it's seeing

in the snacks business most uh most

notably you know how does the

proliferation of these drugs help a

business like yours does it hurt a

business like yours what how do you

think about it

>> no I think it really helps uh us so you

know because 90 one of one of the

drivers you know our product is uh quite

high in fiber right so we have a shelf

stable version which has six grams uh of

fiber per can and we have a refrigerated

version that is 9 g of fiber per per can

for slightly more adventurous [laughter]

and you know it's being driven uh you

know the the our goal there is an

acknowledgement of you know something

that we call the fiber gap which is the

90% of Americans don't get the USDA's

recommended 28 grams of fiber per day

which there's a lot of arguments that

even that 28 grams of fiber a day is not

enough and so 90% of Americans aren't

getting that that's a problem and that's

one of the drivers behind the metabolic

health crisis that have because fiber

acts in direct opposition to spikes in

in the blood sugar. In fact, we just

published a piece of human research that

we did that that tested our cola against

a mainstream cola brand and found that

we did not we not only did not spike

blood sugar, uh but we kept it stable

for a full 3 hours after consuming the

product, which is great. Um, but you

know, while 90% of Americans aren't

getting uh the their daily recommended

uh value of fiber, 25% of GLP1 consumers

know that that's a problem and are

actively trying to close the gap. In

addition, 50% of GOP 1 consumers who

were drinking soda before they started

taking the medication stop drinking

soda. But when you go ask them uh, you

know, do you miss that experience?

Pretty much universally they say yes.

And you know what we know about GOP1

medication is that typically when people

go off um they gain about twothirds of

the weight back. And so one of the big

success drivers for kind of long-term

weight maintenance is the habits that

they change while they're on the

medication. So, if you can go from

drinking a traditional soda to drinking

an lollipop and keep that habit, it's

going to be really beneficial for you in

terms of blood sugar health and

metabolic health, but also might help

you to kind of um preserve some of the

benefits you got from the medication.

>> You know, it's wild for me to think, you

know, you and I are around the same age.

I grew up drinking RC Cola. It was the

thing in the fridge. And now I look at

>> I had some of that,

>> right? It was just it was just this

amazing thing. Was always on sale. It It

was good. Meditate. I can still taste it

in my mouth, which is ridiculous. But

that's a topic for a different day. The

thing is now this this next generation,

you know, we have all the I look at my

nieces and nephews. I don't think

they've I don't think they've actually

ever had a a full calorie soda before,

and I don't think they ever will.

>> It's a you know, it's a super super

interesting point that you bring up. Uh

it is the case that uh six there's been

a something like a 60%

decrease in soda consumption

uh for Gen Z folks over the last 10

years. Uh and then I you know I think

that those numbers are even more

profound for Gen Alpha. So I do think

that these new generations coming up are

interacting with soda less. Now, part of

it has got to be their parents because I

think, you know, the millennials, uh,

the ones that are kind of raising some

of these younger demos are are have been

more conscious about some of the, you

know, problems with that with with those

products. Um, but I also think, you

know, there's an interesting dynamic

like so when we looked at, you know, cuz

the ultimate big 10 category, that means

it's got to work for kind of all ages

and types of people. And we do find that

to be the case with Lollipop, but we've

always overindexed from our beginning uh

days with Gen Z. And you know, it's

interesting for Gen Z because they're

the first they're the first group that

really kind of intertwines physical

health and mental health. They see them

as all a part of the same pot, which I

personally agree with. Uh and as a part

of that they have an interesting

relationship with indulgences and

indulgences being okay. They also have

less of a internalized conflict with

this idea that something could be good

for me but also tastes good. They have

less kind of baggage around it. And so

it makes them a great consumer for this

uh category. And look, it's honestly

it's one of my it's a it's a big point

of

pride is maybe the wrong way to describe

it, but it's a big point of pride for me

when I we get stories from our our

customers that, you know, all of the

sudden, you know, these when we were

growing up, you just mentioned RC Cola.

When we were growing up, we had a bunch

of nostalgic experiences with

traditional soda and those taste

profile. used that I could taste it,

right?

>> Yeah, I could still Crystal Pepsi.

Crystal Pepsi. Oh, but that Well, wow. I

mean, that's just taking me back now.

I'm just like reliving my child. I knew

I was going to have fun talking to you.

I just do it.

>> But you know what I mean? Like those

taste profiles are burned into your

mind. Those nostalgic experiences are

burned into your mind. By the way,

there's something wrong with you for

having those experiences.

>> No, there's a lot wrong. There's a lot

wrong. There's a lot. But what's amazing

is, you know, when you have these

younger groups now having those powerful

experiences, those like kind of identity

creating experiences, but they're having

it with this category and with Lollipop.

And you think to yourself, my god,

that's a person who when they, you know,

turn in their 30s and their 40s, that

inner conflict of I've had a rough day.

I just want to reach for a can of

traditional soda. But now Lollipop

provides that comfort to them and

they're not trading off their health to

have that experience. Like I I'm so I'm

really really proud of that and that's

one of the reasons why you know I'm not

willing to compromise Lollipop's product

integrity, science integrity, um our

ability to have an impact. You know, I

take our relationship with our customers

really seriously and I want Lollipop to

still be providing the same level of

value 40 years from now that it's

providing today.

>> Well, so let me in the same breath, let

me put this one to you on soda. Does

full calorie black soda in a plastic

bottle or a can, does that end with our

generation? And if you and I are sitting

here, you know, knock on wood, 25, 30

years from now, does good old-fashioned

full calorie black soda in a can in a

plastic b plastic bottle, does that even

exist anymore?

>> You know, it's a fantastic question. Uh

I I suspect

I suspect it will still exist. Um

but I hope it's uh I hope it is much

less prevalent. Um, you know, I hate to

draw any kind of analogies to to to

cigarettes or or whatever because it's

it's a different there are things a lot

there's a lot that's quite different

about it. Um, and you know, the

relationships that people have with

these brands and these flavor profiles.

Uh, I you know, but I also think it

depends on what happens from like a a

regulatory standpoint. Um, from a public

awareness standpoint, I think that there

is space for all of the offerings. You

know, I it's been super super important

for me and for our team to make sure

that we're not ever shaming people

around their decision to to con to

consume those products. I mean,

certainly certainly they're affordable.

>> Yes. Um but you know I think that as

awareness continues to grow up uh or

increase I would expect that the kind of

uh the ratios of of what types of uh CSD

products are consumed um is going to

shift and I think it's going to go more

towards uh functional and harm

reduction. Um, I do think that that's a

bit inevitable. And again, I think you

can see that through the fact that

there's a branded Pepsi product that's a

prebiotic soda. Um, and uh, there are

juicy rumors swirling. I've seen some

uh, some pack design. So, we'll find out

if it's real that that Coke might be

putting a red can coke product into the

market. Uh,

>> what does that even soda?

>> What does that what does that do to your

your business? You're the OG in the

space. like our pack design.

>> Well, to be honest with you, but uh you

know, cool. It's cool. We I'll take it

as a compliment, you know.

>> Well, how do you you know, as a you

know, how do you compete against these

guys? I mean, Coke, Pepsi, these guys

are behemoth. PepsiCo, what they spent

almost $2 billion to buy Poppy. I mean,

they have seemingly blank checks. Like,

how do you Well, first of all, how big

is your business now amidst this

competition?

>> Yeah. Yeah. So, we're not quite at a

billion, but we're we're well north of a

half billion and uh we're fully

profitable. So, we're we're chugging

along and we still have robust double

digit growth, which I'm excited about.

Um you look I think that I mean look

there's always time for the category to

continue to evolve and I don't want to

seem you know cavalier but since uh

Pepsi purchased Poppy you know Lollipop

has squarely retaken the lead seat in

the category right so we're still the

we're the highest um you know brand in

terms of sales uh and I think that I I

don't I look I think there is a space

for the Coke and Pepsi product. I mean,

again, I think Coke is still a little

bit speculative, so we'll have to see

what actually happens there. But for

sure, there's obviously a Pepsi product

out. Uh, and look, I I I think there'll

be a place for maybe a brand loyalist to

Pepsi that maybe has had some interest

in the category, but hasn't quite wanted

to jump over, and there may be a space

there for um for that product. But that

being said, I think that the

authenticity that a brand like Lollipop

is going to have, first of all, the

category creator, but the second in

terms of our health credentials, how we

run our business. I think there's

probably an underlying conflict that a

lot of consumers are going to have

between, okay, do I really trust a Coke

or a Pepsi or whatever to give me health

product if that's why I'm engaging with

this category? Uh, and I I think that a

lot of customers are probably going to

say, "Well, you know, maybe maybe not.

They seem like followers in the

category." And, you know, maybe I'm

going to stick with the leaders.

>> How do you run the business differently

>> than a Cog Pepsi?

>> Yeah.

>> How much time do you have? [laughter]

>> You hit me with your biggest hot t your

biggest hot take.

>> Yeah. Look, I think [laughter] so. One

of the things that there there's a bunch

of things that I think are are really

foundational to our DNA

um and you know part one of my biggest

jobs actually as the in my seat is to

make sure that we retain these things as

we scale. You know firstly we're a very

innovation ccentric business um so even

though we've got these great products

out of the market and we've got great

science behind them and I'm really proud

of what we've done. I'm actually kind of

constantly looking at how do I improve

the back end of the product and make it

even more effective, make the high fiber

load even more tolerable, you know, so

that people don't get uh don't have

discomfort despite the fact that they're

consuming fiber that they really need.

Innovation is always going to be really

important to us and and that and

actually our innovation profile is going

to ramp uh over the next couple years.

there's been a lot of really cool stuff

that I'm working on right now um that I

think will be amazing uh I'm really

looking forward to sharing with

customers in the future. Uh so there's

that the innovation piece. You know,

obviously the uh big strategics are not

notorious for being able to kind of

stomach innovation. Then you know we're

look we're a fundamentally missiondriven

business to the to the point where our

mission is at it's the center column

that everything else is built around.

Um, and

you know, and when you're 150-year-old

public behemoth that's become really

highly corporately structured,

um, it's very difficult, if not

impossible to orient yourselves like

that. Um, and you know, and look, we it

come it flows through in terms of how I

engage the team and the stories we tell

and how we anchor around what's

important. It uh shows up in what's our

northstar for long-term decisions and uh

and you know how we think about continue

to grow the the business in the category

to how do we take care of our employees?

What what you know benefits do we offer

them and what kind of culture do we

provide them with? You know, we won

Inc.'s best places to work two years in

a row. It's something I'm also very

proud of. We had almost 300,000

applications to work at Lollipop last

year. It's now wow

>> harder to become an Ollipop employee

than it is to become a professional uh

NBA player in

>> the United States.

>> I mean, what what are you giving out?

What are you giving out at HQ? I mean,

we're that's that's a lot of

applications.

>> Well, so look, we've got fantastic uh

benefits. We've got all sorts of uh

really innovative ways that we you know

got like a personal development stipend

and but I think that the thing that's

more attractive to people is that look I

think obviously people want to be a part

of a success story and a high growth

business and so I you know I totally

understand that but you know what people

want even more than that is they want

work that's meaningful. you know, you're

spending all day waking up, putting all

your best hours into work. And do you

want to feel like when you when you

close your laptop laptop off at the end

of the day or the week, [snorts] do you

want to feel like what you did moved the

ball forward for humanity and made a

positive difference? And I think I think

people really, really, really want that.

I mean, a lot of what I try to think

about for Lollipop is what is a

workplace that I would actually want to

work in. You know, as somebody who's

been an entrepreneur for 20 years and is

basically unemployable, like I don't

think I could, you know, it' be very

very hard for me to work inside of

somebody else's business. And so, how do

I want to treat our our employees? Um,

how do I want to humanize them? How do I

want to drive psychological awareness in

the organization? and what is work that

is actually meaningful that people can

wake up and do every day and and a

company that that puts its money where

its mouth is over and over and over

again and that's foundational. We have

not compromised our integrity at any

point in this journey.

>> No, I'm not naive enough to think that

you're going to share your product

roadmap with me and I understand that

because then the uh Coke PepsiCo guys,

the Coke PepsiCo guys, they're they're

going to watch us. I know they watch

already. they're going to create this

product and you know you I don't want

you to get screwed. Now I think this is

one of the most amazing times to be in

in the beverage business if not the

snack even the like the healthy snacking

industry. The innovation I'm seeing down

the aisles I was talking to you off

camera soda with protein in it. Uh extra

caffeine I've got a company like Celsius

coming out like double caffeinated cans.

Uh it is a fascinating time. Like what

is the most interesting innovation

you're seeing in beverages today that

that you're like you know what? Yeah. I

mean, I I want to do something there.

>> Oh, that's Oh,

that's that's embarrassing. I love that

was great, Brian. [laughter]

>> None of this is written, Ben. This is

none none of this is written down.

>> You know, I was I was falling for it. I

was like, "All right, cool. This

>> I didn't ask you directly.

>> That you want to get involved in?"

That's really good.

>> You that you that you want to do.

>> That wasn't that wasn't sneaky at all.

That was really good. Look, I think that

there's a bunch of great I I yeah,

you're right that I I won't be kind of

uh spoiling our our product our product

roadmap, but you know, something that

you actually just called out that I do

think is really interesting

directionally and and in a lot of ways,

Lollipop kind of delivers on this also,

which is this kind of multiaceted kind

of health benefits or reasons to engage,

right? So, it's not just good enough

that something tastes great now. It's

like it needs to taste great. Uh, it

needs to have uh accessibility for a

variety of different types of people,

ages. Um, and I think the same thing on

on function. really motivated around

this kind of multi- multi-pronging of

benefits and and where do you look for

benefits that the way that they interact

with each other is some is first of all

somewhat novel and how do they kind of

resolve

issues that somebody might have with

that benefit in isolation. Um and then

look there's all sorts of really cool

technology that's come into play. I

mean, I've seen um I'm a big fan of like

liposomaal encapsulations and I've seen

a lot of really cool tech coming through

in that in that realm and like

liposomaal stuff is important because it

dramatically increases absorption. Um

you know, you're basically sticking the

nutrients in these little kind of fat

packets to be honest with you, but it

helps pull that into the body and pull

it into the bloodstream. Um, so I'm not

just see, you know, I don't just think

that these kind of mixed benefit

offerings are are really interesting,

but the underlying technology behind

some of them, a lot of it's still fairly

costly now, but I think, you know,

prices might come down over time. And,

you know, we really could live in a gold

a golden era. And I I'm hopeful that

Ollipop has been a part of opening

consumer's minds but also the industry's

mind to these this idea that uh we you

know I look I just I really believe in a

future where customer can go into a

grocery store and pick products off the

shelf that are exciting to them that are

emotionally you know motivating

uh and They don't have to overthink the

nutritional composition because so many

of those products are offering real

benefits because that's what turns out

food and beverage should be doing. It

turns out that it should be delivering

nutrition.

>> Go figure.

>> It's like a wild wild premise. Uh so

that's something that I you know that's

something that we're going to continue

to offer. And look, and I've seen even

in this category, I've seen kind of

prebiotic sodas in Europe and Australia

and Asia and South America and, you

know, all over the place. It's really

it's really an idea whose time has come.

Um, and it's great to be on the the

forefront of kind of of making that uh

an inevitability.

>> I've gotten a chance to talk to a lot of

cool founders. I'm putting you now under

that list. Uh, Ben, and I go Yeah. I've

I've asked them all this, so I want to

put this one to you. Has did you have as

you've been building this business, did

you have an oh moment? Whether it's

like oh I broke something. Oh

I can't believe this business is

growing so fast. Oh I just wow I

can't believe I am sitting here today

doing this.

>> Yeah, I mean

uh I think the first the first oh

moment that I had was actually uh was

during co right. So, you know, we the

product moved quickly the second we

started putting it on shelves. I

remember um going into my local Whole

Foods. We had just gotten into Whole

Foods and you know, people have these

like minimum orders and and I went in

and there's just this hole on the shelf

where our product's supposed to be. Zero

cans.

>> And in my head I'm like,

>> "That's not good.

>> Did they not get it in? Is this an US

problem? What's going on?" And I went

and I talked to the the buyer and

they're like, "Oh yeah, I don't think we

got that in." And so I'm like, you know,

pacing around all pissed. I'm like,

"What's up with my team?" And, you know,

with Whole Foods. Turns out that the

buyer that every can sold out in one day

>> and it was the one day that the buyer

wasn't there. So it moved so quickly

that the buyer didn't even know it had

arrived, which is kind of wild. So that

was how the product performed out the

gate, which was exciting. And then all

of a sudden, of course, you get co and

you get this idea that like people are

only going to store once a week or less.

They're just shopping for their staples

and their essentials. And we were such a

young brand. The prior year, we'd only

done a million dollars in sales. And we

were such a young brand. The kind of

prevailing logic was you're just going

to be kind of an impulse purchase when

someone's in there getting a a sandwich

or whatever. And I was like, well, we're

screwed. Like that's uh this is such a

fragile time to be going through

something like that. And so we built

this whole DTOC function. Now by the end

of the year, we actually did all of the

revenue that we were forecasting for the

year in brickandmortar retail and all

the DDC revenue was just revenue on top.

We ended up growing by almost a,000,

just shy of a,000% that year. And I was

trying to figure out what was going on.

And it turns out that for our kind of

customers that are familiar with the

product, when they were coming in and

shopping that one day of the week, they

were just scraping cans off the shelf,

but they'd already started to consider

lollipop as an essential item that they

wanted to stock up on for the whole

week. And there's a big difference

between

being something that somebody is grazing

or trying out or being an impulse

purchase and being something that

somebody kind of locks into uh into

their their schedule that they can't

they kind of can't do without. And it it

lends itself well, you know, there's a

certain amount of now that there's a

bunch of options in the category,

there's a certain amount of kind of

brand switching that happens. But for

our loyal customers, um, you know,

because we offer a a a a real amount of

functional ingredients and you can feel

the difference, especially if you

consume lollipop on a regular basis. For

our loyal customers, it's like if they

don't have a can in a given day, they

just don't quite feel right. Um, because

it turns out we need fiber. It's really,

really important. And it's lollipop's a

phenomenal way to get that along with

other functional ingredients while also

having a really great taste experience.

And it's something that they give to

their kids, you know, or we get stories

of people who are trying to get um their

parents off uh traditional soda because

they're worried about kind of their

metabolic health or whatever or their

kids want to have something sweet and

delicious and they want something they

can feel good about sharing with them.

And so um you know we have uh especially

for people who kind of lock in with our

product we offer something really unique

and it becomes quite integral to our

lives but I I they're alive that but I

didn't I didn't kind of get that that uh

visibility until co hit and then look I

it sounds like a

sounds like a humble brag or whatever

but you we actually are our a lot of our

challenges have come from growing too

quickly.

uh not or not growing too quickly but

growing really quickly. And we were

growing we grew tripledigit growth every

year until 2025 which the first time it

did to double digit growth. Um and you

know and so especially prior to being

profitable the inventory buildups when

you're growing that fast you know that

you're you're putting product out into

the market. It's selling. You're on

terms to get paid. And so there's a lag

in your cash flow and but you've got to

build an inventory for a much bigger

position than you just put out into the

market. So there were a handful of times

where uh it required some really care

careful financial management or we had

to raise some extra capital to cover you

know to cover off like working costs.

But ever since we we uh went you know

became profitable which is about two two

years ago at this point it's been

awesome. You know, just listening to

you, Ben, I I don't think you're like

knocking on the door of PepsiCo and Coke

and saying, "Here, my company's for

sale. I want to work inside of your big

corporate." I, you know, just just like

listening to this whole thing, why

wouldn't you be the acquirer? Why would

you go out and try build the next Dr.

Pepper Snapple Group, a PepsiCo, or a

Coca-Cola? You have a water brand, you

have this brand, you have that brand. Do

you see yourself doing that or I mean is

the exit still here with big corporate

big soda?

>> Yeah, you know, I think it's a really

good point that you you know pose and I

I certainly have thought about it. you

know, we obviously my goal is growth and

a healthy P&L and a great product with

a, you know, healthy customer base is,

you know, that that's the foundation of

a great company. And those will always

be my primary focuses. And what's nice

about focusing on that relentlessly is

that as long as you deliver on those

things, you get a lot of optionality in

terms of how you get to your liquidity

event. Now, we've because we've raised

investor capital, so simple math is that

you do need to return liquidity, but

you've got a variety of ways to go about

accomplishing that. Um, and certainly

under an IPO scenario, which is a valid

option for us because we do have the P&L

for it. Uh, I would likely move in that

direction. um you know and because all

of a sudden you can start expanding

beyond beverage in terms of how what

you're thinking about and you can have a

mixed product portfolio and so you could

buy consumer brands that already exist

and integrate them into your into your

portfolio. You can also buy um

ingredient technology companies or

flavor houses like Monster bought their

own flavor house and that was great for

uh continue to grow their business. And

so look, I think that there's a variety

of models. Um, you can either have these

like really long builds around very

small numbers of products like Coke and

Pepsi in the early days of the Red Bulls

of the world or you can take more of

kind of the monster approach which is

just this full frontal innovation

assault and they've done a really great

job of that. We fit more in that bucket

which honestly is probably connected to

the fact that I'm the co-founder and I'm

still the formulator and kind of our

driver of innovation. Still,

it's still a full-time job. I too many

jobs, Brian. I'm going to be honest with

you. Uh, it's kind of a problem.

>> Yeah, I I I look I get it.

>> Um, well, look,

>> I think we'll fit more into that bucket

and I I I have thought about what you

have just proposed and to be honest with

you, you know, it that would be a long

road, but I actually think it could be

really healthy for the world. Well, now

I know when you file those IPO papers,

baby, you come back to me here at Yahoo

Finance because we're going to talk to

you at the New York Stock Exchange or

NASDAQ. Either one you pick. It's your

company. It's your choice. Uh be good to

see you. Uh big fan of the product. I

drink it a couple times a week. No joke.

>> Awesome, Brian. Appreciate being on.

Great conversation.

>> Thank you so much. All right. Do stick

around. Much more head-on power players.