I built a $2,000,000,000 business on vibes

“Yeah, so you and your husband are one of the fathers of poppi, which sold for two billion dollars. And I would have to say, you probably win the award for brand glow up because one of my favorite things to watch is this old Shark Tank video of you guys.”

“Yeah, what was it called originally? Mothers or something? Oh, so embarrassing. You had to say it out loud. Mother Beverage. And yes, I think it was a globe of the century, the best of all time.”

“And then we decided to launch poppi March 3rd, 2020, the first week of COVID. And it was like the first time everyone's thinking about their health and wellness. It's the first time people are looking at labels and wanting to understand what they're putting into your body and how can I boost my immune system”

“And so for us, it was one of those things that like we'd been doing it for a bit. Mother Beverage at the time, we had 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.”

“And she's the one that did all the rebrand with us from mother to poppi. So, being able to bring that to life really early on allowed us to then focus on the brand. So, what I mean is when we're in mother, we were so focused on putting caps on bottles, I couldn't even have thought about what the marketing strategy was.”

“They were like, Oh, there's sparkling water, or better for you, this. After the Super Bowl, we said we were soda 17 times in that Super Bowl ad. Afterwards, everyone calls it a soda. So, there was a lot of intentional motion behind why we did that, and it was breakthrough for us.”

“And so, what happened is we done a bunch of brain work. We put together a creative campaign on how we're the future of the soda or future of soda is now called poppi. And we brought this creative to life and we saw it.”

“in all of human existence, things have been done a certain way and soda's been done a certain way. This is poppi. poppi looks like soda. It tastes like soda, but and then it has the differentiator at the end of it. And so like, I kind of dig that. Like, the, I think positioning is super underrated.”

“You know, and I think it's, it's this ever-breathing document. So when we first launched, it was apple cider vinegar, prebiotics, like super simple gut health. We knew we were going after soda.”

“We knew we were going after soda. No, it goes back to nobody believed us. We didn't even know, but hey, we're going to try. This is a huge category. And kombucha was on the decline.”

“So we knew all of those things are the facts that we know. And what we knew is once we launched, people were starting to have this use occasion where they were drinking poppi in the same occasion as soda. And so it was, we got more data points along the way.”

“We're like, wait, people don't really care about that that much. We changed it to soda's back better than ever. We were constantly tweaking and changing as the consumer was changing in the use occasion of what people were saying about us online, what we were listening to our consumers.”

“And we had root beer and it was brown. And I was like, oh, but such a core soda flavor. And so I was like, okay, we got to figure out how to do this. And our consumers telling us it tasted horrible. And we were like, maybe we should listen to them.”

“Or what do you want to do next? Or like, what's the hottest thing? The beauty of poppi is we figured it out before everybody else. So for example, protein is so hot right now. Everyone's trying to figure out how to put protein in from ice cream to drinks to, you know, you see what David is doing with the protein bar and all of this.”

“Because I think every entrepreneur on their second act, their third act, they get to decide. So what's crazy is obviously we exited the company and then Pepsi gave everybody jobs that were poppi employees, but you don't sell your company. Then they're like, hey, here's your employee badge.”

“But as an advisor, you have to take a step back from the day-to-day of the business. And I still like adore poppi and I'm just so happy for everything that's happening there. But I have a lot more time on my hands. And I'm just really intense. I'm really hyper. I love chaos.”

“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.”

“You know, and I've never been sick from it, but is what happened is, you know, I worked for 10 years at poppi. I think I went to the doctor like once. You know, you're just like on this build mode. But I was like, oh, wait, okay, I need to get my life together on like the wellness front.”

“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 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”

“And that's what I mean, that 10 to 15% better. By the way, I started drinking poppi so much more when the pre-biot or probiotic messaging was a little bit different. Before, when I used to see, I used to see it at Royal Blue grocery store, and I was like, Is this supposed to be like a health, a health drink?”

“supposed to be like a health, a health drink? I was like, What is this? And there was an evolution of that bee got happy, but get healthy to soda. We found people didn't care, and you're like, That's a perfect example. And we got that from the consumer, and so we just started leaning into our consumer journey.”

“Apple, Nike. They even wanted Pepsi because they wanted poppi, like all this stuff. I mean, those all sound like great buys. They were great. But we give them $5,000 to invest, you know, and you come back and some were down, some were up, depending on what they were doing.”

“And now we have access to so many more things than we did before. For example, we were the official soda of the Lakers and could not be sold in the stadium because it was a coat contract. We can't be at Madison Square Garden. We can't be at Taco Bell Subway.”

“But they offered 100% of the company. So it was a great deal. They offered to give all of the poppi people that wanted jobs jobs. So we knew that that was going to be incredible for the workforce. 99.9% of every employee had equity.”

“soda company is buying a soda company and there's no monopoly there. And we passed the 30-day mark and we signed the paperwork. So it was actually a shorter process than most people go through.”

“So it's like all these people talk about hating their jobs and stuff. Like, oh, that's such a toxic environment. I think it's like how we operated even at poppi was it was fun. You know, the ability to put myself out there fully, awkwardly, authentically, like online and crazy dances. Like it was the culture within poppi too.”

“And I was like, you got to get out there. People need to hear from you. He is so smart. We did very different things at poppi. I ran our creative brand, like all the fun stuff that you get to see. And yet he ran our entire innovation team and supply chain and all this stuff.”

“It's really hard for like even a third to market to be successful unless you do it different. So you take like the AG1 craze, the green craze, right? I don't know if you guys remember. Maybe it was like six years ago where we were getting hit with like 300 AG1 ads. You know what I'm talking about?”

“You know what I'm talking about? Well, podcasting was just an age, one long, continuous AG1 ad for a while. Yeah, it started with me on D's and then it went to athletic greens. Athletic, yeah, and you're just like, oh my gosh, it's everywhere.”

“Or no, you think about other things. No, for me, it's personal need. So it's like, I think there's this whole new wave of this like GLP1 era that people are sleeping on and not catering to and thinking that it's going to go away.”

“you're on GLP1. So I've definitely, I've thought about that. It sounds like she's thinking about that. I think that's a huge category. All these things are great. And I can't wait for you guys to find out in the fall, but you haven't guessed it yet.”

“What's this thing that you listed called Nello? Oh, Nello, they're so good. So, magnesium, anything I think around sleep health is really important as well. I think I always say if you're stressed out or having a bad day, or you want to blow up on an employee or your friend or your coworker, and you're just like, Oh, nothing a good night's sleep can't cure.”

“But what is Nello? Nello is a powder within the calming space, so it's magnesium. And there's a lot of studies around magnesium and helping you sleep. We're also, I'm obsessed with like my Orion sleep system.”

“And so, what happened is we done a bunch of brain work. We put together a creative campaign on how we're the future of the soda or future of soda is now called poppi. And we brought this creative to life and we saw it.”

“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 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.”

“I had like tummy problems with drinking apple cider vinegar, you know, hated the taste and was like, I have an idea I can make this taste better. Little did I know how intense beverage is.”

“So for me, I think protein's hot. Good luck breaking through the market. It's very crowded right now. I think everyone is also trying to figure out the creatine craze. The gum, do you put in the powder or do it going? How do we get women on it? Right. Everyone's talking about these things, but it's almost like you need to have been the first creatine gummy.”

“The gum, do you put in the powder or do it going? How do we get women on it? Right. Everyone's talking about these things, but it's almost like you need to have been the first creatine gummy. So I'm not here to say like, I don't even know what's next other than I am starting another company and I can't tell you guys what it is.”

“They're taking their dyes out of like a lot of their chips. We're having the conversation, you're seeing what's happening with Gatorade. They're taking stuff out of the ingredients out of that. So I think that they saw the vision, they saw the data, and they saw a great story and a great team and a great brand.”

“Like that's not how I live my life. I like wake up, you know, as my child's like hitting me in the head, asking for his iPad code and me being like, you, I took iPads away, you know, and I'm like trying to get coffee and my kids out the door. Like I don't have time for that stuff because what I do know is I listen to culture.”

“I'm just thinking, I'm thinking where you go into. Let me ask you one question. We had Eric Ryan come on. He created Ollie Gummies and Method Soap and a bunch of welly band-aids. And he had this great line where he goes, I walk through the aisles and I look at, I look for a sea of sameness. So basically I'm looking for these sleepy categories where everything looks the same in the aisle and I want”

“And there's a lot of studies around magnesium and helping you sleep. We're also, I'm obsessed with like my Orion sleep system. I don't know if you've seen these, but like regular temperature at night. Um, and so, like, my side of the bed is different than Steven's side of the bed, and you can sleep and”

“I think another big movement that I purchased for my household is called Preston Lane Cleaning Products, and it's clean, like the ingredients are clean. So you're spraying it on your table where your kids are, and you have all these other ones with all these like harsh, harsh chemicals in it.”

“hey, we're going to make this 89% less sugar. You're going to get all the same flavors you grew up with. And we're really good. Yeah, sure. We have prebiotics. We're not going to talk about it that much. And that's what I mean, that 10 to 15% better. By the way, I started poppi so much more when the prebiotic or probiotic messaging was a little bit different before when”

“What I've noticed is that, like, have you read Peter Thiel's Zero to One? Okay, so he like has this whole chapter or chapters on like moats. And he's like, one mode is, I forget what he says, network effects, this or that.”