From $0 to Nearly $2 BILLION - From Her Home Kitchen To Pepsi Acquisition

I always say I lived the American dream from my kitchen to Shark Tank, and we got to the point where we needed money or we were going to fail. We stood in line for eight hours, convinced we are going to be on Shark Tank. At the end of the day, 0.02% of people get to that level. And it's pretty life changing. From local farmers markets to a $1.95 billion acquisition by PepsiCo. Allison Ellsworth turned a homemade soda into one of the most iconic beverage success stories in modern history. Coachella was coming up. And Alex, we kept popping up in her videos organically. Like she's so amazing that we decided to go all in. And it's almost like a reality show that people were like tuning into versus an influencer posting on a paid trip in the house. It was real. It was authentic. We couldn't quite find a Super Bowl ad. They were all sold out. Someone called us like, hey, we got a Super Bowl ad for you. This was four days before the Super Bowl. It aired one minute before halftime, right before Usher went on. It was like the most magical moment. We tripled our awareness overnight, and it was such a great inflection point for the brand. Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan. Well, the first question that I wanted to ask you is, how did your personal health challenges inspire you to start poppy? Goodness, that's such a good question. I feel like a lot of people come up with great ideas in life, and they usually stem from personal stories or personal problems, but previous to starting poppy, I worked in oil and gas, and I traveled, and I guess my question for you is, have you ever been on the road and traveled constantly and had access to one good food, a place to even work out, or gotten good sleep? No. And I just feel like in my previous career, I was traveling for like seven years, and it was a constant toll on my health, and I was just desperate to find something that made me feel good. And I did what we're all guilty of, and I started Googling symptoms. And what kept coming up on the internet is to reset and detox your body through eating healthy or eliminating certain foods or items from your diet, and that's just kind of started my journey onto path of health and wellness. Yeah. So when did you start the brand? So when I first came up with the idea, it was back in 2016, when I was going through this health journey, spending time in my kitchen is when I discovered the ingredient apple cider vinegar and how high sugar and what it does to your body, and I had horrible tummy problems. My skin was a mess. And that was in 2016. And then we launched poppy in 2020, but there was a lot of crazy entrepreneurial stories that got me from there to the day of launch and then to where we are today. So I want to jump into all of these stories, but the first one that I have to ask you is you had no experience in the beverage industry, no experience in manufacturing products. How did you navigate just the whole supply chain piece? You started this brand with $15,000. Like talk us through that. I think for me, I was raised by entrepreneurs. So my dad was a serial entrepreneur and he did it for the rise, the, the build and not the money. Um, and so when I finally got into it where I was like, okay, we want to do this, we want to start this product. It was almost like you say yes and figure it out later. Um, just navigating through supply chain manufacturing and not having money. I look back and I think, well, that is kind of crazy once you kind of say it out loud, but there was just no other option because I'd created something I was so passionate about. And at the end of the day, I just wanted to share it with people. Um, and with that, it was funny. We were at the farmer's market. One of my friends, he had a brewery and it was local in Dallas, Texas. And he's like, Hey, I can actually show you guys how to make your product product on a bigger scale. It's very similar to brewing beer. It's like, well, that sounds easy enough. And we just started buying equipment and we would work during the week to then buy more equipment on the weekend and the farmer's market. And just, it was a cycle of six months of working, working, working to get one more little piece of equipment to continue to scale. We were filling bottles, one can at a time, one bottle at a time. Then we got a filler and we could do four at a time. And we just slowly built our way to, I think we got to about 500,000 in revenue and it was just a slow build and it was slow and steady and we just didn't give up. Yeah. So you launched in 2020 during COVID. How did you get your first sales, especially when you started selling at farmer's markets? Talk us through that because it was humble beginnings. It was very humble. I mean, we both gave up our careers. I was three months pregnant when I decided to do this. We had just bought a house and we took our life savings and put it into this. And we got really lucky early on. We had a local forager from a grocery store come up to us and say, look, there's nothing really like this in a grocery store. You guys should take this past hobby to business. And it was an a-ha moment for me to be like, huh, maybe I can do this. Maybe we can make some money, but now how do we scale it? How do we, it was just me and my husband at that time, go from two people to then selling in a grocery store. I mean, I didn't even know what a nutritional panel was on the back of a packaging or how do you figure out how much sugar is in a product? It's these simple things that you don't know at the beginning. And once again, there's a lot of resources out there to kind of figure it out if you do the research and you dig. And we got into local Whole Foods, which was the grocery store chain. And then we got into a point where we were building a brand. It was successful. And I always say, I lived the American dream from my kitchen to Shark Tank. And we got to the point where we needed money or we were going to fail, right? We were going to go out of business and you don't want to take on stupid money is what everyone always said. And I was like, oh, Shark Tank, that makes sense. Yeah. So you raised $125,000 from friends and family leading to a $500,000 in sales in your first year of business. And most of those sales, they came from farmers markets, right? And then Whole Foods? So we were in 14 locations. That's it. 14 grocery store locations, a few cute little shops that were coffee shops or, you know, sandwich shops. And then of course we did sell a little bit online, but it was absolutely nothing. All right. And like, that's pretty impressive growth for first-time founder, new business, you know, during like, you know, COVID days, right? Talk me through kind of what were some of the key strategies or decisions that made that possible? I think that's like the early days with the $500,000 in revenue. But after going on Shark Tank and getting a deal, the big piece of that was we had a great product, had a great story of why I started this, right? I started this because I wanted to share it with people. And at the end of the day, the next step was to continue to build the brand. So we decided to take nine months off at that point and do a total rebrand, right? From what color is your packaging? Do we change the name? What are we trying to say? Who is our consumer? Because I think a lot of entrepreneurs, when they're starting a business, they're like, how do I make this product and get it on the shelf? And we were manufacturing ourselves and we were more concerned with how do we get caps on bottles than building a brand and building a community? And those are very different things. And so through the process of building the brand and going through a rebrand, we were able to launch Poppy, actually knowing who we were in March of 2020. And that is of course, right when COVID hit. So talk me through that Shark Tank experience. What was that like? I actually, when Shark Tank came to Australia for the first season, I applied for founder, like when we just had a magazine, no podcast show, nothing. And I was like, got to the first round or the second round and they put me and saw how I was behind camera and the, and the producers, they said to me, I'll never forget, they said to me, Nathan, this is incredible what you're building with founder, whatever happens, you know, whether we put you forward or not, like congratulations on all your success. I'd only been working on it for about two years and I just went full time on it. And I thought for sure I was going to be on Shark Tank and I followed them up. And they said, yeah, we'll be in touch. And then like two weeks later, I got an email saying, sorry, you didn't get, make the cut. And I was like, oh my God. But to be honest, I didn't go on there to raise money. I went on there for publicity. Like talk, talk, like nobody says that though. Like, yeah, that's right. That's right. So, so tell me, like, tell me about your experience with Shark Tank. So mine was wildly different in the way of, I love how green I was when it came to being an entrepreneur of the say yes and figure it out. It was what you did. You went on Shark Tank. So when we got to the point where we needed money and let's be real, me and my husband, he was working a second job. I'd had my first, we put every ounce credit cards were maxed out, right? We are like all in at this point. And this is a, we need this moment. And I remember going to an open casting call. It was the first time I'd ever gotten a babysitter for my firstborn. And we stood in line for eight hours. Same thing, pitched my heart out to them, convinced this is, we are going to be on Shark Tank. We did, you know, I know you didn't, but we did get callbacks month after month. And well, it's crazy through that whole process. It was a six month process from that to actually being on the show. So there's so many layers in between. There's a ton of background checks. They dig into your business or what you are saying or selling. Is it the truth, right? And then is it something that could be mass for everybody? And after that whole process, I remember being three months pregnant with my first, by the time I got on the show, I ended up being nine months pregnant and had baby 10 days later, but it was so blind and you don't know what's going on. Look, I I've learned since then you can apply online and you don't have to go through all that. And they actually reach out to a lot of businesses as well that are successful. So I'm really proud of from standing in line to getting on, to getting a deal. I think it's like a 0.02% of people get to that level and it's pretty life-changing. It definitely changed my life. So you raised $400,000 from Rohan Osar and you said you took nine months off. So you stopped selling and you took nine months off to do the rebrand. Talk me through kind of what that looked like and what that process was like. Cause I think that's a really interesting thing. Like you said that you guys, you know, your husband was working a second job and you guys put everything into it to just stop and go, Hey, we're not going to sell. Like there's no sales coming in. There's no money coming in. Like, like talk us through it. Like that's a bold, courageous approach. Yeah. And it was interesting because even once you get a deal on Shark Tank, it's not like you have the money the next week, there's diligence that you go into. And sometimes the deals fall through afterwards. So it took us about six months from getting the deal to actually closing it. And it's funny, we closed the deal Friday and our episode aired Sunday. So we still had not been funded. We were kind of still where we were through that whole process. And in that meantime, we had gotten approval to go in almost nationwide to Whole Foods with our previous product. And we thought, look, we want to do a rebrand here in the way of we have a fantastic liquid, we call it lightning in a bottle. It tastes amazing. People are obsessed with it, but how does the brand match it? And if we launch it as is, you know, you get, you get literally like three seconds for people to decide if they're going to one, drink you or, you know, try your product, right. And we wanted to make a good first impression. And it was really hard at the time to be like, no, we're not going to launch or we're going to say no and wait a year. But it really was the best decision because we launched knowing who we were instead of launching and trying to figure it out as we went. So let me get this right. When, when the episode aired, you guys weren't taking on sales? So when the episode aired, we had done the 500,000 in revenue, um, with our previous brand, it was called Mother Beverage. And then once we got a deal, we took time off and then launched Poppy in March of 2020. And I think we launched in March during COVID in our first year in business, we did like 3.5 million in just like six months. So it was a really quick growth just even in the first year. Um, but yeah, it was one of those things that we definitely pulled back, but I love that we launched during COVID because we were a new brand. I didn't have a traditional background in marketing. And so when it came time to start marketing to our consumer, from the beginning, I was like, Oh, we'll just do this different. And I think that played a huge piece into how Poppy so digital first is because if you think back, that was the only way to talk to consumers at that time. And we use that sentence. Hey, Founder Fam. I want to take a quick break from the conversation to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with OmniSend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce founders. We've been recommending OmniSend to founder students for a while now, because it just works, whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know on average, OmniSend customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment. And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code Founder50. Just head to OmniSend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. And tell me what were some of the key things that you guys did with the rebrand, which you think when you did relaunch was like, so like really showed that pathway to rapid growth. Cause you guys are now like nine figure business, incredible growth, incredible scale. Like there must've been some key things that you can share with our community that they have to get right. So it was funny going through that process. We had two schools of thought we were going to, you know, something as simple as when you're doing brand exercise, uh, we were going to do white cans or colored cans, right? We have like our product here. And the reason we went with colored cans is we are soda for the next generation. So Poppy's mission is revolutionizing soda for the next generation. We're better for you. We taste amazing, right? It's very simple, but if you look at color, it screams fun. It screams taste. It screams delicious versus a lot of better for you products. They go white. They think clean and healthy, but we want to scream taste, fun, and flavor. Um, and the name we renamed it Poppy. It's a play off a soda pop. So we just kept leaning into everything that we aspired and now are, right? Is soda for the next generation. Poppy's the number one selling soda on Amazon. We are the fastest growing beverage, you know, basically in the history of beverage, like it's been crazy. And it's because we've been brand first leaning into taste flavor and not being like this thing will cure X, Y, Z. Like nobody wants to be told like that they're healthy, right? They just like love if it's healthy, but at the end of the day, taste is king. So let's talk about taste, right? Like, how do you, what does that testing process work like? Like how do you decide on the flavors? When I first started, we created products and flavors that I thought were like a sister to kombucha. So for example, I had like a lavender lemon or an orange cinnamon. And nowadays we're seeing consumers just want products that they know and love. So for example, instead of orange cinnamon, we have orange soda, right? And if you think of the word soda, it usually invokes an emotion that you have within you, you might think of movies or date nights or, you know, root beer floats or whatever it is, but the problem with soda is the excess sugar. Kind of like a dirty word now. So the way that we see poppy and the way that we think of our flavors, it's giving you the freedom to love soda again at its best. So we've given you the freedom to love orange soda again as an adult, grape soda as an adult, or allowed you to have root beer again and not feel guilty about it. And so we really lean into those type of flavors. But I do love, we still have some of my OGs, like our raspberry rose flavor and our strawberry lemon, which is my personal favorite. So when it comes to like the, I guess you've talked through kind of the flavors. Do you have like a, like a testing groups and like, how do you work out? Like what tastes amazing, is it you deciding? Is it like, is it like, how do you work that out? Up until recently, the first, you know, nine or 10 flavors were my original recipes in partnership with the other founder, my husband. And that's just playing around the kitchen of what tastes good. Taste is king. Now that we are definitely a more established brand, we have a whole insights and innovation team. So we do flavor radar studies. We ask our consumers what they want. And then we do have a testing quote unquote board where we'll bring stuff in and we do blind tastings and vote on what are our favorites, what we love about them, do they need more acid? Do they need more lemon? Do they like, what does it need? And what I love is with that is my taste palate is very different than my husband's. I always joke around. His is like total middle America. I'm like more on the healthy end. And so then when we find something that really hits in the middle, we know we've, we've hit a home run because we know both will love it. So it's quite a bit more of a process now, but at the end of the day, there's a few flavors we wanted to launch, but haven't because we haven't been able to nail the taste. So we're not just going to launch it because the data says we need to launch it either. Yeah. Look, I think one thing I've learned in my journey is it's a combination of data and gut intuition, right? And you need, you need that both. If you rely on just the data, things don't always pan out. And if you rely on just your gut intuition and not the data, the things don't always pan out. It's that, that's that entrepreneurial spirit. No, I mean, that's like my life. Uh, when I first started out, everything was gut intuition and then I was very resistant to the data because I was like, look, I figured it out up until this point. And now I feel like over this last year, I've gotten over that hump to appreciate it as long as you don't let it rule. Right. And it took me a while there just like as an entrepreneur to be able to get there because we usually have this feeling as an entrepreneur, just like my way or is the high, you know, or the highway type of saying, or what I want is the way to go. But I found learning to work with a team and have insight and to do it the right way. It's almost more refreshing as long as you can keep your edge, which I think Poppy's really good at. So talk me through, I guess you said the first nine flavors were created in your kitchen, right? Um, that's pretty impressive that you guys have been able to create this incredible brand as fast as it's been able to grow really off your, you and your husband's taste buds, right? Like getting the flavor, obviously getting the branding, the packaging, the marketing, the execution, there's a whole ton of other things. But one thing that I've found, which is very consistent across all these super successful founders that I interview is getting the product right is so key. And if you don't get it right, then it doesn't matter how good your marketing is, right? And you got the product, right? How, how long did you really spend like really like back in your kitchen, working out those nine flavors? How many tests did you go through? How many variations just for our audience to really get an understanding of what it takes to create products that get product market fit, that grow like wildfire to create, like you said, one of the fastest growing beverage brands out there. Like how many variants do you went through for just one flavor to get that right? It's funny. I will say for anyone that's in business with their spouse or significant other, um, it's an interesting place to be. And in our lives, our number one thing that we have ever thought about is product. Right. And it's so funny just looking back years ago, when we first started, we got a great piece of advice early on. I think it was maybe two months in, we had just won a beverage competition called New Beverage Showdown and we were sugar free at the time. And he, the, one of the judges came up to us and said, this has the makings to be so successful, but I recommend adding a teeny bit of sugar. And I remember being like, no, I started this cause of my health issues. How could I ever do this? Absolutely not. And my husband's like, I actually think we should. And we like had this big fight about it. And I remember right before Shark Tank, all these things, we decided to make the change. We immediately saw our sales double overnight over the next few months. And I'm talking little sugar, right? Our, our cans have anywhere from three to five grams of sugar in the entire can, 20 calories or less, like 25 calories, right? Like we're not talking that much, but I remember that was one of my first good lessons and product and in change as an entrepreneur, that it's okay to like change. You don't have to hold so steadfast to like the beginning of this. So that, you know, it's like at the end of the day, work with people. I made that in my kitchen, those original nine, but we've made so many iterations over time. For example, adding a little bit of sugar into it, working with different distributors with our ACV or the stevia that we have in it or the juices, right? You get so stuck on these early days, the way you've done it. Now, how do you scale that over time? And what some manufacturers that you work with at the beginning can't scale to the level that we're even at today, right? And so you've had to change and iterate. And I think as long as we stay core and true to who we are, we're always working on making our product better. So you say like how many iterations, thousands, hundreds, right? Because from what we started with to where we are today and continually trying to make sure we have the most clean, best ingredients in our product is priority number one. Because at the end of the day, if it doesn't taste good and it's not a good product, people aren't going to buy it. So I think some people get complacent and they're like, this is a product and this is what it is and how it is. And it's tough. As long as you're not like selling out, right? And like totally doing off the wall crazy stuff, which I'm not here for, I think it's an always evolution to make sure you have the best product it can be. Thanks for sharing. And I'd love to talk about shelf space. So that's something that is difficult and a major challenge for most brands. What would you share in regards to kind of advice or your experiences for getting your product placed on shelves in retail? Yeah, what I think a lot of people don't realize, especially in food and beverage, is how expensive it is to be on shelf in grocery stores. So a lot of grocery stores, especially, especially at the beginning, want you to pay for that space. So they'll do a fill fee or something that, you know, you spend a hundred thousand dollars and we'll put you on the shelf. But then once you're on the shelf, you have to figure out one, how to market it in store and online. So, for example, what are you going to do a two for four? Are you going to do anything a sweepstakes? Are you giving away anything online on social? Are you running paid ads against this? It is a constant thing to drive people into retail and to get that shelf space. And then once you're there, how do you keep it? Right. Because I think a lot of people think, oh, it's on there. Good to go. No, that's just where the work starts. And then how do you even get there in the beginning? So I think a big piece of advice and my favorite thing that we did at Poppy is I think like our third employee was our chief of sales. We brought in someone that knew more than I did, knew more than my husband did and had been working in beverage for a really long time. And some people might not be able to bring someone right away. Salary wise, at the beginning, equity can be worth a lot. You find people, you ask for favors. Will you work part time? Will you work on the side? Will you send an email to introduce me to X buyer? Right. You can always find a way. And once you're in, and if you have a good product, you have a brand and a plan, you know, it'll speak for itself. And when it comes to, I guess, finding that right person, how'd you find that person? Yeah. He had been working in a quite a few other beverages. Um, we brought, uh, him on because he had been working with Rohan Oza, one of our shark, right? Our shark that we got to deal with. And honestly, food and beverage is a really small knit community of people. There's a lot of great people, but it's small. And so you kind of know the key players and we're constantly, especially where we were then to where we are now. Um, there's very few and far between that are like really good. So it's easier said than done though, but networking is like key. And look that I think what is often underestimated when it comes to building any company is the people that you have around you and being able to scale out your vision through incredible people that are better than you at that certain thing. And if you can get the right people, that's the taste scale, right? Like you scale a business through people. A hundred percent. I think at the beginning in March of 2020, it was two employees. Now Poppy has over 200 and just four short years. And it has been a roller coaster for me as a leader and an entrepreneur to learn through that process of I did everything myself from bottling it, to making it, to delivering it, to marketing it. Right. And now we have highly smart, specialized people that are doing that and learning to let go through that process is something I think hard for a lot of entrepreneurs. And I think a piece of advice that I got a while ago was instead of resisting it, if you can embrace it and be part of that process, it feels so much better. And then as a leader, seeing other people do amazing things, it's also another way to be really rewarding as an entrepreneur. So, you know, I talked to a couple other entrepreneurs about this and there was like, how did you do that? How'd you do it? It wasn't easy at all. There's like a lot of crazy nights, but once you get over the other side, it feels really good. Yeah. Look, I think, and I've talked about this before, I think that transition from founder to CEO is difficult or even just founder to operator is very, very difficult because you started the business and a lot of the times what you did when you started the business is like a totally different job to now the business has grown. You have a leadership team, you have an exec team and you are actually getting in people's way. Oftentimes, if you hold on to how it was in the start and it's just a totally different journey. Yeah, but I will say through the process, the players were bringing people in because I was part of it, even though it was hard. It also showed the value that I had as an entrepreneur, right? Me as the visionary and the disruptive and the creative, you know, Poppy, I still run all of our creative and this thinking of how do we keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive? And since this process, we were part of it. Everyone embraces that about me, which I absolutely love. You know, a lot of times you get in, you're like, oh, you have to get kind of corporate, things got to change. The entrepreneurial spirit has to change, but that's what makes Poppy special. And everyone has actually seen that. And so it's one of those things that you feel like there might be a lot of loss in changing these things, but if you can keep at the core of what's important, it's been really fun to see that. And I think in our culture and our brand, you see it, you know, like we're the digital first, the TikTok, the fun, the happiness, our community, like it really comes through. And look, when you guys launched in 2020, you're, obviously you did plan for the pandemic. How did your like strategy change and how'd you deal with the challenges there that was posed by the pandemic? I remember we had been doing the rebrand, right? And then it was March of 2020. We went to this big event that everyone goes through, it's called Expo West, and it's in Anaheim, California, and it is huge. Every brand goes and that's where you pitch. And it was like our coming out party, right? We go, we go set up, we're one of the smaller brands. We'd put so much money into going into this. And there was maybe 10 cases of COVID and the big brands, they weren't showing up and they were like not coming. I was like, we can't afford not to do this. We're here. And they canceled the event. And then on the way home, we were like flying home all sad about it. And there were thousands of cases of COVID. It just happened so quick. And it was just within a few days. And I remember looking at Steven and saying, well, this won't last long. Let's just act like, how do we, okay, we can't go in public, but how do we talk to people? And we were so happy. One of our, we'd filmed a Shark Tank update. We decided to go onto Amazon as a brand versus D2C, right? A lot of people are like, wait, isn't Amazon D2C? No, it's not. It's not direct to consumer. On our own website, we do just sell on Amazon and we had made a couple of those decisions earlier. And one of our updates had aired on Shark Tank and it aired April, second month of lockdown. And I always just say like, how many times is everyone sitting at home, but on a Friday night of second month of lockdown. And we had basically a national commercial date, our month two, and we went from 9,000 in sales to like 250,000 in sales on Amazon, like overnight. And it was really eyeopening for everybody to be like, yeah, let's not give up. Like, let's keep pushing forward with this COVID thing. That's not like, don't let the gas off. Let's just think differently. And you guys, during that, that's aired update, you guys, I read that you trended higher than Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian, like that's next level. Is that correct? It is. So when our episode aired, because everyone was watching, it was like a highly viewed Shark Tank episode. We hit a number one, Amazon's hot new product list, which is like unheard of your second month to get your Amazon choice and all of that. And then the Google search trends, it was during crazy times and Donald Trump was president and everyone was Googling and we hit higher than Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian and people like, what is going on here? And so that is correct. And what about stock? Like, did you run out? Like what happened there? You know, I will say inventory was really tough in the first years and scaling because we were scaling, we did triple digit growth every year since we've launched the brand and we're four years old and what's wild, if not some of the years, we were like 500% growth, but it was wild during the pandemic, there was aluminum shortage of cans. So we got good partners. We found a way to get through it. We overpaid, we stayed in business. We were lucky to have good partners and keeping us funded and we just found a way to get through it. And it was very difficult to scale that fast. I think that was the number one issue is with Poppy is how do you build the plane while it's flying, right? It's we've grown so fast, but this year and for next year, we're there. We have the team, we have the product, we have the manufacturing. So if you just hang in there and you can get through that and get to a good place and build a product, people and platform, you can make it. Talk me through Amazon, right? Cause that's an interesting approach, right? You went Amazon first instead of building a Shopify store, DTC. Like what people tend to do is they go DTC and then they do retail and then they might not even touch Amazon. Some people don't really like to touch Amazon at all, right? So you guys went straight into Amazon, Amazon first. Where did that, like, why, how did you come up with that? So I think what a lot of people don't speak about with Amazon is meet your consumer where it is, right? How many people have Amazon Prime? It's actually gonna be harder for you to find people that don't have it. And so instead of spending that time trying to figure out how to drive people to our website and do Google ads and all of those things, it's like, everyone's already buying on Amazon, let's make it easy for them. And with that said, we're heavily omni-channel. So we wanted to build our in-grocery as well as our online presence at the same time and scale both. A lot of brands pick one or the other and like get to it maybe a year or two later, but we wanted to do both cause we wanted to be a digital first brand. Most people will be in, say, a Whole Foods, going through the grocery store and they see a new product. They're not sure what it is. They probably open their phone, open Amazon and start reading reviews. So it can also help with in-store purchase and driving that channel as well. And, you know, it's, it's really paid off for us. You don't have multiple teams for, you know, customer service, you don't have to deal with returns, shipping, right? Like Amazon shipping, you get those rates. There's just so many added things, especially for beverage that's heavy to ship, that was such a benefit for us that we waited at the beginning and went all in, like all in Amazon. A lot of people will be like, Oh, I'll test it. No, we like dove in and it was such a successful decision. Yeah. And what other things are you guys doing differently to really make Poppy stand out? You've got an incredible product. You talk through the packaging and the branding. Are there anything else you guys are doing because the soda space is highly competitive. Is there anything else that you could share? No, I think a huge piece of our success, especially early on. With social media and Tik TOK and telling our story there before a lot of other brands did. So I think a lot of people get scared. Yes, we got on. We were one of the first brands on Tik TOK. We have 2 billion views, multiple videos, over a hundred million views. And a lot of people see that as an entrepreneur coming on the scene or even one that's been on for a while and is looking for that next step to break. They're like, everyone's doing that. Maybe I shouldn't. No, you are you holding you back at the end of the day. Every day, I'm still getting on there, creating content and going viral and meeting new households, new consumers, telling my story in a different way. And it's been such a breakthrough moment for us to build community and build a brand, not just a product. And I think it, we just leaned in so early in that space. Um, even in Instagram, right? I'm not just saying on Tik TOK, we see such an incredible community on there as well, and we're just authentic and real. And it's part of our culture. What advice would you have for founders that are launching their brand and using, like creating like a founder, founder led content type brand? Like you said, you're getting on there on Tik TOK all the time. What, what would you say like for, for a founder that wants to understand these platforms and create content that goes viral and that gets views and that gets seen, like what, what advice would you have while they're trying to manage so many different other spinning plates? Like where do you allocate your time? So there's a few things first, don't leave it up to the young kid, the intern, the, you know, person, your daughter, whatever, like sure you can have them help you and show you, but you have to know these platforms yourself. So get on, test them, make a dummy account that you, no one knows you, none of your friends know, start posting, do things, whatever you need to do to get comfortable talking from the camera and being on the platforms, because unless you understand it, it's not going to be a priority. And then I think second is, guess what? It's free 99 for you to get on and it's your time. And it's a way for you to talk to your consumer that costs absolutely nothing. And if you can't make time for a marketing effort that is actually free, then you're not thinking straight, right? Like it's like crazy that you would not want to go out there and just scream from the rooftops of what you're doing. And then I think through that, you'll start learning and getting more comfortable and understanding what's part of culture, what's on trend, how to be authentic, how to film, how, you know what, sometimes it's way more viral if you don't know what you're doing. And it's funny. And you take people along for the ride and you tell them, Hey guys, this is my first time in here. I have no idea what I'm doing. Drop below in the comments and tell me how, right? Like you want to like figure this out and, and that's building community from the beginning. So I always tell people like, get on now. Don't wait until you have the perfect packaging. Don't wait until the product, like ask people, Hey, do you guys like this one logo or this logo? And I think as entrepreneurs, we get so caught up on it being perfect before X that it holds us back from just going. Yeah. I love that advice. Um, like I think a lot of times founders, they have that imposter syndrome and it's scary to create content yourself and work out all of that kind of stuff when all like the fun stuff is for some people just creating the product and doing the marketing, but the marketing of you being part of it, it's, it's scary. You don't want to, you're worried about what other people think. How do you get through that? Like that worrying about what other people think. Yeah. And a lot of people are like, Hey, Alison, I'm not like you. I, I will never be a founder faced brand. Right. And they say, look, there's so many other ways to do it. Do reviews, have community, find someone that will do it for you. There's a ton of creators out there that you can hire on to do it. Um, you know, there, there's so many other avenues and all I'm hearing is you making excuses on why you don't get online and talk to your community and start talking to them now. And I think it's easier said than done. I hear you a hundred percent of the time, but it's not going away. And it's going to continue to grow. And this is the future of marketing. So, you know, I, yes, there's going to be wildly successful people that are never on TikTok and have amazing brands, but it's going to be a lot harder. Hey guys, I really hope you're feeling inspired from today's interview. 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So one of your posts, one of Poppy's TikTok posts did over a hundred million views in 2021, speaking directly to the Gen Z audience. When it comes to building a community on TikTok, how do you keep your strategy fresh? So I think there's a few things you can do trends and culture moments and stuff. But I do think that that can get a little like hollow with it. Yes, you can be part of it, but that can't be your strategy just to do trends and to do what the cool people or the cool kids or the Gen Z-ers are doing. I think that the piece that made us like really stand out is just talking about our product, telling my story, letting people kind of see behind the scenes. What is our team doing in office? I'm working on this product. Let me show you the color of the liquid. You know, sometimes it's the simple things and you don't have to overthink it that are going to be the most successful. I always joke around. I'm 37 year old mom. I have three kids and I'm really cool to Gen Z and I don't know how I did it other than just being myself, you know? And so I don't think you need to try hard either. And just people love authentic realness nowadays versus the high glossy like perfectness, if that makes sense. Yeah, I agree. I agree. That vulnerability, that rawness in content is, TikTok has effectively made that OK. Like before TikTok, it was much more polished on Instagram, but now more than ever, that kind of selfie style, UGC style, that rawness that you can get away with that. Yeah, and it's honestly better. I think my more viral content, the one with I think it's like 120 million views, it's like growing. It's actually wild how big this video has gotten. I think it was like a Friday night. I just put the kids to bed. I'd gotten out of the shower. I had no makeup on. My hair was wet and I was on the couch. And I just told my story. And so I think people just see that. And to your point, like the raw or the better. And then nowadays, if the team comes in and no matter what, they're like, hey, you want to film? I'm just like, sure, let's do it. It's not like has to be perfect. And we've been working on this script for this amount of time. I think a lot of people get caught up in a content plan or it being perfect or the script perfect. It's like test it. And if it doesn't work, who cares? Do it again. Three different words, change it and then do it again. If you think of it, no one really scrolls down the feed, by the way. I think the last time you really did that on someone's post, like nobody cares. Yeah. Especially on TikTok. TikTok, it's like, you just don't, you just don't naturally do it, you know? No. Okay. So we got to talk about Superbowl. You debuted a Superbowl commercial that reached over 29 million households. What was it like to have the most watched ad of the game? Talk me through that process, what that felt like, the creative, like you have to share. So we were ready to start running media, linear streaming, cable TV. And so up into that point, we had just created some fun flavor spots that were just all about flavor and bubbles and can and juiciness. And we're like, what is the next evolution of that? So we went into a creative process and came up with what our Superbowl ad was, but we did not make that as a Superbowl ad, which I think is really interesting. It was just a piece of creative that we thought was like an evolution of a poppy. We created it and we started testing it and it was performing really well. People were connecting with it and we're like, this is special. Maybe we should throw this up on the Superbowl. Not a lot of brands can one say that or to actually follow through and do that. I get that not a lot of people can wake up and just be like, I'm gonna do a Superbowl. But we just felt with the brand in our community and the momentum and our growth, it was like our moment in our time. Well, there was a problem. We couldn't quite find a Superbowl ad. They were all sold out. So we started calling around like crazy. I was part of this group, found someone, sent emails. We ended up anyway, someone called us like, hey, we got a Superbowl ad for you. This was four days before the Superbowl. And the thing is, we'd been wanting one for a while. We've been looking. So we were fully prepared. We had the creative, we had the budget. We were like ready to go. It wasn't like we were like fumbling, trying to get it last minute, but it ended up coming through four days for the Superbowl. But the crazy catch was it was a floater ad. So a lot of people don't know. We didn't have an exact spot. We didn't know when it was going to air. And we just knew that it had to air within the Superbowl before the end of the credit said, and thank you for watching the Superbowl. It could have been like after, right? We decided to go for it. No, we did not get a discount. And we were so lucky. It aired one minute before halftime, right before Usher went on. It was like the most magical moment where everyone's getting ready to watch like, you know, the halftime show. And it just really hit home for people because it wasn't celebrity soup, which every Superbowl ad has like 38 celebrities in it. And it was just this anthemic piece of why we are Soda and Poppy is Soda. I think we said Soda 17 times and it was actually like crazy. We counted and we tripled our awareness overnight. Our household penetration went up just the amount of people being like, wow, Poppy is Soda for the next generation. Just like overnight happened. And it was pretty special of that process, but I don't think that's a normal process people go through with their first Superbowl ad. Are you able to talk through like budget? So Superbowl ads are public. They're $11.9 million. Everyone pays the same for a 60 second spot. And was it worth it? Absolutely. Worth every penny. What I think a lot of people don't realize, though, is once you do it, you can't just do a Superbowl ad. You have to also have budget to sustain afterwards. So now a bunch of people heard about you, but then if they ever hear about you again, it's like, well, what was that point? OK, that was a flash in the pan one thing. So you have to also have, you know, depending on your media plan or your marketing plan, an ability to continue to talk to and retarget those people in multiple different ways afterwards. So there's a lot more planning and process. And then on top of it, you want to make sure you have product, right? You don't want to just do a Superbowl ad and then sell out and be out for four months. So we were well stocked with our partners throughout that process. But, you know, I think most people plan like a year out, but it was so worth it. And it was such a great inflection point for the brand. Yeah, look, what a great story. Thank you for sharing. That's just crazy, like how far the business has come from humble beginnings selling at farmer's markets in Texas. So talk me through Nike. We have to work towards wrapping up, but you've talked before that you guys have aspirations for Poppy to be like Nike in terms of emotional attraction. What do you mean by that? And can you tell us what Nike has taught you about building a brand with that level of connection? And I think there's a lot of brands that call themselves brands, right? But at the end of the day, they're just selling a product and telling you why you need your product. The difference with Nike is they've found a way to emotionally connect with their consumer. And I love their saying, just do it, right? There's an athlete in anyone. It's the same way as you look at like Apple and how they've built this brand, like people want to be seen with an iPhone, right? It's part of a social, like, you're not cool if you don't have an iPhone, right? Type of situation. It's this feeling, this emotional feeling that you have to be a part of this community. You have to be part of this movement. Versus I've said, like a couple other brands are like, well, you should wear these shoes because it can help with your arches. Like, that doesn't make me want to buy that. You know, and so with Poppy, it kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier. It's this, this soda moment, right? There's so many soda moments, like the movies and cookouts and all these things. And we've given you the freedom to love soda again. It's such an emotional connection versus being like, we're five grams of sugar with prebiotics and it tastes good. You know, we don't talk that much about that stuff. And I think that's the difference. Um, and where I want to continue to lean in. Our number one goal at Poppy is brand awareness versus performance marketing, right? We're not trying to shove ads into your face. We're doing fun TikToks and talking about why we're working with Paris Hilton and like doing these fun things. It's like a community driven brand that we want to be, um, we want people to be a part of versus you should drink it for X. Does that make sense? Yep. It does. A hundred percent. Thank you. Um, advice for founders in the food and beverage industry, would you recommend manufacturing in-house or using a co-packer, especially in early days? Absolutely. Do not make it yourself. I would not wish that upon anyone to manufacture yourself because it's what you're doing is you're spending one money, either your own or money you've raised on equipment versus marketing. Uh, building that connection with your, with your community, try to find someone that can do it for you. It might be a little bit more expensive at the beginning, but then that will allow you as a founder to focus on other things. Like I don't want to be in the manufacturing business. I want to be in the getting as many people to drink poppy business. And so I think, look, we did that at the beginning cause we didn't know any better. So learn from our mistakes and get out of the kitchen. But isn't there magic in that? Like the fact that you did things that didn't scale and that you kind of worked out a lot of that stuff and perfected it and you bootstrapped and you know what I mean? Like, isn't there magic in that? I mean, there's so much magic in it. And the piece of it too, though, is it gave us a great intimate understanding of how our products made. So now with our big partners, my husband, you know, he runs our innovation supply chain still to this day. He's made it himself with his own hands. So he can speak to it, knows the product better than most probably founders do. But I do truly still believe you can be part of that while allowing someone else to do it, right? You can be in the lab and taste testing, but let them do it. And yes, I did it in my kitchen and that's part of the process where we were. But I think it depends on, do you want to stay small farmers market brand or do you want to be X for the next generation? And for me, like I always said, I didn't start this company to get rich or to do this. Like, I want everyone to experience Poppy and drink it because, you know, I just love it so much. So it's a different place. Looking back, I wouldn't change it, no. But wow, did it make it harder? And do we spend more money? Yes. Okay. I have to ask you as well. This is a recent one. Talk to me about Poppy's approach to working with creators. Like for example, how you partnered with Alex Earl at Coachella, like what, talk us through that. What's the thinking there? Yeah. So we've always been a creator community first brand. So it kind of goes back to the early days when we first launched and had to think differently. I think before we had ad spend, before we even had a PR agency or did anything, we did influencer gifting. Because everyone was stuck at home. They were desperate to post about something. And we saw a crazy, just love right off the bat if we sent people the product and they wanted to talk about it. And we're like, wow, this is really special if we continue to lean into this creator first ability. And a big piece for us was finding people that actually love the brand and actually drink it. Because I think people see through it if they don't love it. And Alex was one that we kept popping up in her videos organically and not just recently. It was like back in college before she was big. She was drinking Poppy like years ago. And for us, that's really important for us to have the authentic connection with any partner that we work with or why, you know, you just want to pay someone to pay someone. And so there was a few things going on. She'd reached out. She loved the brand. We loved her. And then, you know, Coachella was coming up. And it was so funny because people were like, you guys are so amazing. You just did Alex. We're like, Alex is Alex. Like, she's so amazing that we decided to go all in. And I'm really big in that. Don't just cram a bunch of people together to get your E&B higher. It's what's authentic. Like, let's let her bring her friend. She actually likes going to festivals. People at Coachella like to go and just take pictures and like leave. She likes music. It was real. It was authentic. It goes back to those keywords. And she brought her friend. She had a blast. And it was almost like a reality show that people were like tuning into versus an influencer posting on a paid trip in a house. So I think that overall, it just worked out really, really well across the board. Now our problem is how are we going to top it next year? There you go. That's awesome. Well, look, Alison, this has been an incredible interview. You've shared so much gold, so many incredible experiences and stories and your journey just is so impressive how fast you've built.