Poppi Founders: Disrupting the Beverage Industry

Origins and Product Evolution

• Founders Allison and Steven previously worked in oil and gas research before launching Poppy after an elimination diet led them to discover apple cider vinegar.
• The initial challenge was the unpleasant taste of apple cider vinegar, prompting founders to spend months in a kitchen refining formulas to make it palatable.
• The brand discovered by Whole Foods after three weeks at a local farmers market, leading the founders to invest their life savings and open a manufacturing facility while Steven was pregnant with their first child.
• Just days before a Shark Tank appearance, Allison reformulated the product entirely, adding five grams of sugar despite her initial insistence on purity; this specific version secured the deal.
• Poppy launched during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing a pivot to a digital-first strategy after spending $90,000 on a canceled Expo West booth.
• The brand capitalized on the launch of the Amazon marketplace and a Shark Tank airing in April (during lockdown) to hit Amazon's "hot new product" list.
• In a specific instance of intuition over data, founders created a cranberry-lemon-lime "holiday LTO" just two days before production due to formula failures, which succeeded without consumer testing.
• The original root beer flavor failed due to poor taste reception, leading to a two-year refinement period and a successful relaunch a few months prior to the interview with a new package and formulation.

Marketing Strategy and Cultural Agility

• Poppy operates with a core KPI of brand awareness rather than immediate performance metrics, prioritizing long-term brand building over short-term sales.
• The brand currently has over 3 billion views on TikTok, with founder Allison appearing in content viewed by one-third of the platform's user base.
• Poppy executed a surprise Super Bowl ad purchased on a Wednesday for a Sunday slot, airing one minute before Usher's performance; it became the most viewed Super Bowl ad of all time.
• The Super Bowl campaign resulted in a tripled brand awareness overnight and explicitly mentioned "Soda" 17 times to position Poppy against legacy industry giants.
• The company utilizes a "black ops budget" structure, keeping 80% of the annual plan rigid while reserving 20% for agile reactions to cultural moments.
• Leveraging viral trends, Poppy launched a new "Maya Papaya" flavor and packaging in just three months after Pepsi acquired them, capitalizing on a "Love Island" and "People Magazine" viral moment.
• The brand explicitly rejects the "better-for-you" label in favor of positioning itself as the number one soda overall, aiming to be the default choice for the next generation.

Organizational Structure and Team Dynamics

• The company's growth strategy relied on hiring executives who could implement structural processes to enable scale while maintaining an entrepreneurial "builder mentality."
• Founders explicitly avoided ego-driven decisions by bringing in experienced professionals for specific expertise (e.g., Super Bowl ad buying) to allow the founders to focus on vision and creativity.
• The culture is defined by a mix of high urgency, creativity, and fun, with a specific goal of retaining talent who feel like they are part of a shared mission.
• The team faced early challenges in scaling, including legacy contracts that blocked access to college campuses and stadiums, necessitating a sale to achieve their mission of revolutionizing soda consumption.

Exit Strategy and Acquisition by Pepsi

• Founders always intended to sell the business, viewing the sale as a necessary step to overcome distribution roadblocks and achieve their mission of "revolutionizing soda for the next generation."
• The acquisition process with Pepsi took nearly two years to finalize, prioritizing partnership alignment and shared values over speed or highest monetary offer.
• Pepsi demonstrated empathy regarding the emotional toll of the sale, acknowledging the "soft skills" of people management alongside standard financial due diligence.
• The acquisition provides Poppy with a distribution engine and freedom to scale continuously, transitioning the brand from a startup to a major player in the beverage industry.
• Post-acquisition, Poppy has successfully integrated into mainstream grocery categories, moving from being a confused "pre-bought soda" or "tonic" competitor to an established "modern soda."