Latest news with #BenGoodwin
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Olipop doubles down on health claims as Pepsi, Coke enter better-for-you soda space
This story was originally published on Food Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Food Dive newsletter. The co-founder of Olipop built the seven-year-old brand around disrupting the $97 billion soda space with a healthier offering. Now, as beverage giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo amass a deeper presence in the better-for-you category, he's spending big bucks to back up his company's nutritional claims. Ben Goodwin, Olipop's CEO, said health and wellness brands charging people a premium for their products have a responsibility to prove their claims. So far, this transparency has been largely missing from the better-for-you soda sector, where positive attributes are a major selling point in attracting consumers. Olipop claims to have bucked that trend after publishing a company-funded study in June showing its Vintage Cola resulted in a better blood sugar response compared to leading traditional cola. The soda maker is conducting additional longer-term assessments to gauge Olipop's effect on blood sugar and digestion. It has plans for more studies and partnerships going forward. 'That should be the expectation if a consumer is going to pay a premium for something that they believe is going to benefit their health,' Goodwin said. 'It's a reality that no other player in the functional soda, modern soda space has done any empirical research whatsoever.' Olipop was founded in 2018 by Goodwin and David Lester to create healthier, better-tasting soda options for consumers watching what they eat and drink. The offerings, which come in flavors such as Strawberry Vanilla, Cream Soda and Crisp Apple, contain up to 5 grams of sugar, fewer than 50 calories and are loaded with prebiotic fiber to promote gut health. But Goodwin is aiming to do more than tout the product's health attributes. The studies, he said, not only add credibility to the offering but also provide another way to differentiate it from competitors beyond its taste profile. 'At the end of the day, people are willing to spend money on things that they resonate with and that they perceive as valuable,' he said. The studies also help insulate Olipop from any potential enforcement from regulators or lawsuits challenging the claims made by the beverage manufacturer. Goodwin is hopeful the data will eventually provide enough support to show the health benefits of Olipop so that one day the soda can be offered by doctors and insurance plans as a preventative measure. But even without the additional data, the fast-growing California company sits in an enviable place in the beverage sector. As people look to curtail their sugar intake and increase their consumption of better-for-you offerings and products that contain functional ingredients, Olipop and competitor Poppi have thrived. Olipop turned profitable in 2024, with sales doubling to more than $400 million year-over-year, according to the company. Earlier this year, it was valued at nearly $2 billion after raising $50 million from investors to expand marketing, add flavors and increase availability in spaces traditionally dominated by legacy sodas. Roughly half of its growth is from legacy carbonated soft drinks such as Pepsi and Coke, with the rest coming from new shoppers entering the category and current soda drinkers adding Olipop to their carts. The fast-growing better-for-you soda space has been dominated for several years by Olipop and Poppi, the latter of which was purchased earlier in 2025 by beverage and snacking maker PepsiCo for $1.95 billion. PepsiCo rival Coca-Cola entered the space in February behind its own launch of Simply Pop. Goodwin said the PepsiCo deal and Coke's presence in the space served to validate the growth potential of the healthier soda category. Olipop continues to post 'strong double-digit' growth, running counter to the broader carbonated soft drink space that has dropped 5% this year. Despite the presence of the beverage giants and other smaller startups, Goodwin remains confident that Olipop will continue to thrive. Six years ago, 'people thought this was a crazy idea,' he said. 'We are the creators of the category and the most authentic player with the most long-term vision."
Business Insider
04-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
This company is requiring employees take PTO this summer — and is offering some a $1,000 vacation stipend
Need a reason to take a vacation? At Olipop, employees don't have a choice. The prebiotic soda brand valued at $1.85 billion recently launched a program requiring its staff of roughly 220 to take at least one full week of PTO. It's also raffling off a $1,000 stipend to four employees each month from June to September to spend on their vacation. "I have no concern that our employees, writ large, should be able to afford a vacation, but things are expensive, right?" Olipop CEO Ben Goodwin told Business Insider, adding that he wants to send an "ultra clear" message about Olipop's workplace. The company said the "Summer Recharge" initiative is intended to prevent burnout, boost performance, and model a healthier relationship with PTO. Olipop CEO Ben Goodwin said the idea came about after the company launched a summer program for customers to win a soda-inspired hotel suites or one of 5,000 influencer-style PR Boxes for just five cents. After seeing data about US workers not using all their allotted PTO, Goodwin decided to create a similar program for Olipop's employees. A survey published by Eagle Hill Consulting last November found that 48% of US employees anticipated having unused vacation days by the end of the year, and over one-third of respondents said they hadn't taken a vacation at all in the past year. 85% of the 1,387 survey respondents said they would support a requirement to use a minimum number of vacation days a year. Olipop offers unlimited time off. Goodwin said that while unlimited PTO can give employees a sense of freedom, these sorts of policies can lead to employees taking less time off. That notion "was unacceptable," he said and he didn't want it happening at his company. Goodwin said it's "really important" that the company effectively facilitates employees' work-life balance. He says that Olipop's employees are hard workers and that, since its founding in 2018, he can count on one hand the number of employees who haven't pulled their weight. Goodwin described the Olipop work environment as "intense" and said the staff is competitive and mission-oriented. Last year alone, the company had nearly 400,000 applicants, he said. While Goodwin invests heavily in employee wellness, he said he is still working on his own ability to disconnect from his job. "I have to take somewhat extreme measures to really, like, take a breather," Goodwin said, adding that he needs to leave the country to detach himself. Goodwin said that Olipop has experienced triple-digit growth nearly every year since its inception, and he has to maintain his performance by following routines like exercise and therapy. Mandatory summer vacation isn't the only perk Olipop offers. Rather than investing in office facilities, Olipop runs remotely and pays significant costs in employee benefits and perks. The company pays for employees to have a gold PPO plan and covers 95% of insurance costs, Goodwin said. Olipop also offers department off-sites, a party at the end of the year with a DJ and a hotel stay, new hire orientations, and a program for leadership called Olipop Leadership University. As a relatively small company in a high-growth phase, Goodwin said he has no plans to pull back these perks. In fact, he said he's in active discussions with Olipop's new head of people about expanding some initiatives. Goodwin said he's exploring the launch of a "company rainy day fund for employee emergencies." To Goodwin, it's all part of the company's mission to benefit others. He also said it creates incentive for employees to perform better. "How much time do you want to spend using punitive measures to keep your employees in line, and how much do you want to use incentivization and meaning to inspire them in the same direction?" Goodwin said. The CEO added that you can "tell which model we prefer."
USA Today
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
LAST CHANCE: Visit Olipop's virtual drive-thru today for mocktails, DIY summer drinks
LAST CHANCE: Visit Olipop's virtual drive-thru today for mocktails, DIY summer drinks If you missed Olipop's first-ever drive-thru experience in Los Angeles, don't fret, you can still enjoy it virtually. However, you'll need to act fast as today is the LAST day for your chance at a DIY mocktail starter kit or a case of the newest Olipop flavor for free. The Virtual Drive-Thru opens for one final time from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM PST, with the final batch of winners selected to get the sweet taste of Olipop for free! Since it opened last week, by the end of Monday, 1,000 customers will have been selected. Olipop lovers can even enjoy 20% off their next order. More on that below. So act fast, because the sweet taste of Olipop viral healthy soda at the Virtual Drive-Thru is driving away today! When is the Olipop Virtual Drive-Thru? From Monday, May 12 to Monday, May 19, Olipop will host a Virtual Drive-Thru at open daily from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM PST. More Olipop Drive-Thru: Visit Olipop's retro Drive-Thru today and enter to win fun bubbly for summer 🍊 How do you enter to win Olipop freebies? Simply enter your name and email. Olipop will notify you within 48 hours if you're one of the selected winners. Winners will win one of the following freebies: Olipop Drive-Thru Mocktail Kit: In partnership with KOIA, Olipop is bringing the sparkle home with all the ingredients you need to create your own Dirty Protein Soda featuring the new Olipop Orange Cream flavor. You can also create the internet's most viral drink right now, the Sleepy Girl Mocktail, in partnership with Pomona Organics and Moon Juice. Olipop 12-Pack of Orange Cream: Don't miss your chance to get a 12-pack of the new Orange Cream flavor delivered right to your doorstep. See Official Rules for full details on how to enter, eligibility requirements, odds, prize descriptions and limitations. Void where prohibited. Enter to win here To continue the bubble celebrations, Olipop is offering a 20% discount when shoppers use coupon code DRIVETHRU20 at checkout at The coupon can be applied to all purchases sitewide. What is Olipop? Olipop launched in 2018 as an alternative to regular soda. The functional beverage was formulated by the brand's CEO, Ben Goodwin, and a group of scientists to create a flavorful soda that supports digestive health. Today, Olipop flavors include Vintage Cola, Classic Root Beer, Lemon Lime, Strawberry Vanilla, Watermelon Lime, Tropical Punch, Ginger Ale, and more. Olipop is non-GMO, paleo, vegan, and gluten-free. Each can of Olipop has nine grams of fiber, two to five grams of sugar, and is packed with prebiotics and plant-based fiber for supreme digestive health. Does Olipop soda have caffeine? Some Olipop flavors have caffeine. Right now, the only Olipop flavors that contain caffeine are Vintage Cola, Cherry Cola, and Dr. Goodwin. The rest are caffeine-free! The caffeine in those three Olipop flavors consists of 50mg of caffeine derived from green tea extract.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How prebiotic soda Olipop leveraged social media to grow from a $100,000 investment to a $1.85 billion brand on shelves at Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods
Soda is becoming a superfood. Next time you go down the soft drink aisle at the grocery store, you may notice a growing number of new names and designs vying for your dollars. They aren't just promising a refreshing satisfaction to your sweet tooth or carbonation craving—the new industry is promising a healthy alternative to the long-dominant soda companies Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. The one company now leading the charge is Olipop. Olipop calls its drinks 'a new kind of soda' because of their emphasis on nutrition versus sugary craving—with prebiotics, plant fiber, and natural sweeteners found in each of its 18 flavors (vintage cola, grape, and crisp apple are the most popular). However, going from a startup big to a household consumer brand has been no easy feat; to spread the word, the company relies on social media and on showing up where consumers are, such as at sporting events. With a valuation of $1.85 billion, Olipop is profitable and surpassed $400 million in revenue last year. And its biggest competitor, Poppi, was recently acquired by PepsiCo for $1.65 billion, leaving Olipop one of the largest independent challengers to the soda giants. Getting loyal soda drinkers to try a new product has not been an easy task—it's taken years of recipe experimentation, long-shot retail pitches, and thousands of social media posts to find success. Ben Goodwin cofounded Olipop in 2018 and now serves as CEO of the Oakland-based company. He says the secret hasn't been based on encouraging people to give up their love and nostalgia for soda, but instead making a new version that's craveable and has real health benefits. 'Our approach has celebrated these intergenerational connections rather than trying to replace them. By honoring that emotional connection while elevating the experience, we've built a brand that doesn't just replace soda—it evolves it,' Goodwin tells Fortune. From the very beginning, Olipop knew it had to break conventions to make it in the cutthroat soda world, and Steven Vigilante, part of the founding Olipop team, took to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to propel the brand as a fun new way for young people in particular to get their soda fix. '[We] don't take ourselves too seriously,' Vigilante, now the director of strategic partnerships, tells Fortune. 'We're soda. We play in the soda space. We have the gut health stuff. There are very obvious ties between fiber and poop, and we shouldn't be afraid of that.' On top of leaning into toilet humor and viral trends, Olipop has emphasized being human-first as a way to gain name recognition against multibillion-dollar brands. If you scroll through Olipop's social feeds on TikTok or Instagram, you won't find highly produced content, but you will find short and sweet plays on viral trends, emojis, and soda cans. 'I always tell the team, if you're going to write a comment from the account, make sure it sounds like it's coming from a person, not a brand, because every brand sounds the same,' Vigilante says. It's a lane that Coca-Cola, for example, has yet to embrace. The $300 billion company (over 150 times that of Olipop) has about three times more TikTok followers than Olipop but only posts a fraction of the content. Olipop's goal to chip away at the market slowly has been working, with the product now found in some 50,000 retailers, like Target and Whole Foods. Moreover, according to Vigilante, Olipop is now a 'nine-figure business' at Walmart. And even though a 12-pack of prebiotic soda may cost you over three times more than Coke or Pepsi, many customers don't mind—and it's catching the eye of the big brands. However, instead of buying up competition like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola seems to be going its own way. Earlier this year, it launched a prebiotic soda under the Simply Juice brand name, with flavors like strawberry, fruit punch, and pineapple mango (there is no cola-flavored or 'Coke' prebiotic option). Moreover, on the product's web page, there is, notably, a 'Commonly Asked' question section that calls out competitors by name, offering an answer to how Simply Pop compares with Olipop and Poppi. But it's not just supermarket shelves where functional soda is expanding—it's in sporting venue contracts, too, an area that soda brands once thought was impenetrable. Last year, the Barclays Center in New York approached Olipop with a desire to carve out its existing Pepsi contract to sell prebiotic soda—something Vigilante says is unprecedented in the beverage industry. Now Olipop is sold in six different major sporting venues—including the $2 billion L.A. Clippers Intuit Dome—as well as being the official beverage partner of two professional soccer teams. While product placement and creator partnerships have overall aided Olipop in growing its brand, Vigilante credits simply being at the right place at the right time and following consumer demands. 'I'm obsessed with being in the zeitgeist, and I think as a brand, especially in the soda space, where soda is so deeply in the consumer zeitgeist already, it becomes more and more important, the bigger we get, to keep showing up in different places,' he says. According to Sam Shapiro, a principal at L.E.K. Consulting who has followed the beverage market for close to a decade, the demand for traditional soft drinks has been slowly declining as consumers have opted away from high-fructose corn syrup and sugar in their diet. Functional products, like prebiotic soda, have been able to fill the gap with 'durability.' 'Alternative sodas have just dramatically outpaced the broader soda market, in terms of retail sales, volume sales, and even the presence in food service,' Shapiro tells Fortune. And with growth unlikely to slow down anytime soon, businesses like Olipop are a perfect example of how to properly embrace and cater to a market shifting toward younger consumers. 'Our generation is in charge now,' Vigilante, who is a millennial, says. 'The businesses that have figured that out are winning, and the businesses that still have legacy people with legacy ways of thinking in these seats—it's reflected in their company performance and their stock price right now.' This story was originally featured on
Axios
13-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Olipop talks growth, social media at Axios House
Prebiotic soda maker Olipop is betting on up-and-coming influencers — and its own competitors — to help the brand grow. Why it matters: The prebiotic soda market is booming, with the world's biggest soda makers jumping into the race. Driving the news: Olipop co-founder and CEO Ben Goodwin spoke with Axios during South by Southwest about the Oakland, California-based company's competition and marketing strategy. What they're saying: "They've done us an enormous favor because they basically just put a big neon sign up saying: 'This is mainstream,'" Goodwin said of Coca Cola, Pepsi and Keurig Dr Pepper's recent move into the prebiotic soda lane. The big picture: There's been an explosion of brands — wrapped in trendy, colorful packaging — like Olipop, Poppi, Culture Pop, Vina and Mayawell that make "functional" claims, usually related to gut health. Olipop, for example, says its prebiotic, plant fiber and botanical extracts combination gives its sodas digestive health benefits. Olipop products are available at Walmart, Target and other major retailers. The company was valued at $1.85 billion in its latest funding round, per CNBC. Yes, but: The steep competition has come with its own drama. Austin-based Poppi faced backlash in February over its Super Bowl marketing, which included sending personalized vending machines filled with Poppi to influencers. Critics called it wasteful and out of touch, and competitor Olipop jumped in the fray, saying the vending machines "cost $25K each." Poppi has disputed the pricing claim. During SXSW, Goodwin declined to talk about Poppi's Super Bowl experience because he doesn't want to "mud sling," but discussed some lessons for brands using social media. Goodwin said brands should make sure they're structuring their "messaging in a way that you are making your average, everyday consumer feel good about themselves and their life." Olipop has tried to lean on first-time content creators and "everyday people," he added. "That's an important piece of how we just try to work with customers in general — just really connect with them at the human level," Goodwin said. "I think brands would be wise to do that as much as they can." The brand is also moving toward TV hits to gain slightly older customers, but "we'll always have a blend," of social media spots and television marketing, according to Goodwin. What's next: Goodwin declined to say whether Olipop is pursuing an IPO. "My eyes are on building to $1 billion in revenue" and keeping the company sustainable, he said. "We've got some really great flavors coming out, some limited-time offerings and an enormous partnership that's going to land about two-thirds of the way through the year."
