How a Pregnant Mom Built $2 Billion Soda Brand Poppi From Her Kitchen (ft. Allison Ellsworth)

Let's face it, everyone's juggling long, busy days.

That's why Icebreaker's gum is made for the go getters. With flavor crystals that deliver a bold cooling effect, Icebreakers keeps you refreshed and ready to take on whatever's next. And here's a bonus.

The pack fits perfectly in your car.

Cupholder or bag, so it's within reach when you need it most.

Grab Icebreaker's gum online or at a.

Store near you on December 19th. Based on the best selling novel, Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney star in the Housema, a wildly entertaining thriller about a live in housemaid and the wealthy Winchester family experience a twisted world where perfection is an illusion and nothing is as it seems. The shocking twists will leave you guessing until the very end. Can you keep a secret? The Housemaid Rate Rated R. Only in theaters December 19th. Get tickets now.

I was on track to get nine months pregnant and we got a deal.

Alison Ellsworth is the founder of Poppy.

Cost us like $17 million.

The prebiotic soda brand that went completely viral sold for just under $2 billion.

We sold out in the grocery stores. We did $100,000 while we were sleeping on Amazon. That's the American dream.

What began as a gut health experiment in her kitchen grew into an empire fueled by a viral TikTok strategy, her own determination, and a bold rebrand after Shark Tank.

Hi, I'm Alison. I'm the founder of Poppy. And welcome to the burnouts.

Well, Allison, we are so excited to have you on. I mean, it is crazy. We have seen so, so few women have a successful exit in business. Poppy sold for $1.95 billion. But you've been working on this for over nine years and you started off in oil and gas. Can you talk to me about that career evolution into building the brand?

You know, I think it goes back to when I was in college. Like a lot of people going into college, you don't know what you're going to do. I danced my whole life. I went into college and was like, I want to be a dancer. And then I quickly realized when I was there, I what am I going to do with this career? Right? You don't need a degree in dance to teach it or to be a dancer. And so I took a year off of college. I went out to the big world and moved to Spain for a year. And I realized that there is a big world. So I came back, graduated college as quickly as possible, and I wanted to make money. I was like, I want to make, you know, just like a name for myself in a place that you can make a lot of money. I'm from Texas, is in oil and gas. And so I went on the road. I started traveling for about seven years working in oil and gas research. Totally opposite of what I do now. On the road is where I kind of discovered and came up with.

With Poppy, you started by taking the shots of apple cider vinegar, Right. And then what happened after that?

You know, like when you're traveling, you don't have good access to food, you're out of your element, your sleep rhythm is off. And I just was feeling sick, so my stomach was always bloated. I had horrible acne. Just a total lack of energy. And so I was googling, which I love googling. I kept saying, I master cleanse apple cider vinegar. And I heard my grandma tell me I needed to drink it. So I started drinking. And I like the way it made me feel, but I like the taste. Have you guys ever taken a shot? Yes, before.

It tastes so bad. My mom always drinks apple cider. She puts it in her salad dressing and it. I cannot do it.

You know, it's good for you, but you're like, I'm not going to do this. It's not sustainable. So I was like, okay, I have to figure out a way to make this taste good. But I really wanted to make sure it was healthy because I started it because of kind of I had the health issues. I ended up going gluten free and actually reading labels and learning about food and wellness, which was almost before the times. I know, once again, that sounds crazy nowadays, but, um. And I just kind of came up with the first version. And it wasn't even in my head of business. It was just something I was really passionate about and I wanted to share it with as many people as possible.

When did it actually become a real business? When did you realize, oh, I should be selling this?

I wanted to get married. My husband got married. We wanted to start a family. And you can't really travel if you want to start a family. So we ended up getting pregnant with our first. And I was so bored, you guys. I mean, I. I am like, I'm a Capricorn. I cannot sit still. I don't take naps. I'm like, just like a really hardcore like, like, do, do, do, do. And so for me, I was like, I'm gonna take this to a local farmer's market. And I just wanted to once again share with as many people as possible Whole Foods Was there one of the buyers from Whole Foods? And they were like, you guys have no idea. There's nothing like this in Whole Foods. You guys have to be in there. I was like, wait, this is a business. Okay, wait. This is amazing. Whole Foods wants us. I remember looking at my husband and saying, we're gonna go all in. We're put our life savings into this. And he was like, you're crazy. We just bought a house, and you're pregnant. And I'm like, and, like, we're doing this. He's like, I guess we're doing this.

Was there ever a discussion of not working together on it because you're married?

Yeah. You know, I think there's a part of us that was like, we won't do it unless we do it together. He worked with me in oil and gas, and so we kind of, like, knew what we were getting into. And it was like, one of those moments that he is so opposite of me. So I'm wild, creative. I'm like, jump off a cliff. And he's like, okay, I'm gonna figure out how to, like, catch you while building the business plan. And it was just. It made a recipe for, like, a good success to kind of also a partner in life. Like, in a partner in business. It's really hard as a founder to do it by yourself. So I always give other founders advice. Like, if you don't have a co founder, your first three hires are basically going to be your co founders. You're going to be in it. So it's just. Life is easier doing it together. And then we had, like, one common goal with kids. Family business. Right. It kind of made things easier. Now that we've sold, it's definitely different, but, yeah, I wouldn't have changed it for sure.

And when you're selling at the farmer's market, you talked about how there's a bit of a rebrand from what it was then to it actually becoming poppy. What was that journey like, and what was it called when you were selling it at the farmer's market?

So it was called Mother Beverage, and it was a playoff of the Mother of Vinegar. We'd gotten into Whole Foods. We were about 500,000 in revenue. And obviously, the next step in the American dream is you go on Shark Tank. So we decided. I remember it's the first time I got a babysitter, and I. We went and stood in line. We pitched ourselves. I think it was like eight hours of standing in line. I was pregnant with our second at this time. So we'd kind of been to market for about a year and a half. This is the American dream. We have to do it. And we kept going on, kept going on. And then we ended up getting on Shark Tank. I was on Shark Tank, nine months pregnant, and we got a deal. And after getting the deal, we were like, okay, we had a great story, we had a great liquid, but we didn't have a brand or a product. And so that was kind of the aha moment of really, our branding was shit. And it was time to. To. To really make it like, what, What. What were we doing? And so we spent nine months and we did a full rebrand and we looked at what is the personality, who is our consumer, how do we want to market these things? And. And then we came up with Poppy, which soda pop, and we decided to launch it after that.

What was the name when you guys went on Shark Tank? And why do you think you got the deal?

I think it was a good story. It was a great product. So, like, the liquid was the same. So I went from Mother Beverage to Poppy. I always say, like, our shark, Rohan, he invested in us and the product. And he had been in Beverage before as well. And so there's a lot of beverages that go to the graveyard. Like, it's a really capital intensive business. You're basically shipping liquid across the United States. Right? And so it's just a really hard business versus, like, beauty. The margins are really high. Or supplements. Right. You're like chipping powder. So it's a. It's a tough one to be in. And he just was like, wait, if I'm gonna do this. He, I think, believed in us. And the story, which I'm actually going back on Shark Tank as a shark.

Oh, yeah.

So I'm the first person to have gotten a deal to go back and be a shark. And it's so fun to be, like, sitting on the other side of the table, really. It always comes down to the product and the founders with an investment. I think you saw that in us.

What would you say is the most underrated decision you've made that led to the sale or success of Poppy?

You know, I think there's a lot of underrated decisions that we did along the way. And sometimes it's like the small things that matter. Now, what I'm about to say might not seem so small, but it was literally putting myself out there to be on social media because at the time, brands just weren't doing it. So just to like, lay the story, we launched poppy March of 2020. The first week Covid so all traditional ways of marketing kind of went out the window. You couldn't do anything in real life. You couldn't talk to your consumers the same way. People were all online because you're stuck at home. I mean it was just like a weird time. We had to just kind of think differently from beginning. And so I remember being like you guys, there's this thing called tick tock and at the time there's no reels and Instagram was just like a beautiful website. You just like really high gloss photography. There was no like realism. There's like a little bit of meme culture of course kind of starting and going on, but it was really of the norm is to go on that. And Poppy now has like 3 billion views on TikTok. It's. It's crazy our growth in our community and I think it's a really big piece of our success on why we just became sort of for the next generation.

Was TikTok the dominating force for social media or is it like a mix of Instagram and TikTok for you?

You know, we always had a good mix for sure, but I definitely think TikTok was just your. The algorithm. You show up to people that don't follow you, right. And so it's a great way for new people to discover you. Whereas on Instagram really it's just the people that already kind of know who you. It was a lot harder to go viral. It's a lot harder to kind of like reach new audiences. And that's the beauty. I feel like a virality. And especially on TikTok, in the early days it was the wild, wild west. Like you go post a video and you'd have like a million views overnight. Now it's like basically impossible to do that unless you were like totally unhinged or you're putting paid behind it. But back then it was crazy. And then I think everyone was looking for community at that time during COVID as well. And so I just think it was such a perfect thing at the right time. Right. I think it's a little bit harder now, but I still think it's a really smart move for businesses to take it seriously.

Your home should show off who you.

Are, telling your story in every detail, meeting you where you are.

Ashley has styles that balance timeless appeal and modern trends to bring your personal look home. Pairing eye catching design with features like stain resistant performance fabric, Ashley offers well crafted, affordable pieces built to stand up to real life. Plus they provide fast, reliable white Glove.

Delivery right to your door.

Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style.

This ad is only 15 seconds. In that amount of time, there are likely to be an average of over 15,000 cyber threats to all businesses, so there's no time to waste. Get threat ready with comcast business@comcastbusiness.com.

Cybersecurity insurance may all seem the same.

On the surface, but having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like getting a granola bar with.

A candle in it.

When you wanted a three layer birthday.

Cake, you wouldn't settle for just any.

Dessert on your birthday.

So don't settle for just any insurance.

When it comes to getting the help you need, State Farm is the real deal. Like a good neighborhood, State Farm is there. What were some of the videos that you were making back then that ended up going viral?

Okay, so I would literally try everything from dancing recipe videos to putting my kids in it. I was doing, I remember just like the old school, like savage Dance. I mean this is like OG OG stuff. I look back, I made like our chief of sales at the time do it and I have like video and I like like put it in every word deck and everything. It's so funny because it's just that bad. But I think that what really worked finally was just being real and authentic and telling my story. So like I sat down one night, Friday night, my hair was wet, I don't even think I had makeup on. And I just told my story in one minute or less with a green screen, like old school style. And it went so viral. Like we sold out in the grocery stores. We did like a hundred thousand dollars while we were sleeping on Amazon. And that video, it has 250 million views. It's crazy.

And what do you think it was about the video that really got people to want to actually buy the product?

You know, I think it was simple. So education wise, we I was like, hey, I'm the founder of Poppy. It has five grams of sugar. I got a deal on Shark Tank and I was pregnant while doing it. Like, it was just so simple. I think a lot of people look at advertising and TikTok especially as brands and they think they have to be unhinged and wild rather than just sometimes just talking about your product and being a normal human being. Like, I let my kids run around in the videos and our teammates are on there and it's just, I don't know, it's hard. I still have to like tell businesses like do not spend a lot of time on your content. Just post it. It's. It's hard. I know, I get it. But letting people in to show, like the real people behind the business, I think is. Is really what broke through.

That's honestly really good advice because even for our business, that has been such a huge learning that usually the videos that do the best and actually convert into real downloads are so simple. Just, oh my God, look at this tool. It helped me sa. And then anything that's too editorial, I feel like people scroll past because it doesn't feel raw and authentic. And part of why I brought that up is I'm really curious. Something I think Poppy did so well is you guys got real people to invest in the company who actually used the product, like celebrities who really loved it. How did you go about finding those people and then inviting them onto the.

Cap table in their early days? We really just. Just didn't know what we were doing at the end of the day. Like, we were like, this is a whole new world with. With COVID And so we thought one day, everyone stuck at home, all of these influencers and creators are desperate for content to post. It's probably better for you. It's fun, it's vibrant. So we invested in sending as much product out to people as possible. And we had like a 90 open rate. And it really opened our eyes into how much people loved the product when we sent it to em. And for me, it was really big on, like, actually people liking the product where we paid them. And I. It's easier said than. Than done. And I'm all for creators getting that bag, like, do what you got to do, boo. But also, like, if you really like the product, it just comes more authentic off to the audience. And so we invested heavy in creator marketing. Before we ever did a paid ad, we ever had a PR agency, we were just like, creator first from literally year one. And I just think that that just started building such an incredible community versus being celebrity first. So, yes, we have a couple celebrities that are on our cap table, which are amazing, which is Olivia Munn, Jared Leto. But we broug in a couple people that had the connections there. So there's a bunch of like, LPs, there's a bunch of people in venture funds and some things, like, where it's like, it's just celebrities. And so you can like bring a couple of those people and then it opens up their. Their whole network with all of their LPs, so there's a couple of people out there that we just let in, for example, Electric Phil there. It's Post Malone's manager, right? We let them in really early on. So then when it kind of came time later on for us to do a deal with Post Malone, it was really easy. It was. He loved the product. You know, he went on a podcast and he was talking how much he loved soda, but hated the way, you know, it made him feel. And so his manager, who's our good friend, gave him a Poppy, and he was like, wow, I love Poppy. And so we found out about that. I was like, oh, my gosh, we gotta do a deal with him. And he believed in it so much that it was. He invested. It was equity. It was like, this whole thing, and it was just such a beautiful partnership. Same thing with, like, Alex Earl, right? She was drinking us in college. I mean, she had, like, no followers at the time she was posting us. We were seating her, and then she just blew up, and we just were like, wow, let's just do this together. So we've been working with her for, like, almost three years.

I remember, I want to say it was Chantal Jeffries. I would always see her Snapchat stories of her drinking Poppy. And that's why it came across so authentically to me, where I was like, wow, this girl loves Poppy. I didn't even realize she was an investor.

She's amazing. Like, I'm on text with Chantel. She would be like, hey, I'm going to Miami. I have this event, and you Poppy at my room. Like, she was a hustler, knowing that she'd probably be seen or can go out and get photographed with it and everything. And so she was an investor and just, like, believed in the brand. And she reached out to us originally to want to invest as well. And so you just. You just find passionate people if you have a good product along the way, for sure.

Are there any other examples of people where you feel like the collaboration really moved the needle for you guys?

Same. Same story with, like, Jake Shane. He had 90,000 followers when he started posting us. And now, I mean, he's just. I'm so obsessed with him and his content. He's a kind soul, and there's just special people out there, right, that kind of get it. And then I think another one that was just who became a dear friend of mine is Olivia Munn. I mean, she. She posted us and. And just went above and beyond, put us in her interviews throughout the years just because she invested as well. So holistically, it's hard as the size Poppy is to understand, like who moves the needle. Because I mean, we're doing like super bowl ads and stuff, right? And so for me, it's the faith of that's brand building more than an roi, if that makes sense. Like I know creator and working with influencers and celebrities, like, that builds hype, that builds awareness, that brings sizzle. It's culturally relevant. So I always try to people, like sometimes you can't measure it and that's okay. Which is really hard for businesses.

By the way, let's say Poppy's doing a million dollars in marketing a year. How does that break down in the last couple of years of thinking about like, okay, brand building, seating, gifting, advertisements, like a Super bowl ad. TikTok. How would you guys, like break down, spend like that?

So I think it's different stages of the business. So in the early years, it was really the social world, right? I don't think we started running TV ads until like year three and then year four and five is when we did super bowl ads. But you don't want to go so far if you don't have the distribution. For example, if people can't find you and you're spending a ton of money on TV and they can't find you or like, you're wasting your money. And so Amazon was a really great avenue for us because I think it's in like 90% of households in America. You can go on Amazon. We're the number one soda on Amazon. We just kind of leaned in there versus we're not a direct to consumer business. So you cannot buy Poppy on our website. If you go to your website, you go check out on, on Walmart, Target or Amazon. And so for us, that was like a really good marketing engine for a really long time. And so when it comes to budgets, we typically in the early years, it was about brand building. So our marketing budget was close to like 28% of revenue. And then as we've like scaled it, slowly come down because you don't. It's not as efficient, right? So then it would like go down to like, you know, 22% and then like 20% and like 13. I would say maybe is like the lowest. Just depends. Like people always say, I have a PR agency. And by the way, PR agencies are like 20 grand a month, like good ones. And I'm like, but do you have anything that's pr? I'm like, you're wasting your money. Like, if you're hot, you're gonna get in the roundups. You're gonna get in all those things already, like, stop wasting your money. I love PR agencies. We desperately need them now at the stage of where Poppy is. But I'll hear someone in year one of business spending money like that, and I'm like, what are you doing?

We thought the first thing we needed to do was get a PR agency, and we ended up talking to a bunch and we're like, oh, this is way too expensive.

So expensive.

And we also thought we needed design contractors or people to do our branding. Like, that's what we originally thought, thought, oh, we should raise and spend money on that. And then really quickly realize, like, oh, wait, these things don't make sense for us.

Canva's amazing.

Well, I. I think it's a really good point because business is ultimately about different stages of the company. And in the beginning, it's really about whether or not you're providing value. And so for you guys, the liquid was what mattered. You had a product people actually wanted to drink that was providing value to them. And then you poured marketing on top to make it really go above and beyond. And so I wanted to talk more about actually the product development itself. How did that evolve over time of the original kitchen beverage you made to the actual production ready beverage? How did you guys make that evolution happen?

In the early days, I think, like, the first nine original flavors were made by, like, me and my husband. I remember our cherry limeade. I'm from Texas. I don't know if you guys have Sonics around here, but I grew up with them. And I was like, oh, I really want, like a cherry limeade from Sonic, but it was so much sugar. So I literally spent the weekend making our cherry limeade flavor. Like, that's how we used to do it back in. In the old days where there was no research, no flavor radar studies, no, like, PhD scientists, like, no food scientists. It was like all of these things like, we didn't have. And we were just doing it from the gut of what tasted good. Now we do have a lab, we do have an incredible innovation team and operations team. And so there's a lot more that goes into that because what we found really early on is some of my original favors take our raspberry rose rose can be a little bit polarizing, for example. It was like a gamble, but it ended up being like one of our top sellers. But we had like a lab lavender, lemon, and an orange cinnamon. And what we realize is people just want orange soda.

True.

You know, like, they want grape, they want orange, they Want strawberry lemon. Like, they want familiar things that are better for you that remind them of something they grew up with. Hence why I wanted cherry limeade Sonic. Right. And so it just depends. Now there's a lot more research that goes into what we launch, because we have, like, 20 flavors, and we don't want to have too many. You want to make sure it's a hit. And sometimes we just do fun, like LTOs, like FOMO drops and stuff like that. That.

What is the best selling flavor right now?

I would say, like, our strawberry lemon. It probably. It's. The data could be skewed, though, because it also has the largest distribution. You know, I mean, but. But. But for me, it's like, grape and strawberry lemon are my favorites, but raspberry roses up there, orange, you know, our cherry cola, which is like, one of. It's only been out about a year. And then we just relaunched our root beer. So we had a root beer that we absolutely hated. And we redid the formula, and we redid the packaging because our consumers were telling us we needed to, and we listened, and which is really cool. And now it's, like, crazy selling. And it's, you know, it's fun to.

See what's a mistake you've made while building the business. That's taught you something.

Ooh, not hiring people quick enough. So we're, like, one of the fastest growing beverages in the history of beverage. And when you're growing that quick, it's really hard to stop and ask for help. And even though we were hiring, we almost, like, weren't hiring quick enough. And I would say, like, the number one most secret sauce to Poppy is the team team and the people behind just from our influencer to our ops to our finance to the operating team. And so I think that's a really big thing, is everyone waits for perfect. The perfect hire, the perfect person, and the perfect cultural fit. So is what we did is we did a lot of time in building out, like, what did we want our culture at Poppy to be? I was like, look, we want people that can keep it real. I'm a pretty real person. I'm pretty blunt. And I'm like, I don't want to go around it. Like, I just want to have a conversation. Like, what's wrong? Like, everyone's like, ooh, Allison, you really get right in there. And I'm like, well, I don't have time for this. I want to build the business. And so it was like, do we have people that are okay with just keeping it real? And having good conversations and that will speak up with good ideas. And then another really big important thing was being disruptive and creative. And any department can be creative. And then from finance, right? Creative money. If we're selling out to get it on the shelves, to get POS made, right? Do we do it better together? So collaboration was key. And then I think one that we was didn't have, like, in our values. It was working really hard.

Hard.

People were working really hard at Poppy. And if certain people weren't, it was hard to fit in. So it's like, I will teach you anything if you show up versus, like, the perfect resume.

How did you index for young, hungry talent versus people with industry experience?

I would say Poppy's very young. Like, our employee base especially more so. Like, I think on the marketing side of things. And it's just a vibe. Like, I don't know how to explain it. Like, our last few hires have just been interns that were insane and incredible people. And we're like, wow, you're really hard worker. You fit the mold. Let's, like, hire you. So we are hiring people right at college, which I hear some people say, like, that's not good. You don't want to have a first hire. And I'm like, I don't know. It keeps us young and fresh. And then also I think hiring cross vertical. So not always hiring from food and Bev. We hire from fashion and beauty. And I think, like, our head of ops, he came over from Avocados, right? Like, it was just like a totally different landscape. And it's just good people and so kind of like thinking outside the box and doing things differently is kind of just always what we've done. At Poppy.

Every holiday shopper's got a list. But Ross shoppers, you've got a mission. Like a gift run that turns into a disco. Snow globe, throw pillows and PJs for the whole family. Dog included. At Ross, holiday magic isn't about spending more. It's about giving more for less. Ross, work your magic. When you invest with Fidelity Go, it does all the work for you. So while Fidelity Go monitors the market, rebalances your portfolio, and tracks your progress to keep your investments aligned with your goal, you can invest your time however you want, all while paying no advisory fees. Under 25k, invest your money, not your time, with Fidelity GO. Get started@fidelity.com go Advisory services offered by Strategic Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Brokerage services provided by Fidelity Brokerage Services, llc, member NYSE and sipc.

Planning a Trip out of the country.

Country.

Let's do some quick math, shall we? Most phone Companies charge about $10 a day to use your phone abroad. Week long trip, that's $70. Two week vacation, $140 just to use your phone. Or you could pack the Internet, get set up with international data in seconds with an ESIM from Airalo for a fraction of that cost. Here's the thing. Your phone likely supports esims. It's a digital SIM card. No plastic cards, no airport kiosk hunting, no sketchy public wi fi. That doesn't work half the time. Any. Anyway, just download the Airalo app before you leave, pick your destination and boom, you're connected. The moment you land, stream, scroll, text, navigate, video, call home, all without watching your phone bill explode. Airalo works in over 200 destinations and is trusted by over 20 million travelers. Download the Airalo app or visit airalo.com that's a I r a l o dot com and use promo code travelready for 15% off your first ESIM terms. Apply. Arrive connected with Airalo.

How do you and your husband deal with when you guys have business disagreements?

I think like, our biggest fight was over the product. So I started, obviously because of health reasons. And when I first started it, it had no sugar in it. And I was like, it can't have sugar in it. We have to be zero sugar. And he was like, allison, America likes sugar. And so he's like, okay, we're gonna add five grams of sugar. And I remember just fighting. And then finally we did it. And our sales like tripled overnight. Oh, my gosh. And I was like, dang it, you were right. And so like, that was a really good lesson that we learned early on is to not immediately say no just because I was the founder and it was my idea. I felt like I knew best. And so I had to learn along the way to really, like, check my ego. Early on, we brought in a CEO to run the business, you know, a few years, and we brought in someone marketing. I was running marketing. So we, me and my husband were really good at being like self aware king and queens of like, like, okay, we don't know. I've never bought a Super bowl ad before. You know, like, I need someone in here that knows what they're doing. Then it allowed us to do really the things that we were good at. Right. I'm really good on the creative and the brand and the vision. And so, you know, I think a lot of entrepreneurs get to the point of like, where they think they're right. And look, I have a great. My gut is usually right when it comes to creative things, but, like, doesn't mean I'm always right within the business, if that makes sense.

That makes a ton of sense. And I know you guys had that lost lawsuit over gut health claims and such. Do you feel like, honestly, the business wouldn't have been successful if sugar wasn't added? Because America loves sugar so much?

I think so. I think, look, people want to tell you they're healthy, and then they'll go home and eat an Oreo. It's just, they say one thing and do another. And so I. I truly feel like Poppy's revolutionizing soda for the next generation, and we give people the freedom to love soda again. And if you are not full flavor, tastes like a soda, then you're sparkling water, you know, in which we love sparkling water. We love kombuchas, we love sparkling waters. There's all sorts of things. But we are a soda. And so look, we're 89% less sugar than soda. Like, that's pretty good.

Was that your husband's argument?

It was. Dang it.

I love when me and Sophia disagree. And then I come around to her side and I. I repeat it to people. I'm like, and that's why we're doing this.

Literally, though. But that's a good part of that.

Wait, that was my point originally. I'm like, I don't think it was. Was probably mine.

Well, I think it's so important also in finding a business partner and something that's worked really well for me and Phoebe is both acknowledging, yes, we're working on these different verticals of the business. But that doesn't mean that the other person won't have an amazing idea that relates to your vertical of the business as well. And I did want to know more about how did your husband and you kind of divide and conquer? What did you choose to focus on versus what did he choose to focus on?

You know, he. He's obsessed with the product, so he ran the entire supply chain. So he was chief product officer. So anything product related, so innovation team and operations. Right. So he was just so good. And literally, I mean, I want to say he had almost. No, the sales force was bigger. I was gonna say his team was just like one of the biggest teams in the company. And so for me then, I did like the brand and the creative side of things. And that's just where my crazy is, is. And, you know, I think we built such an incredible team. On the creative side, I mean, some of our hires are still some of our first hires. And our retention rate is, like, through the roof. I mean, for 10 years, almost, like, building this dream together. And now that chapter's kind of come to an end. And so now we're like, wait, we're doing different things. And I'm like, what are you doing? Who are you talking to? Like, what's going on? Like, how can I help? Can I help? And he's like, alison, no. Like, I'm just doing a deal. And.

And.

And same on my. He's like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And so it's. We're having to, like, relearn that piece of, like, not working together, which is really fun and. And kind of exciting, really going on dates again and, like, taking golf lessons together. It's interesting.

Oh, that's.

That's adorable.

We never gonna, like, hang out. Like, I don't think we went on a vacation in seven years while building Poppy and having kids.

I, of course, want to talk about the acquisition. We need to know. I mean, how did that happen? How has that changed your guys's life, lives?

It's the American dream. It really is. From my kitchen to Shark Tank to selling to Pepsi. I mean, look, a lot of people might say, like, why did you guys do that? You could have kept going or whatever, but it was always the goal. So a lot of people don't realize distribution when it comes to beverage. You need a good distributor. And look, we had incredible distributors before we went into the Pepsi system, but that's one. One distributor they're dealing with versus 180, really just streamlines things. How it came about is we just. You just kind of, like, start dating. It's like, you'll go to dinners. You do stuff. Our Rohan, our shark, who was our original investor, had great relationships and could make phone calls and do stuff like that. And then our CEO, Chris, was incredible through the process, but we knew we had a good thing. Poppy's growth and just everything going for it, and this whole next generation of soda drinkers, so. So they saw that value in us and what we brought, and we saw the value in what they brought. And so it was just like, right timing in our gut as well, because we could have kept going. But a lot of people don't understand. If you get too big, it's almost like you have to either go IPO or it's just like a really. Like, people don't want to pay. If you're, like, doing a billion or 2 billion in revenue. There's not a lot of people that can pay multiples on that. Right. So it was just one of the things that was like, right time inflection in Poppy and now like we're on their trucks and I'm just seeing Poppy even more places than before and I still giggle and get just as excited even walking here. I saw, I went in and bought a Poppy. It's just, I don't know, it's just exciting.

Tell us a little bit more about how an acquisition works. Do you still stay on with the company after? Do you have any connection with the brand? Like what, what does that look like?

Yeah, I think a really big piece of it was like me working with the team on the, on the creative and brand side. So it's been a little bit harder and obviously I'm like kind of quote unquote the face of as well. So I'm staying on and advising and we're working on some big campaigns for 26. So I'm still super involved in like the planning and the big campaigns. And we're about to go on college tour, so I'm still doing a lot of like really fun things with, with the team. And the only really difference is is you don't sell your company and then get an employee badge. Right. It just doesn't work like that, so. Or you don't sell your house and then be like, can I tell you where to put the planters? And so it's really advisory and it's been interesting. Cause I have more time. Cause I used to do a lot of one on ones. I had a team of 30 that reporting to me that I don't have anymore. So. So it's kind of nice. It's allowed me to really make impact and be creative. And then on the flip side, it's. I have so much more time to hang out with my kids, go on dates. I'm like getting excited about what I want to do next. Right. I definitely feel like I have another business in me. I want to give back all this knowledge that I have and help the next generation of challenger brands. I'm really passionate about that. But it's literally been like three months.

What do you want people, young women, to take away from your entrepreneurial journey?

Journey women tend to put themselves in the box of like this is just harder for women. Yeah, it is. But like don't put yourself in that box. All entrepreneurship is hard, hands down, whether you're a man, woman. Like it is so hard. And so I Think like if you put that in your head that this is just going to be harder for me. It's going to hold you back versus this is the time for women founders. Like the amount of success I'm seeing and the community and the support, even like the money getting behind it, yes, it's not as much, much 100% valid but like it's just this new wave. And so I just always say if you want to do something, don't let the like negativity seep in because you think you're female and you can't do it. Does that make sense?

That makes so much sense. And, and something that's really rung true for me is the same Alban quote of like the biggest thing that puts startups out of business is just the amount of bad things that happen to you and getting up the next day and like going to work and getting it done and like pushing the ball forward is, is how I always think of it. I'm curious for you. I know you're going back on as a shark, which is so exciting to Shark Tank. Will you do more investing on the side as well?

Yeah. So we're starting to invest in a couple other brands but really they have to be like that Challenger mindset, you know. So one, one exciting one that we're actively investing in right now, it's called like Jams and they're taking on like the little PB and J. But you, you know, like the uncrustables and it's like higher protein, all night, natural ingredients and like as a mom on the go, like I, I would not buy uncrustables for my kids because it was such bad ingredients. So now I'm like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. So it doesn't have to be revolutionizing different but you see how it's like an older. I don't think they even have a competitor out there. Right. So there's a lot of spaces within like different categories and I'm like, okay, this could be really interesting. And then, you know, I think tech is interesting as well, especially consumer tech. So another really fun investment we just did was Orion and it's a competitor to eight Sleep Sleep, but it's more affordable. So it's for like everyday people because I think everyone wants to sleep a little bit better. So it's like, you see, there's just like this Challenger mindset within that I think is kind of like our sweet spot where we want to kind of be. But I don't want to stretch Myself too thin because I still. I still love working with Poppy.

I'm curious for you. Yeah. What does your next chapter look like? Do you want to start a new company? What are you excited about?

I think so. Look, I'm 38. I'm very young to be retired. I can't sit still. So we already are talking about it, but I think the beauty of it this time is we have a lot of resources, we have a lot of knowledge, and unless it's right, like, we don't have to do it. So there's, like, one little project that we're just going to kind of work on for the next year, and if it's the right timing, you know, we'll go. We'll go for it. But, you know, it's just all so new post transaction. I mean, I think, like, the biggest thing on my mind is, you know, generational wealth now. Like, how do I not mess up my kids and, like, you know, like, keep them grounded and do all these things? I mean, this is, like, the most time I've ever spent with my kids. It's wonderful. But also, like, I need a nanny.

What about. How does your husband feel about everything? What is he doing with his time now?

Same. I think for him, he is so good on the business side of things. I mean, like, the amount of job offers he's got to go in and run businesses is. Is kind of crazy. But he's kind of in the same camp as me. He's like, I don't know if I could go in and operate another business that's not my own. And I think that's just the entrepreneur in us, if that makes sense. And then it's just life, you know, like living life literally for 10 years. I mean, like, I remember with my first, I, like, had my baby on the bottling line and was back two weeks later with him strapped to me, bottle. Like, I mean, we have not taken, like, a day off. And so. So sitting still has been really, like, learning to sit still is, like, actually hard. People don't talk about post transaction. The loss and the, like, emotions that go through that. Like, you're. You're extremely happy, and then you're, like, sad, and then you're like, wait, what do I do now? Like, it's crazy. Like, the high, low, high, low, high, low. Now, we. We took a month off and went to Europe with our kids this summer, and it was, like, nice to kind of check out and come back with, like, a refresh, refreshed mind, which I think a lot of people should probably do in their daily life. If you're overwhelmed, like, just take a beat. Like, it was a good lesson.

I want to go back to. I know, of course, you guys now have had your incredible exit, and Poppy grew into such an incredible brand. But I want you to take us back to the early days. Kind of like what Feeny was saying, Some of the biggest mistakes that you made, but also, what do you think were some of the best unexpected decisions you guys made that really paid paid off?

It's so funny. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, it's like childbirth, where you do and you, like, totally forget about all the bad and the good and the ugly. I think that I just don't think I would change anything. The only big change I said was, like, hire people quicker. I think another really big one is investing in the brand. So, like, we did a lot of the rebrand, and we came out really strong, and then, like, we kind of just started floating by with it. And then we realized one day, say, wow, we gotta start running TV and commercials. Like, what are we actually saying? We can't just be like, we're fun, Poppy. And so we went through a really big brand exercise to figure out, like, what would be our first commercial. And it was so fun going through that process because we created a really anthemic piece of creative about, like, the future of soda is now. We created that. We were like. We fell in love with the creative. We're like, this is a Super bowl ad. And so we moved so quickly at Poppy that we bought the super bowl ad the week of the Super Bowl. And we're like, this creative's good. Let's do it. And we bought it, and we ran it five days later. Like, not a lot of people do that type of stuff. So the unexpected of we still move really quickly, move at the speed of culture as a big company, and I think a lot of people lose that as they scale, and I think that we did that really well. Another one was on the flip side, where you focus so much on the brand that you don't eventually want to become profitable. So I used to be crazy about our cans and our packaging and it popping. And, for example, like, just our trays. I didn't want brown trays. For them to show up in the store, they had to be colored. Well, that was expensive. And our people like their trays that go in the trash. Like, it's fine. I was like, no, no, no, no. But it was, like, brand building, and they were building the store. So, you know, there's certain things that maybe I held onto a little bit long. And one was like sleeved cans. So we stayed in sleeved can cans. Right now we're in printed cans and we saved them probably a year too long. It cost us like $17 million.

Wow.

Oh my gosh.

At some point you got to evolve, I guess at the stages of business of like it was really important in the beginning to have the sleeve cans and it be really bright. But then like, as we grew, it wasn't as important and maybe change a little quicker.

And who was the person who helped to make those decisions or helped to push you to reconsider?

You know, I mean, we had such an incredible team. We had a board, I will say our board was definitely more on like the marketing creative side. So a lot of these decisions were easier to make that were brand forward decisions, if that makes sense. Look, it was so much collaboration along the way. I don't feel like one decision was made by one person because I think if you do that then it's like a dictatorship and it's not like a good, you know, you want collaboration. And let me just say there was a lot of disagreements, but I think conflict brings out good things.

Things with the acquisition, a lot of people are focusing on the sparkly big number, this amazing exit, this entire journey. I want to ask though, besides the highlight, what for you was a lowlight of doing the business where you're like, I am at my wits end, I am burned out, I'm exhausted. And what were kind of strategies that you had for that that you would give as advice to, to people listening today?

I think the biggest piece of advice, and it might be controversial, is there's no work life balance and. And as long as you are happy working that hard, that's okay. I think there's a culture where it's like, if you love grinding and you don't like taking days off and you're on zooms breastfeeding a week after you have your baby, like that was me. I wanted to do that. That brought me joy. And so I think a lot of people are like, Allison, you need to be a good example, take time off and do these things. But I was like, but I don't want to, you know. And so I think with that, like, it's really funny, I actually had a priority, our person once she was an older lady, she had no kids and she was like, I don't know how you do it all. And I was like, you just do it and you don't have to take time off. You can do it all. And literally, I saw her four months later. She's like, I've wanted kids my whole life. I'm pregnant now because of that conversation you had with me that I believe I can do it. All right? And so, but on the flip side with that, the low of that is you do. You don't, like, fill your cup. Like, I, I, I mean, I don't take naps. I don't anything. Sometimes I'm like, I'm tired. Maybe I should go to bed early tonight. And there's nothing better for that than a good night's sleep when you're feeling down. Like, sleep can cure literally everything. I'm not kidding. Like, I don't know if anybody, if you guys, I don't know if you guys nap. Can you guys nap? Sometimes.

Sometimes on the weekend?

Yeah, I can't nap. And so I'm like, okay, I just need to go to bed early. But I always say sleep can, can cure almost anything.

Well, awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the Burnouts. I personally have learned so much today, and I'm so excited for our audience to listen into this. Your story is incredibly inspiring and all the work you've put in.

Thank you so much.

When you invest with Fidelity Go, it does all the work for you. So while Fidelity Go monitors the markets, rebalances your portfolio, and tracks your progress to keep your investments aligned with your goal, you can invest your time however you want, all while paying no advisory fees. Under 25k. Invest your money money, not your time with Fidelity Go. Get started@fidelity.com go. Advisory services offered by Strategic Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Brokerage services provided by Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC, Member NYSE and SIPC.

One iced coffee, 99 cents, please. For real? No way.

Mmm.

One iced coffee, 99cents, please. For real? No way.

What a deal. Your new morning groove. Iced coffee from McDonald's, any size for just 99 cents till 11am Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Planning a trip out of the country? Let's do some quick math, shall we? Most phone Companies charge about 10 bucks a day to use your phone abroad. Week long trip, that's $70. Two week vacation. 140 bucks just to use your phone. Or you could pack the Internet, get set up with international data in seconds with an ESIM from Airalo for a fraction of that cost. Here's the thing. Your phone likely supports esims. It's a digital SIM card. No plastic cards, no airport kiosk hunting? No sketchy public wi fi that doesn't work half the time anyway. Just download the Airalo app before you leave, pick your destination and book. Boom. You're connected the moment you land, stream, scroll, text, navigate, video, call home, all without watching your phone bill explode. Airalo works in over 200 destinations and is trusted by over 20 million travelers. Download the Airalo app or visit airalo.com, that's a I r a l o dot com, and use promo code travelready for 15% off your first esim terms apply. Arrive connected with Airalo.