How OLIPOP's founder is building a healthier soda empire

Executive overview

The $60 billion soda market hasn't seen a genuine health challenger since the diet soda wave of the 1980s. Ben Goodwin created the functional soda category, building OLIPOP on fiber, prebiotics, and clinical evidence rather than marketing claims.

OLIPOP grew 960% in a single year and is now valued at ~$2 billion, while facing new competition from PepsiCo (which acquired rival Poppi) and Coca-Cola's Simply Pop. The harder story is internal: Goodwin had to transform himself from founder-formulator into a systems-thinking CEO — and nearly lost himself in the process.

The founder who can't let go of the lab may be the company's greatest asset — and its most dangerous bottleneck.

What makes OLIPOP actually healthy

• Soda was marketed as healthy until 1943, when the federal government told Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper to stop.
• Diet soda replaced sugar with artificial sweeteners — a two-horse race that ran for decades without genuine health innovation.
• OLIPOP's nutritional pillars are fiber, prebiotics, and nutritional diversity — not just one ingredient for trend-chasing.
• Most competitor "prebiotic sodas" use small or unstable amounts of fiber; Goodwin argues a blend of high-quality prebiotics is required for real outcomes.
• OLIPOP has run in vitro clinical trials at Purdue, measuring microbiome outputs and bifidogenesis.
• A pilot human trial showed blood sugar stability for three hours after consumption.
• Goodwin's bar: if consumers pay a premium, there should be empirical data validating the benefit.

Competing against Coke and Pepsi

• PepsiCo acquired rival Poppi for just under $2 billion; Coca-Cola launched Simply Pop.
• Goodwin frames big-player entry as validation, not threat — the category needs scale to reach its potential.
• OLIPOP investor Andrew Nui is the former PepsiCo CEO; a liquidity event (M&A or IPO) is an acknowledged obligation.
• The company is fully profitable and preserving optionality on exit path.
• Poppi's $16 million Super Bowl ad prompted organic pushback from consumers; OLIPOP's social team joined in briefly without Goodwin's direct authorization.
• OLIPOP's growth has been driven primarily by organic word-of-mouth, not paid media spend.

Brand authenticity and celebrity

• 70% of OLIPOP's content creators are first-time creators, not professional influencers — real customers.
• Celebrity partner Camila Cabello was discovered through paparazzi photos of her buying the product, not through an agency pitch.
• The ad they shot featured her real family; Goodwin credits authentic relationship over transactional endorsement.
• Investors include the Jonas Brothers, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Mindy Kaling.
• Goodwin's view: celebrity works when it's real; transactional appearances don't carry the same weight with consumers.

Product versus marketing

• Goodwin acknowledges it's technically possible to build a successful company on marketing alone with a mediocre product — he finds it a "bummer."
• Real brand affinity is built when a customer's experience matches the promise.
• His motivation: delivering actual outcomes, not style over substance.

The death hurdles of hypergrowth

• Revenue milestones function as survival thresholds: zero→$1M is highest mortality, then $1M→$10M, then $10M→$100M.
• OLIPOP grew triple digits every year from founding; 960% growth in 2020 alone.
• OLIPOP Leadership University was created to address one core problem: leaders must grow as people at the same pace the business grows.
• Most won't make it — Goodwin applied that standard most ruthlessly to himself.
• The shift from founder to CEO requires becoming a systems engineer: designing how departments interrelate, hiring leaders better than yourself in every function.
• Founders who can't release control get trapped asking "what's my relevance?" instead of developing as leaders of people.
• Emotional maturity — including therapy — is named explicitly as a leadership requirement, not a soft add-on.

The identity shift no one talks about

• Goodwin and his co-founder experienced a lag when they realized they had real power and influence — and didn't know how to handle it.
• Early response: avoid it. Stick head in sand, keep acting like the underdog.
• The eventual realization: the team needs the CEO to be "a thing" — a stable, conscious presence.
• Overcorrection followed: Goodwin started playing a role rather than being himself, losing his center of gravity.
• Recovery came through reconnecting with his authentic self — a process he describes as physically and emotionally painful.
• His diagnosis: MBA programs teach frameworks and strategy; emotional and interpersonal development is the most underrepresented leadership skill and the most valuable.

Why Goodwin still formulates

• Formulation is his most direct, unfiltered expression to customers.
• Continuing to do it is "really a huge pain in the ass" alongside running the company — he does it anyway.
• It functions as a grounding act: the craft predates the company, connects him to the work, and provides satisfaction independent of scale.
• The Minions Banana Cream flavor was a self-imposed challenge he didn't expect to land — it became a cult hit.
• The parallel he draws: the same butterflies as releasing a song and waiting to hear if people like it.

Scale in numbers

• 400,000 job applications in the most recent year (210 employees); statistically harder to get hired than to make an NBA roster.
• Present in 52,000 retail locations, including 12,000+ Starbucks outlets.
• One in five US households.
• In at least one major national retailer, OLIPOP outsized Pepsi in its category.