AI Summary
5 min readAllison Ellsworth, co-founder of Poppy, sold her soda company to PepsiCo for $1.95 billion roughly five years after launching. The business grew from $3 million in its first year to over $500 million at exit, but the path was anything but linear. She started in her kitchen with a personal problem—hating the taste of apple cider vinegar—and spent two years selling at a farmer’s market under the brand name Mother Beverage. After a Shark Tank deal with beverage veteran Rohan Oza, she took nine months off to rebrand, rethink positioning, and relaunch as Poppy on March 3, 2020—the first week of COVID-19. What followed was “lightning in a bottle,” and her operating principles reveal how she turned vibes into a billion-dollar outcome.
The TikTok wild west and digital-first distribution
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What you'll learn
- 1 Timestamped Outline
- 2 (00:00) **Origin Story: From Mother Beverage to Poppy** - Allison describes starting with apple cider vinegar drinks at farmer's market, rebranding from "Mother Beverage" to Poppy, and launching March 3rd 2020
- 3 (03:57) **The TikTok Wild West Advantage** - How being an early founder-led brand on TikTok created explosive growth
- 4 (06:46) **Confidence Through Embarrassment** - Allison's philosophy on why failure builds the confidence needed to succeed
- 5 (08:13) **Shark Tank and the Deal That Changed Everything** - How a struggling family business got its breakthrough
- 6 (10:49) **The Economics of Hypergrowth** - Why Poppy was intentionally unprofitable until the year before sale
- 7 (13:00) **What Rohan Oza Actually Did** - The specific value of a strategic investor beyond just capital
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Sam's database on how long it takes to become a millionaire: https://clickhubspot.com/elkv
Episode 855: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Allison Ellsworth, the founder of Poppi.
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Links:
• Poppi - https://drinkpoppi.com/
• Josie Rushing - https://josiesrushing.com/
• Orion - https://orionsleep.com/
• Nello - https://drinknello.com/
• Preston Lane - https://www.onprestonlane.com/
• Blue Land - https://www.blueland.com/
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Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm
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Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
• Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com
• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.
• Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/
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My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /
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