Allison Ellsworth is the co-founder of Poppi, a prebiotic soda brand that grew from a kitchen experiment into a company PepsiCo acquired for nearly two billion dollars. Allison joins Adam to share her unique journey – from struggling with her own stomach problems to building one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in history – and her best lessons and advice. Allison and Adam discuss a wide range of topics: entrepreneurship, branding, community, resilience, leadership, and much more.
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Read the full transcript of Adam’s conversation with Allison Ellsworth.
Episode Summary
Allison Ellsworth, co-founder of the prebiotic soda brand Poppi, did not start the company because she saw a gap in the beverage market. She had stomach problems, started drinking apple cider vinegar, hated the taste, and wanted to create something she could drink every day, with ingredients she loved and prebiotics. The company began at a folding table at a farmer’s market, and when she pitched on Shark Tank, Mr. Wonderful called her an apple cider vinegar roach. Allison says Poppi grew from zero to $500 million in revenue in four and a half years, which meant hiring 250 people in a four-year span, before PepsiCo acquired the brand for nearly $2 billion.
She launched Poppi on March 3, 2020, right as Covid started, and with no team, no plan, and no social media training, she began posting on TikTok, where she danced and made taco recipe videos. She calls most of the posts awkward, but they taught her what people understood about the product. One night she sat down on her couch, with wet hair and no makeup, and told the story of starting Poppi in her kitchen and pitching on Shark Tank nine months pregnant. The video went viral, and, as she puts it, they did $100,000 while they were sleeping. She describes her own growth as embarrassment first, then refinement, then clarity, and only then confidence.
Allison credits Poppi’s growth to what she calls the three Cs: moving at the speed of culture, letting creative lead rather than tying the team to KPIs, and treating customers as a community. Poppi hired young, at one point about 65 percent female, so the team was its own consumer. She argues for brand investments that cannot be tied to an immediate return, such as giving Kylie Jenner free Poppi for three years in hopes it would show up in a TikTok, or launching an apparel line with Target as a soda company.
When Poppi’s root beer was not selling after two years, Allison’s team let the community roast the flavor and packaging on social media, then relaunched it with new packaging and a new flavor. It became one of Poppi’s best sellers. She says that same community also asked for CBD drinks, gummies, and energy products, and she kept the company focused on soda.
What You’ll Learn
- After the exit, the strongest feeling Allison had was freedom, but she says freedom comes with little purpose, and she now puts having a real purpose ahead of everything else.
- Allison’s unpopular take on work-life balance: if you want to be successful, you can’t afford very much of it, and she describes working on spreadsheets after the kids go to bed and loving it.
- Treat channels like Amazon as marketing, not just sales: Poppi committed so firmly to long-term brand building that its head of e-commerce was nicknamed ROI Killer for his first three years.
- When Poppi outgrew anything she had managed, including a Super Bowl ad and a $60 to $100 million marketing budget, Allison brought in a partner and calls asking for help an opportunity.
- Letting go of perfection as a leader: a task you hold onto may get 10 percent of your effort, and even 80 percent from someone you hand it to is better.
- Fun is fuel, Allison says, and Poppi took off when she stopped trying to look like a serious founder and leaned into joy, which gives the work energy instead of draining it.
About Allison Ellsworth
Allison Ellsworth is the co-founder of Poppi, the prebiotic soda brand acquired by PepsiCo for nearly $2 billion. She grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, in an entrepreneurial family, and enrolled at the University of North Texas as a dance major. After realizing in her freshman year that she did not need a degree to dance or to teach it, she took a year off to live in Spain, then returned and graduated in four years with a degree in sociology. She started Poppi while pregnant, pitched it on Shark Tank nine months pregnant, and has three children.
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