How I Built This with Guy Raz

Poppi: Allison and Stephen Ellsworth. From Farmers Market Vinegar Drink to $2B Soda Sensation

September 22, 2025

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • Allison and Stephen Ellsworth transformed a personal health remedy of apple cider vinegar into a multi-billion dollar beverage brand, Poppy, by identifying a market need for a healthier soda alternative and persistently iterating on their product and branding. 
  • The journey of Poppy highlights the importance of adaptability and resilience, as the founders navigated significant challenges including a canceled product launch at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity of a complete brand overhaul after a pivotal appearance on Shark Tank. 
  • The success of Poppy demonstrates the power of leveraging emerging platforms like TikTok for organic marketing, where a single viral video telling the founders' story led to a significant surge in sales and brand awareness. 
  • Poppi's viral success on TikTok, driven by Allison Ellsworth's persistent content creation, was a pivotal moment that opened the eyes of investors and retailers, leading to a significant sales spike and market awareness. 
  • Poppi successfully carved out a new "modern soda" category in retail by strategically positioning themselves initially alongside sparkling and enhanced waters before transitioning into soda sets, challenging the negative perception of soda. 
  • The acquisition of Poppi by Pepsi for nearly $2 billion was a deliberate strategy to leverage Pepsi's massive distribution network, enabling Poppi to expand from 50,000 to 350,000 locations, a crucial step for a challenger brand aiming for widespread reach. 

Segments

Early Health & Vinegar
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(00:04:32)
  • Key Takeaway: Allison Ellsworth’s personal struggle with chronic stomach issues led her to experiment with apple cider vinegar as a health remedy, discovering its benefits but disliking its taste.
  • Summary: Guy Raz introduces his personal morning routine involving diluted apple cider vinegar and then transitions to Allison Ellsworth’s similar practice for digestion, highlighting the taste challenge that spurred her innovation.
From Hobby to Business
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(00:06:00)
  • Key Takeaway: The initial creation of Mother Beverage at a farmer’s market was driven by friends’ positive reactions to Allison’s improved vinegar concoction, validating the potential for a commercial product.
  • Summary: Allison began bottling her homebrew vinegar drink, initially called Mother Beverage, and selling it at a local farmer’s market, with her husband Stephen eventually joining to help.
Early Career Paths
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(00:06:45)
  • Key Takeaway: Both Allison and Stephen Ellsworth possessed a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a drive for financial independence from a young age, stemming from their upbringing and early work experiences.
  • Summary: The conversation delves into Allison’s background in the oil and gas industry and Stephen’s corporate and retail experiences, revealing their shared self-starting mentality and discomfort with traditional employment.
The Birth of Poppy
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(00:13:36)
  • Key Takeaway: While living in a motor home and working on the road, Allison experienced severe inflammation and digestive issues, which prompted her to rigorously experiment with apple cider vinegar and natural ingredients to create a palatable and effective drink.
  • Summary: Allison describes her health decline while traveling and working, leading to her deep dive into apple cider vinegar and natural ingredients to improve her well-being, laying the groundwork for Poppy.
Farmer’s Market Success
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(00:26:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Selling Mother Beverage at a Dallas farmer’s market proved successful, with consistent sell-outs and positive customer reception, validating the product’s appeal as an easier way to consume apple cider vinegar.
  • Summary: The founders recount their experience at the farmer’s market, highlighting how customers readily understood the product’s benefit as a palatable alternative to straight apple cider vinegar, leading to consistent sales.
Whole Foods Opportunity
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(00:28:18)
  • Key Takeaway: A Whole Foods buyer’s encouragement to stock Mother Beverage presented a significant opportunity, but also revealed the immediate need for professional labeling, nutritionals, and a scalable production facility.
  • Summary: The story of how a Whole Foods buyer discovered Mother Beverage at a farmer’s market and encouraged them to get into stores, despite the brand not yet being ready for retail distribution.
Scaling Production Challenges
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(00:33:22)
  • Key Takeaway: The commitment to keeping Poppy unpasteurized, raw, and unfiltered made it difficult to find co-manufacturers, forcing the founders to rent their own warehouse and hand-bottle the product initially.
  • Summary: Allison and Stephen discuss the significant hurdle of finding a co-manufacturer willing to work with their raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar product, leading them to establish their own production facility.
Shark Tank Strategy
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(00:41:50)
  • Key Takeaway: The decision to appear on Shark Tank was a strategic move to gain attention and attract the right investment, leading to a pivotal rebrand and partnership with Rohan Oza.
  • Summary: The founders recount their experience applying for and filming Shark Tank, including their initial ask and the eventual deal with Rohan Oza, who identified the need for a complete brand overhaul.
Rebranding to Poppy
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(00:47:53)
  • Key Takeaway: Rohan Oza’s blunt assessment that Mother Beverage’s branding was ‘shit’ catalyzed a nine-month rebranding process that transformed the product into ‘Poppy,’ a functional soda with a vibrant, colorful identity.
  • Summary: The extensive rebranding process for Poppy is detailed, including the name change, the shift in positioning from an apple cider vinegar drink to a functional soda, and the debate over can colors.
COVID-19 Launch Disruption
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(00:55:01)
  • Key Takeaway: The highly anticipated launch of Poppy at Expo West in March 2020 was abruptly canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the founders to pivot their strategy to online sales.
  • Summary: The founders describe the devastating cancellation of their planned launch at Expo West due to COVID-19 and their subsequent focus on Amazon sales as grocery stores prioritized essential items.
TikTok Virality
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(00:59:35)
  • Key Takeaway: A single, authentic TikTok video shared by Allison telling the Poppy story went viral, leading to a massive sales spike and opening the eyes of the team to the platform’s marketing potential.
  • Summary: Allison explains how she started posting on TikTok, initially with recipe videos and then a personal story, which unexpectedly went viral and drove significant sales, convincing the team of its value.
TikTok Viral Marketing
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(01:00:09)
  • Key Takeaway: Leveraging TikTok as a free marketing platform, even with initial skepticism, led to a viral moment that generated $100,000 in sales overnight and significantly boosted brand awareness.
  • Summary: Allison Ellsworth discusses her proactive approach to using TikTok for marketing, experimenting with various content formats like recipes and dances, and how a single story-telling video went viral, leading to a massive sales surge and increased attention from the team.
Category Creation and Positioning
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(01:01:53)
  • Key Takeaway: Poppi intentionally created a new ‘modern soda’ category by being the first functional beverage to embrace the ‘soda’ label, overcoming the stigma associated with the word and establishing a distinct market position.
  • Summary: The founders explain how Poppi didn’t fit into existing grocery store categories, initially being placed with sparkling water. They discuss their mission to revolutionize soda and how they eventually carved out a new ‘modern soda’ set by boldly calling themselves a ‘prebiotic soda’.
The Pepsi Acquisition Journey
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(01:05:55)
  • Key Takeaway: The rapid growth of Poppi, including overcoming significant supply chain challenges during COVID-19, made it an attractive acquisition target, with the founders always having an exit strategy in mind, specifically a strategic sale to a major distributor like Pepsi.
  • Summary: The conversation delves into the rapid growth of Poppi, the challenges faced during the pandemic with supply chains and material costs, and the strategic decision-making process that led to the acquisition by Pepsi, highlighting the importance of distribution partnerships.
Founder Relationship Dynamics
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(01:09:10)
  • Key Takeaway: Prioritizing the business and family over traditional romantic expectations, and establishing clear boundaries, was crucial for Allison and Stephen Ellsworth to maintain a strong marriage while building their company together.
  • Summary: Allison and Stephen discuss the complexities of working as a couple, sharing a moment where they had to decide to focus on the business and kids rather than traditional romantic gestures, ultimately strengthening their partnership and reducing pressure.