Allison Ellsworth
Co-founder & Chief Brand Officer, Poppi · Co-Founder, Poppi. On 3 shows, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
She is the co-founder of Poppi, a healthier soda brand. She scaled the company alongside her husband Stephen Ellsworth to an exit to Pepsi valued at nearly $2 billion.
3shows
3appearances
45statements
9resolved
8supported
0contradicted
89%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything Allison Ellsworth said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Ellsworth: An IPO Cannot Solve Beverage Brands' Distribution Needs
“And then yes, there's the option to go IPO, but then you don't have a distribution partner. So it's just a really tough situation to be in, in beverage.”
Ellsworth: Poppi Was the Fastest Growing Beverage in Beverage History
“Poppy was the fastest growing beverage in the history of beverage, basically.”
Ellsworth: DTC Companies Usually Cap Out Around $250 Million
“Something I know I won't want to do is run a DTC company because they usually cap out about two hundred and fifty million, right?”
Poppi Founders Sold 100% of Company Without Retaining Operational Roles
“What a lot of people don't realize is we sold 100% of the company. A lot of times you'll do a two-step deal where if it was probably, I would say if it was that situation, we would have stayed in our roles and kept going. But you don't sell your company for tw…”
Ellsworth: Poppi is in one of four US households with 50% awareness
“We've done two Superbowl ads, tripled our awareness overnight with that. Now we're into year five. Brand awareness, like, 50% of America knows Poppy. We're one in four households”
Ellsworth built Poppi into a $2 billion business as a C student
“I was a C student in college and I built my business to be a two billion dollar business, right?”
Ellsworth: Large Beverage Brands Have Only Three Potential Acquirers or Must IPO
“So especially in beverage, there's literally three people that can buy you or you can go public.”
Ellsworth is the only female beverage founder with an exit this large
“Especially in beverage, I am the only female founder of an exit of this size ever, right?”
Ellsworth: Poppy was acquired because of its brand and lifestyle positioning
“It's literally why we were acquired. Is our brand and our core audience of like, we are soda for the next generation and we've built it on a brand and a lifestyle.”
Lakers' official soda Poppi cannot be sold in the team's arena
“We are the official soda of the Lakers, and we're not allowed to be sold in that stadium because of contracts.”
Allison Ellsworth: Solo founders should treat their first hire like a co-founder
“I think it would be really hard to do it as a solo entrepreneur, right? The highs are so much higher, but the lows you actually have like support. And so like, I think that if you don't have a co-founder, find someone, your first hire is probably going to be b…”
Ellsworth: Shark Tank actively works to match contestants with relevant sharks
“Contrary to what people believe, like, the show wants you to get a deal, and they do a lot of work in the back end to actually try to match you up.”
Better-for-you beverage brands traditionally build hub density in New York and LA
“Because a lot in beverage, if you think about it, are really in a lot of better for you products. They grow really big in New York and LA. And those are your hubs, and those are your big markets, and you really focus on it.”
Allison Ellsworth: Early viral TikTok generated $100K in Amazon sales overnight
“Honestly, what worked is one night I sat down, it was a Friday night, I just got in the shower, my hair is wet, and I just told my story. And it connected on such another level that it went viral, did a million views while we're sleeping. We did a 100,000 doll…”
Allison Ellsworth: Poppi never ran a Google ad in first four years
“We never ever have ran a Google ad. And our number one KPI was brand awareness. For the first four years of business was brand awareness.”
Ellsworth tests founder coachability by proposing unwanted product changes
“And so for me, when I'm talking to someone, I'll do a little bit of a test. Sometimes I'll be like, Hey, for your packaging, it's so cute. I love it. But would you be willing to change it? And I tried to see the reaction, even if I don't want to change it.”
Ellsworth: Switching to Direct-Printed Cans Saved Poppi $17M in One Year
“And then we finally made the switch, and it saved us, like, seventeen million dollars that year.”
Ellsworth: Poppy reached a 65% female workforce
“And at one point we were like, 65% female at poppy because it was like part of our DNA from senior leadership down.”
Ellsworth: Grassroots cultural brand initiatives deliver higher ROI than commercials
“That is a brand building initiative that has a higher ROI than doing a commercial, because it's just part of the movement, and a lot of people wouldn't see that trend, they wouldn't invest in the cans and buy the licensing and do all that, but we just see, lik…”
Beverage brands cannot access UNFI distribution without retail accounts secured
“It's like the chicken or the egg, like, get into Unify if you don't have a retailer. If you don't have a retailer, you can't get in.”
No better-for-you beverage brand used brightly colored cans before Poppi's rebrand
“Hands down, I will say I was wrong. Colored cans were the way to go. It just popped off the shelf, and no one was doing better for you with color at the time.”
Ellsworth: Modern soda brands must package in 12-ounce cans, not glass
“If we're gonna call ourselves soda, we can no longer be in glass bottles. We 100% have to be in 12 ounce soda cans.”
The other half of the tape: Allison Ellsworth's own voice is left out of every number here. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Statements about Allison Ellsworth, by other people (1)
Allison Ellsworth is the second Shark Tank contestant to become a Shark
“By the way, Allison is heading back to Shark Tank once again for its new season, but this time she'll be a shark. She's one of just two former contestants to ever appear in that role. The first one was also a guest on this show, Jamie Siminoff of Ring”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Allison's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 BIGDEALLEDGER | Co-founder & Chief Brand Officer, Poppi | 1 | 22 | 83% 5/6 | full record on BigDeal → |
 HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Co-Founder, Poppi | 1 | 13 | 100% 1/1 | full record on How I Built This → |
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Co-Founder, Poppi | 1 | 10 | 100% 2/2 | full record on Masters of Scale → |