Seth Goldman
Co-Founder and CEO, Eat the Change. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveauthorinvestor@HonestSeth ↗LinkedIn ↗eatthechange.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Goldman co-founded Honest Tea in 1998, which was later acquired by The Coca-Cola Company, and co-authored Mission in a Bottle. He subsequently co-founded Eat the Change, launched Just Ice Tea, and serves as Chair of the Board at Beyond Meat.
1shows
2appearances
38statements
16resolved
15supported
1contradicted
94%fully supported
22said about them ↓ Everything Seth Goldman said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Goldman used value-triggered equity grants to prevent founder dilution during fundraising
“He said, but what if instead you started the founders at the same place as the other investors, and only when the company grows in value do the founders get more equity? And that's was, it was a reverse structure. And what that did was it helped as we grew and…”
Goldman: Zero Industry Knowledge Was a Competitive Advantage for Honest Tea
“Having zero knowledge of the beverage industry in the beginning was actually a competitive advantage. Because we went in without any of the assumptions.”
Skipping venture capital preserved Honest Tea's control and prevented premature exits
“So a lot of entrepreneurs in the venture capital mode is basically they're incentivized to own more of the company. They're incentivized to exit quickly. And we didn't take that kind of money. And I'm very glad we didn't. I think that was a key piece that let …”
Goldman: Lack of beverage experience was a competitive advantage for Honest Tea
“Having zero knowledge of the beverage industry in the beginning was actually a competitive advantage. Because we went in without any of the assumptions.”
Goldman: Structuring founder equity to vest on valuation growth prevents dilution
“What if instead you started the founders at the same place as the other investors, and only when the company grows in value do the founders get more equity? And that's was, it was a reverse structure. And what that did was it helped as we grew and we raised mo…”
Goldman: Most US Bottled Tea Is Made From Powder or Concentrate
“Most of the bottle tea in the U.S. At the time, and still today, Is not brewed with, you know, it's not brewed tea. It's a powder or a concentrate.”
Goldman: Adding sugar would have accelerated Honest Tea's growth but diluted brand
“Well, there's no question that would have led to faster growth, but it would have diluted what we were building.”
Goldman: Acquired founders rarely last more than a few months post-sale
“So often, when a brand is sold, the entrepreneur gets really frustrated, and they butt heads, and the entrepreneur rarely lasts a few months.”
Goldman: Most bottled tea is made from powder or concentrate, not brewed
“Most of the bottle tea in the U.S. At the time, and still today, Is not brewed with, you know, it's not brewed tea. It's a powder or a concentrate.”
Goldman: Adding sugar would have accelerated Honest Tea's growth but diluted brand
“Well, there's no question that would have led to faster growth, but it would have diluted what we were building.”
Goldman: Avoiding VC money helped Honest Tea maintain control
“So a lot of entrepreneurs in the venture capital mode is basically they're incentivized to own more of the company. They're incentivized to exit quickly. And we didn't take that kind of money. And I'm very glad we didn't. I think that was a key piece that let …”
Goldman: Early Honest Tea investors earned a 26x return
“That's right, yeah. 26 times their early investment.”
Goldman: Yale SOM connection secured Honest Tea's first Whole Foods buyer meeting
“The marketing director at Whole Foods, or at that time it was called Freshfields Whole Foods, it was a mid-Atlantic. He was a graduate of the Yale School of Management as well. So he helped me get an appointment with the buyer.”
Whole Foods ordered 15,000 bottles after Goldman pitched with a thermos
“When I met with the buyer and I, we, Poured out samples from the thermos, showed him my empty Snapple bottle. With the Honesty Label, of course. And he had said well, look, this sounds interesting. We'll give it a try. We'll take 15,000 bottles”
Honest Tea brewed its first batches using large pool filter bags
“So we ended up at a plant in Buffalo, New York that was making apple juice. Maybe it was a little down on its luck. It had some line time available, and they said, well, how are you going to brew the tea leaves? And so we brought in these mesh bags, these larg…”
Honest Tea Became Top-Selling Tea in 17 Mid-Atlantic Whole Foods Stores
“But by the end of that summer, we were the best-selling tea in the 17 Freshfields Whole Foods stores in the Mid-Atlantic.”
Beverage brands need distributors to defend high-turnover retail shelf space
“Beverages are a high turnover product. And so as soon as a shelf empties of beverages, something takes its place. And so you need a distributor to be there to build and keep the shelf space protected.”
Honest Tea voluntarily pulled all its products from every store in 2003
“So we voluntarily withdrew all product from the market. Every store. Yes. Everywhere. Not just Whole Foods. Everywhere.”
Goldman: Honest Tea lost several hundred thousand dollars in 2003 recall
“Well, we were doing about 3,000,004 million dollars in sales, and it totally stopped our sales. So we lost several months of sales. So several 100,000 dollars.”
Honest Tea was not profitable until its eighth year of operation
“Weren't profitable until the eighth year or so.”
Honest Tea expanded from 15,000 to over 100,000 stores with Coca-Cola
“We were in 15,000 stores when Coke invested. Now we're in over a 100,000 stores.”
Early Honest Tea angel investors saw a 26x return over ten years
“That's right, yeah. 26 times their early investment.”
Goldman: Honest Tea employee sweat equity created multiple millionaires
“Well, to me, what was so exciting was some of our employees were made millionaires as well, and that, to me, was, you know, that was all sweat equity that they earned, so that was especially meaningful.”
Goldman: 1990s beverages had a gap between high-sugar and zero-calorie
“It was all a hundred calories per eight ounces, and so the difference was fizz or no fizz, color, you know, different names, different bottles, they were almost uniform in their taste profile, their sweetness profile, which was, you know, six or seven teaspoon…”
The other half of the tape: Seth Goldman's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 19 times in 6 episodes across the shows. 3 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Shazi Visram 12Ethan Brown 4Guy Raz 2Chris Mann 1
Statements about Seth Goldman, by other people (3)
Visram: Happy Family raised $550K seed round across 36 angel investors
“I think it was 36 people for 550,000 dollars, and Seth Goldman of Honesty was 2500 dollars.”
Happy Family raised $550k from 36 angels, including Seth Goldman
“I think it was 36 people for 550,000 dollars, and Seth Goldman of Honesty was 2500 dollars.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 19
2022 6 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
2020 7 mentions in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Seth's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Co-Founder and CEO, Eat the Change | 2 | 38 | 94% 15/16 | full record on How I Built This → |