Sep 22, 2025 · 1h 6m · how-i-built-this
Poppi: Allison and Stephen Ellsworth. From Farmers Market Vinegar Drink to $2B Soda Sensation
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
This episode of How I Built This details how Allison and Stephen Ellsworth transformed a homemade apple cider vinegar health drink into Poppi, a prebiotic soda sensation that navigated pandemic setbacks and viral social media fame before being acquired by PepsiCo for nearly two billion dollars.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 31.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.6 Guest teaching 2.6 Guest disagreement 0.5 Guy pushing back 1.3
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 1:04:45 Allison resists the luck framing
Allison directly challenges the premise that luck drove their success, insisting that hard work and knowing when to push made the outcome possible.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 26:00 Guy presses on the actual Whole Foods buyer offerGuy interrupts to clarify the scope of the initial retail offer when the founders mistakenly thought they had secured national Whole Foods distribution.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 27:38 Stephen explains acetobacter contamination hazardsStephen educates Guy on the microbiological reasons co-packers and breweries refused raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar due to line-fouling acetobacter.
Guy holds their own ▶ 12:56 Guy cites research on ACV and insulin sensitivityGuy takes control of the dialogue to detail the exact physiological mechanisms and research backing apple cider vinegar dilution for blood sugar regulation.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early Careers, Corporate Disillusionment, and Meeting in Salt Lake City | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Guy guides the founders through their unconventional backgrounds in oil land research and ski retail. The conversation is collaborative and storytelling-focused. | |
| Health Struggles, Road Life, and Kitchen Vinegar Experiments | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Guy interjects with his own morning apple cider vinegar regimen and cites scientific research on insulin sensitivity. Allison describes her early kitchen formulations to mask the pungent taste. | |
| From Hobby to Startup: Creating Mother Beverage in Dallas | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Stephen explains the chemistry of carbonation and fermentation while Allison recounts DIY bottling in their guest room. Guy probes into the technical learning curve and startup capital. | |
| Farmers Market Success and the Whole Foods Discovery | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Allison and Stephen correct Guy's assumption about instant retail placement, explaining that receiving a Whole Foods card only meant a license to pitch store by store. | |
| Self-Manufacturing Hurdles, Regional Expansion, and TV Traction | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2 | Stephen educates Guy on why co-packers rejected raw unfiltered ACV due to acetobacter cross-contamination risks. Allison explains the distributor mechanics of UNFI. | |
| The Shark Tank Experience and Securing Rohan Oza | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | The founders detail their Shark Tank casting process and negotiating terms with guest shark Rohan Oza. Guy contextualizes Oza's beverage portfolio background. | |
| The Total Rebrand: Transforming Mother Beverage into Poppi | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Allison explains the nine-month brand transformation into Poppi, recounting the debate between clean white cans and colorful cans on store shelves. | |
| Expo West Disruption, Amazon Pivot, and Going Viral on TikTok | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Allison recounts the sudden cancellation of Expo West in March 2020 and pivoting to Amazon inventory and early organic TikTok storytelling. | |
| Defining Modern Soda, the Super Bowl Ad, and the Pepsi Acquisition | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Allison and Stephen outline establishing the modern soda category in retail, the impact of their Super Bowl commercial, and negotiating the Pepsi acquisition. | |
| Balancing Marriage and Business: Reflections on Hard Work vs. Luck | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Guy questions the balance between hard work and luck. Allison pushes back against the luck framing, attributing Poppi's success to relentless execution. |
Statements from this episode (20)
Entry-level oil and gas workers can make $500 a day
“And you start off at a really young age making like 500 bucks a day, right, is really good money. You're working seven days a week. You're working from Dawn to dusk, though, it's really, really not the easiest job”
Poppi founders launched the beverage brand with $90,000 in personal capital
“Yeah, so I went to my sister, who's always been a really big believer in me, and she ended up giving us 30,000 dollars. My dad gave us 30,000 dollars, and then we put 30,000 dollars in of our own money. So basically a total of 90,000 dollars, which was everyth…”
Poppi predecessor Mother Beverage sold out weekly at Dallas farmers market
“And I will say, we were selling out. Like, every week we would make it, we would sell out. The next week we would make, you know, that and a half, we would sell out.”
Whole Foods made Mother Beverage pitch store-by-store across 14 Dallas locations
“So we, from the moment we got the card from her, we at that point went and got a lease. We opened up our own manufacturing facility thinking we were going to be nationwide Whole Foods for them to say, no, no, no, no, you don't even have Dallas. We've given you…”
Co-packers refused Mother Beverage due to raw acetobacter contamination risks
“Unfiltered, you've got the floaty stuff in there, so it can get in their lines. It could potentially contaminate other products of theirs. The raw factor, it's got acetobacter in there, and so that can cause their beers to sour. That can cause other issues in,…”
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.”
Mother Beverage reached $500,000 in pre-Shark Tank revenue
“I think when we went into Shark Tank, I think it was, we had done about a half a million dollars in revenue in the previous, I don't know, 12 to 18 months, something like that.”
Poppi founders entered Shark Tank seeking $400,000 for 10% equity
“I think we initially went in there asking for 400,000 dollars in exchange for 10% of the business.”
Poppi founders accepted Rohan Oza's Shark Tank offer of 25% equity
“And so, he did come up to the 25%, and I'll be honest, we looked at each other, and we immediately said yes. Because we just knew he was the right partner for us to really take it to the next level.”
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.”
Poppi lost nearly $90,000 on a canceled Expo West 2020 booth
“So we had spent a lot of our money on, I think like almost 90,000 dollars on building a booth.”
Poppi's monthly Amazon sales surged from $3,000 to $250,000 post-Shark Tank
“We're doing, like, 3000 on Amazon quickly over the next few months. We're doing 250,000 on Amazon a month.”
Viral TikTok video generated $100,000 in overnight Amazon sales for Poppi
“Honestly, one night, I sat down on the couch, and I just told my story. I did it in one minute or less of, started this in my kitchen, got a deal on Shark Tank, it's five grams of sugar, it's apple cider vinegar, it's this, dah, dah, dah, and I posted it and w…”
Ellsworth: Poppi was the first functional drink labeled prebiotic soda
“We were the first ones in the functional, you know, sort of modern soda to actually call ourselves a soda. We call ourselves a prebiotic soda. We were the first ones.”
Poppi paid 40 cents per empty can shipped from China during COVID
“Cans now cost 11 cents. We were paying 40 cents for a can during COVID. We were shipping containers Of essentially air, empty aluminum cans all the way from China, just so we could fulfill the demand.”
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.”
Poppi's Super Bowl ad tripled brand awareness by repeating 'soda'
“In our ad, we said soda 17 times, and that we were the future of soda, and after coming out of that, our awareness tripled overnight.”
Poppi quadrupled sales from 2022 to 2023 following its Super Bowl ad
“We thought we were going to double the business from 22 to 23. And instead we forex the business. And in large part, it was because of the Superbowl ad.”
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”