Where gut health meets hypergrowth with Ben Goodwin from Olipop

Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups.

This week Becca and Dom are joined by Ben Goodwin, the co-founder and CEO of Olipop, a soda startup making low-sugar pop with probiotics. Goodwin talked about his foray into the soda space after working in kombucha and discovering the positive impacts of paying attention to microbiome health. Goodwin also talked about:

How he balances being a CEO and still formulating all the new Olipop flavors himself
What it has been like fundraising for a riskier, and very saturated, consumer category like beverage
The company’s growth and how it has been able to secure a sizeable penetration in retail stores already

In the outro, Dom and Becca talk a bit about the company’s marketing strategy that leans heavily on nostalgia. They also talk about the questions they wished they dove into more, like what the process was like to get Olipop eligible for Medicare reimbursements. Plus, they talk about their relationship — and lack thereof — to the soda category in general.

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