Ben Goodwin grew Olipop into an innovative beverage juggernaut

Ben Goodwin co-founded Olipop at age 32. Now 39, he’ll see the probiotic soda brand ring up $500 million in projected 2024 sales. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here Goodwin describes himself as a “stereotypical repeat beverage entrepreneur,” a college dropout who was drawn to better-for-you foods, developing a kombucha and then the kefir soda brand Obi. When Obi encountered investor troubles in 2016, Goodwin departed with a powerful signal of consumers’ willingness to embrace healthier drinks (and their particular fondness for root beer)—and a few lessons about himself. “There was a lot of maturation, learning my strengths and my weaknesses, learning how to self-advocate, that have been very important to going into Olipop,” Goodwin said. Additional research into microbiome and digestive health, along with lots of flavor tinkering, also went into the new brand. @kanebrown Official Tour Partner @OLIPOP 🙏🏾 #olipoppartner ♬ original sound - Kane Brown Olipop is a 2023 Ad Age Marketers of the Year honoree, but its combination of attributes, flavors and format has made its value proposition tricky to explain, Goodwin confessed. Lately, the brand has been targeting sports and music, with partnerships with the KC Current, NASCAR’s Legacy Motor Club, FC Cincinnati and WNBA star Cameron Brink, and music video deals with Kane Brown, Noah Cyrus, Anderson .Paak and Orville Peck. Olipop has also announced a multiyear deal with the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and Intuit Dome, making it the stadium’s official functional beverage. A special-edition Barbie peaches-and-cream flavor became a sensation, outselling eggs at some grocery stores after its release earlier this year, the brand said. As Olipop outgrows legacy soda brands, acquisition speculation follows. “I’m not going to rule out that there’s a range of opportunities for the future, but honestly, there’s a lot of room still available for us to grow, even without having a DSD [direct store delivery] partner,” Goodwin said. “And there are a lot of brand stories left for us to tell as well.” If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why? My go-to would be Ben Franklin. He’s a prolific inventor, and he’s also a Founding Father. And I think it’d be really helpful to have a conversation with him right now about what’s going on in our country. Also, I lost my father [Charles Ben Goodwin III] when I was very young, so it would be great to have that dinner. What are the top two social media sites you use on a regular basis? I don’t really use social media. The only social media that I use for leisure is Reddit, and then I’m obviously on LinkedIn. But I don’t have a lot of bandwidth to spend a ton of time there. What’s currently on your bedside reading list? It’s more like my airplane reading list. I just finished “Humankind: A Hopeful History” by Rutger Bregman, and I am going to start “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know” by Adam Grant. What was the last show you binge-watched? I don’t typically binge-watch. The last thing I watched many episodes of, two or three years ago, was “Narcos.” One of the issues I have with those shows is that they have this really good recipe for the show, then they feel the need to keep ratcheting up the stress to the point where the stress supersedes the content of the show. And whenever shows get to that index, I’m just like, dude, my life is stressful enough. I don’t need the extra cortisol. At what age do you hope to retire? That’s an interesting question, because from a financial perspective, I’d have the ability to retire in my early 40s if I wanted to. But I don’t really think of myself as having a career. So in terms of when I actually want to stop doing things, I don’t know—I probably won’t stop doing things until I physically can’t anymore. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here

Ben Goodwin grew Olipop into an innovative beverage juggernaut

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