Olipop: Ben Goodwin

In this episode of How I Built This, Guy Raz interviews Ben Goodwin, co-founder of Olipop, which has quickly become a rapidly growing soda brand focused on gut health. Starting from a challenging childhood, Ben's journey into beverage innovation began with a failed probiotic beverage called Obi. After selling Obi and entering a non-compete agreement, he reflected on what went wrong and realized the market needed healthier alternatives to traditional soda. This led him to the idea of creating a prebiotic soda, leveraging smart formulations of fibers and nutrients that benefit gut health without sacrificing taste.

Ben's initial efforts focused on enjoyable flavor profiles and appealing branding to draw in consumers. In 2019, Olipop launched in select health food stores, with immediate positive responses leading to rapid growth. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, sales skyrocketed as consumers increasingly turned to healthier beverage alternatives. Now on track for continued growth, Olipop aims to compete with established soda giants while maintaining its health-oriented ethos.