Poppi went from kitchen experiment to $2 billion deal with PepsiCo

2025-10-17 01:03:46

Alison Ellsworth is the co-founder of Poppi.

Courtesy of Alison Ellsworth

In 2015, Alison Ellsworth was in her kitchen trying out different recipes for gut-healthy drinks, trying to make apple cider vinegar taste good. Little did she know that the mixtures she was mixing would eventually become a billion dollar business.

Today, the 38-year-old is the co-founder of prebiotic soda brand Poppi, which she started alongside her husband, Stephen Ellsworth. Nearly a decade after her experiments in the kitchen, in May 2025, Ellsworth Sold Business to PepsiCo for $1.95 billion.

The deal includes $300 million in expected cash tax benefits for a net purchase price of $1.65 billion.

A businessman by nature

Ellsworth has always been a hustler.

“I knew I never wanted to work for anyone… I was good at hacking systems and… I always had this amazing talent for being a visionary [and] “Look through the cracks,” Ellsworth told CNBC. Make it.

While in college, she took an entire year off to travel, yet was able to graduate in four years. During her studies, she also worked in various jobs where she discovered how to execute more efficiently than expected.

“I worked in a call center, and I learned very early on working there that if I did certain things, I could do them [double]“Three times… 5 times the sales of everyone else,” Ellsworth said.

After graduating from college, Ellsworth spent years on the road working in oil and gas research. She was traveling all over the United States by herself, which eventually began to affect her health.

I just fell in love with apple cider vinegar, and the way it makes me feel, but I wanted to make it taste even better.

Alison Ellsworth

Co-founder and CEO of the brand, Poppi

“I did that for seven years…working all over the United States, driving into every state on my own, staying in small towns and motels and managing huge multi-million dollar projects in my 20s. It was crazy.” she said.

But since she was always on the road, she had difficulty getting nutritious food. “I felt sick. So my face started to explode, and my stomach was hurting. “I was allergic to all kinds of different things, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on,” she said.

When doctors couldn’t help her, she started Googling all her symptoms and decided to try drinking apple cider vinegar, which is known for its many health benefits, but is unpalatable when taken on its own.

“I fell in love with apple cider vinegar and the way it makes me feel, but I wanted to make it taste even better,” Ellsworth said.

The birth of a multi-billion dollar brand

In her kitchen, Ellsworth began experimenting, infusing apple cider vinegar with different fruits and natural ingredients and mixing it with soda water. Over the course of about three months, she came up with the first version of her recipe that would become the foundation of her brand.

Alison Ellsworth holds a bottle of “Mother’s Drink.”

Courtesy of Bobby

By 2016, she and her husband were preparing to welcome their first child when she decided to take a break from her work and travel entirely. With more free time on her hands, she decided to bottle her own gut-healthy drinks and sell them at the local farmers market under the name “Mother Beverages.”

Within three weeks of selling at a farmers market, Whole Foods discovered it, she said. “When a Whole Foods buyer came to our booth and said, ‘We don’t have anything like this at Whole Foods.’ This is my card.” She added: “That was the moment I said, ‘Oh, I have a business.'” She added.

“I remember my husband was still working. I was three months pregnant. We had just bought a house, and I was like, ‘We’re going to do this.’ We will do everything we can.’ “He thought I was crazy, but we never looked back,” she said.

The couple quit their jobs to focus on Poppi.

From farmers market to Shark Tank success

By 2017, Mother Beverage was selling products to Whole Foods, and by 2018, Ellsworth said the company It generated about $500,000 in revenue. In the same year, they appeared on the TV show “Shark tank“Where they promoted the mother drink to a group of business tycoons.

While filming the show, Ellsworth was nine months pregnant. “I had the baby 10 days later,” she told CNBC Make It. Eventually, the couple reached an agreement with businessman and investor Rohan Oza, who offered $400,000 for a 25% stake in the company.

After the deal was completed, the company went through a nine-month rebranding process. They added a touch of sugar and replaced their bottles with colorful cans, and “Mother’s Drink” became “Bobby.”

“We decided to use colored cans because they compete with soda… If you think about it, soda is the largest TAM. Everyone drinks soda,” Ellsworth said. “We knew who we were. We were revolutionizing soda “Next generation, this is our north star.”

We had the right people, the right time, the right product, and any time we saw momentum, we invested in it.

Alison Ellsworth

Co-founder and CEO of the brand, Poppi

She added that Poppi was launched in March 2020, around the time the pandemic hit and consumers were looking for healthier products. From there, Ellsworth and her team became involved in developing their brand.

“We were a digital-first brand. We were one of the first brands to go on Tiktok and go viral and really create…a social-first community,” she said. “We did omnichannel, so we went into Amazon and retail at the same time…and then we just brought in a great senior team with a lot of experience very early on.”

“We had a good partner providing us with financing, and [so] “We weren’t always hungry for money,” she said. “We had the right people, the right time, the right product, and any time we saw momentum, we invested in it.” All of these decisions created the perfect recipe for Poppi’s success and PepsiCo’s $1.95 billion acquisition of the company.

When asked why she decided to sell her company, Ellsworth said: “We are [wanted] To continue getting Poppi to as many people as possible, the only thing that can really be secured is to bring in a distribution partner like Pepsi.”

“I think it was just a gut feeling,” she added.

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