Pepsi bought his biggest rival. Olipop’s founder would rather go public.
PepsiCo paid $1.95 billion for poppi. Olipop co-founder Ben Goodwin tells Brian Sozzi he would rather take his company public, and that Olipop has retaken the lead in the category it created.
He also argues GLP-1 drugs are helping his business, not hurting it: half of GLP-1 users who drank soda quit, they miss it, and two thirds of the weight comes back once they stop.
Goodwin says Olipop is fully profitable with sales well north of half a billion. *Episode was recorded August 5, 2026, before he handed the CEO job to Christian Patino Webb and moved to executive chairman and head of innovation.
Timestamps
0:00 The name came from a prebiotic fibre and a Midwest word for soda
2:19 Dropping out at 20, kombucha, and changing his mind about it
3:47 The Trojan horse: using the biggest category in beverage to deliver fibre
5:56 Why zero sugar is having a moment, and who Olipop actually converts
8:20 The fibre gap, and the human research on blood sugar
9:40 Why half of GLP-1 users quit soda and still miss it
10:56 A 60% drop in Gen Z soda consumption, and why that generation is different
13:31 The nostalgia he is trying to build for a different can
14:52 Whether full-calorie soda survives another 25 years
15:50 The Pepsi prebiotic launch, and the red-can Coke rumour
17:02 Fully profitable, north of half a billion, and growing double digits
17:40 Retaking the category lead after PepsiCo bought poppi
18:30 The trust problem a 150-year-old company has selling health
19:02 The three things he says a big strategic cannot copy
21:00 300,000 applications, and what people actually want from work
23:52 The beverage technology he is most interested in
27:41 The empty Whole Foods shelf that sold out in a day
29:30 Growing 1,000% in a pandemic year, and the cash-flow trap that came with it
32:37 Why not be the acquirer instead of the acquisition
33:06 The IPO case, and buying brands, flavour houses, and ingredient tech
35:18 "I have too many jobs"
#Olipop #poppi #PepsiCo #GLP1 #soda #PowerPlayers #YahooFinance
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