How GLP-1's are threatening alcohol sales: Olipop Early Investor

Nate Cooper (0:00)

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I look for functional lunatics. Best investments I've ever made are non-consensus. To be an entrepreneur, you got to be a little crazy. There's a million people who are saying this will never work. You're an idiot. This light bulb went off in my head. They're like, this is that product. In my head, I was like, hey, if these guys ever get to $50 million in sales, it'll be a home run.

Now they're doing that in less than a month. This brand is 12 months old now, and it is the fastest growing company I've ever seen or been a part of in my life.

Brian Sozzi (0:59)

How big do you think that business can get?

Nate Cooper (1:03)

How big do I think that business can get?

Brian Sozzi (1:10)

All right, welcome to a new episode of Power Players, and watchers and listeners of Power Players know that I love following all the trends in consumer products, from food to toys, you name it. So excited to welcome in my next guest, Barrel Ventures, managing partner and founder, Nate Cooper.

Nate, good to see you. I feel as though you have invested in so many companies of brands that I have merging, that I have tried, and that I enjoy. So good to see you.

Nate Cooper (1:37)

Good to see you. Thank you for having me.

Brian Sozzi (1:40)

Take us inside of your portfolio. Let's start there. Some of the brands that you have invested in, and why you made some of those investments.

Nate Cooper (1:46)

You know, I started doing this eight and a half, nine years ago. I was an entrepreneur in the category as well.

And the first real check I wrote was into Alipop, where it was just an idea.

You know, I remember meeting Ben and David, and I had dived over to my house and took a sip of the product. The product looked the same as it does today. It tasted, you know, 99.9 percent similar, and closed my eyes, and I thought I was drinking a Diet Coke. And the thesis was, you know, you had Kombucha, which had become a billion dollar category, you know, over a decade, and millions of people like myself want to drink for its functional benefits, but don't because it tastes like crap, in my opinion. And on the other hand, you got soda, which, you know, is this the biggest category in the world of beverage that tens, if not hundreds of millions of people want to stop drinking, but don't because it's addictive, and there's nothing that really fills that gap. And this light bulb went off in my head that like, this is that product. You know, in my head, I was like, hey, if these guys ever get to $50 million in sales, I know it'll be a home run. And now they're doing that in less than a month. And it's exceeded everyone's wildest expectations. And you got to get lucky sometimes. And we certainly did with that. And our experience with that and how they captured the consumer mind, share and taste profile has led to some other investments as well that we've been really fortunate to make.

Brian Sozzi (3:11)

On Allapop, I recently just talked to the founder, Ben Goodwin, and those founders like him are hard to find. How do you, is he the quintessential founder that you look for when putting money to work? Someone who's just like, and their sleeves are rolled up and they're grinding and they just have this unshakable vision and where they want to take their company.

Nate Cooper (3:38)

Yeah, so Ben, I don't know if I coined this term, but it's something that I put into words. And many people have said this in many different ways, but I look for functional lunatics, right? So to be an entrepreneur, you got to be a little crazy, because there's a million people who are saying, this will never work. You're an idiot. You see that on all sides of the table, on the investing side of the table, right? The best investments I've ever made are non-consensus. When I met Ali Pop, I sent it to 30 people, trying to help them raise money, and they all said, this will never work. You got to be right, you got to be early, you got to be non-consensus.