I built a $2,000,000,000 business on vibes

**Allison Ellsworth** (0:00)
First time we did a Super Bowl, let me lay this down for you. We bought the Super Bowl five days before the Super Bowl, literally.

**Shaan Puri** (0:16)
Sam, do you want to do an intro real quick?

**Sam Parr** (0:19)
Yeah. So you and your husband are one of the fathers of Poppi, which you sold for $2 billion. And I would have to say you probably win the award for brand glow up. Because one of my favorite things to watch is this old Shark Tank video of you guys.

**Allison Ellsworth** (0:30)
So good.

**Sam Parr** (0:31)
And the way that it started and where you are now, that gap is huge.

**Shaan Puri** (0:36)
Yeah. What was it called originally? Mothers or something?

**Allison Ellsworth** (0:39)
Oh, so embarrassing. You had to say it out loud. Mother beverage. And yes, I think it was a glow up of this century, the best of all time.

**Sam Parr** (0:48)
What was the story?

**Allison Ellsworth** (0:49)
It was just one of those beautiful, entrepreneurial American dream stories where you start in your kitchen because of a personal problem. I had like tummy problems with drinking apple cider vinegar, you know, hated the taste. I was like, I have an idea. I can make this taste better. Little did I know how intense beverage is. Looking back, I don't think if I knew what I knew now, I would have done it. And it's not knowing is just such a beautiful thing.

**Sam Parr** (1:15)
But you basically were selling something at a farmer's market that was kind of curing your own problem.
And I think you did that for more than a couple of years. And then you hooked up with a guy who kind of like was like, hey, this is amazing, but why don't we tinker with the packaging a little bit? And then you raised a little bit of money. And it was like off to the races. It was like to like 20 million to like 60 million to like 120 or something like crazy like that.

**Allison Ellsworth** (1:41)
Even crazier. I have to kind of ground you just to like in timeline. So we did do like two years, farmers market, went on to Shark Tank, got a deal on Shark Tank and went through a whole rebrand. And then we decided to launch Poppi March 3rd, 2020, the first week of COVID. It was like the first time everyone's thinking about their health and wellness. It's the first time people are looking at labels and wanting to understand what they're putting into your body and how can I boost my immune system and all of these things of the conversation. And so that first year we were in March, I think we did about $3 million in revenue.
And then the next year was $22 million, $50 million, and then the big jump was from $50 to $200 million and then $500 plus to then be sold. So it was like four and a half years to almost $550 million, which is crazy growth.

**Sam Parr** (2:29)
Did you ever feel imposter syndrome doing that? Because whenever I have a little bit of success, I'm like, oh man, is this real? This is wild, but our success was a lot slower than yours.

**Allison Ellsworth** (2:43)
We were just going so quick, it was hard to even sit back and even realize or fathom what was happening because it was so not normal. People don't understand what we had and what growth we had is not normal. It was truly lightning in a bottle.
I don't know if there was imposter syndrome because I'm very confident, we were confident in what we were building, but it wasn't a guarantee. It's this thing of, do I celebrate? Well, it's too soon to celebrate. When we finally sold, it definitely was like, wait, what just happened? That was four and a half years, five years of this crazy growth. I don't think I ever stopped and smelled the roses.

**Shaan Puri** (3:21)
You know when there's a movie and they always have Act One of the movie is the main character and they're just stumbling and fumbling, and they're struggling and then they finally start to figure something out. Act Two is always the montage where things start happening fast and furious, and that's the growth phase that you're describing. But they usually figure one or two things out. One or two things start to really work and then they lean in and double down into those. It's like the things that makes all the other dominoes fall. So for you guys, you're saying timing was obviously beneficial, but what were you guys doing as entrepreneurs or founders? What were the key dominoes that started to fall?