By: Felix Thea
Introduction
After discovering the importance of the microbiome and its impact on nutritional health, Ben Goodwin was inspired to create a delicious product that would reach as many people as possible. Once he met David Lester, they began utilizing innovative product development and the power of science, coupled with the emotional significance of nostalgia, to create Olipop. In this episode of Shopify Masters, you will learn how Ben and David Lester developed Olipop, from flavors to brand identity, to solve real human problems.
The Opportunity I Saw in the Market That Led Me to Start Olipop
We have an unusual background. Many companies in this field were founded on the observation of a white space or a trend that could be exploited. For us, this focal point began when I was a child. I grew up eating a standard American diet, and my family didn’t have much money. This greatly affected my health. By my teenage years, I was overweight and had anxiety disorders and other issues. I had an epiphany one day when I was fourteen that this was not going to lead to a good life and that I needed to restructure everything.
I started paying attention to my nutrition. I began dieting, exercising, and going to therapy. All of that was extremely helpful, and I lost 60 pounds in less than a year. I became a little obsessed with nutrition and became really curious and fascinated by it. Over time, I discovered that what I put into my body significantly affects not only my physical energy but also my mental clarity and emotional stability. I became truly fascinated by this connection and saw nutrition as an opportunity for personal growth, development, and self-actualization. This is where all of this began.
There’s a longer story associated with this, but basically, I dropped out of college in my twenties. I had an interesting teacher who won a Supreme Court case on his own, without legal representation, which amazed me and prompted me to drop out of college and then engage in product development for consumer goods and beverages. I helped a friend launch a kombucha company 15 years ago when I was in my twenties. That’s where I learned what a microbiome is. It’s all the non-human microorganisms that live in and on your body but are concentrated in the digestive system. The microbiome profoundly impacts your overall health—from digestion to immune function to organ function. There’s also something called the gut-brain axis. Essentially we produce most neurotransmitters and hormones in our digestive microbiome. “We have a chronic nutrition problem in the United States and these issues relate to our nutrition, which impacts our metabolic health, and thus our microbiome health, and our digestive function.”
There are many human and animal studies that show that the health of your microbiome has a profound impact on how your brain works, your nervous system, your endocrine system, and hormonal functions. This was a lightbulb moment for me in my early twenties. I was saying, “Wow, this might be the system that turns me into an enthusiast for the rest of my life.” The more I researched it, the more I realized that we have a chronic nutrition problem in the United States and that those issues relate to our nutrition, which affects our metabolic health, and thus our microbiome health, and our digestive function.
David and I have been working together for the past nine years to find the most scientific and impactful ways to benefit the microbiome and digestive health of people, but to package it in a form that is highly accessible and reaches as many people as possible. This is essentially the formation and intentions behind Olipop. Olipop seeks to find the most scientific and impactful ways to benefit the microbiome and digestive health of people in an easily accessible manner. Olipop
Importance
Good Nutrition for Entrepreneurs
I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Clearly, if you don’t have a high level of emotional resilience and often even physical stamina, entrepreneurship may not be right for you. That’s part of it. At the same time, entrepreneurship, especially if you’re fortunate enough to experience some success, requires you to go through a tough phase as it is both a marathon and a sprint at the same time. It’s the worst of times for a period. It’s also incredibly rewarding, especially when you have a positive experience. Your physical, emotional, and mental health must be addressed unavoidably. “I need to reach the deeper parts of myself to make myself work and perform optimally, and take good care of myself because that creates the most sustainable dynamics to pull the trigger and go for life.”
It’s foolish to ignore those things because you will have to work for a long time. You will have to take care of yourself. Mental health issues, in particular, are very common in the entrepreneurial community. I struggled growing up. A lot of entrepreneurs actually suffer from traumas in their lives, making them more susceptible to the kinds of disruptions that might naturally come from a higher-risk job. I consider that I need to reach the deeper parts of myself to make myself work and perform optimally, and take good care of myself because that creates the most sustainable dynamics to pull the trigger and go for life.
Have you both been working in the beverage industry all those years?
I spent about four years in research and development for the last beverage company we had. Three of those four years, I was recklessly searching for the right business partner. I went through several cycles of that and then finally met David. After two weeks of meeting, we shook hands and frankly, we haven’t looked back since. We are very different personalities and cover different areas of expertise, but we share very overlapping principles and values and have gained a deep level of understanding over time. We have always worked together to launch our own businesses and collaborated in the beverage industry.
Of course, this was a valuable endeavor for both of you. Did you see a gap in the market that aligned with your passion?
In our particular case, when you look at the raw data, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of Americans suffer from chronic digestive issues. Data from the University of California, San Francisco indicates that up to 88% of Americans experience some metabolic disorders or diseases. Clearly, we are getting a lot of sugar in this country, but some of the insights we discovered when researching functional formulas for Olipop are that we aren’t getting enough fiber and not enough diverse nutrients. This is a recipe for disaster for the metabolic microbiome – high sugar, low fiber, and low dietary diversity.
A lot of that is driven by products like traditional sodas, and there’s no shortage of clarity about what this product does to your body. Before the pandemic, we were seeing a decline in the carbonated beverage market year after year as consumers were moving away from this addictive drink that is also genuinely fun and enjoyable. People were trying to shift to healthier options with an increasing awareness about the importance of the microbiome and science and a real rise in awareness about digestive health.
These are some broader trends. Regarding the precise strategy we chose to address it, it has been driven by science and research on the microbiome in the past five to eight years about dietary intervention versus probiotics, being the best option for many people to create a sustainable microbiome. There is some awareness, but it needs to be paired with what is indicated to be effective in science to create a real solution for people.
Before
Three years ago, when we were raising funding for this venture, the idea of a healthy drink was strange, and certainly not a trend. People were suggesting that we produce soda or kombucha. Prebiotics were not a trend. We had many questions about why we were using prebiotics when probiotics were more prevalent in the market at that time. There is a lot of interesting learning here. I focused on innovation for a long time in my career and had the opportunity to launch and see many products as well. One of the interesting things about working with Ben is his focus on solving a real human problem and then finding the best way to do that.
We did that and went to investors with confidence because we weren’t following a trend; we were following science. You’re also looking for things like what are consumers upset about? The soda industry looks like a place ready to be disrupted because there are aspects of soda that people love. It’s delicious, it carries deep memories, and it’s tied to culture and emotion, but there is one fundamental problem: it’s not good for you and it contains a lot of sugar.
In fact, people want to consume products that have some nutritional benefits. If you combine these things, you are essentially executing on the idea of breaking one rule and crushing it hard. The rule we broke is the ingredient panel. This is very different from a can of Coke, but everything else feels familiar to people. It’s delicious from its flavors. It looks like a soda, our marketing is fun and vibrant, and that gives you a really rich formula for successful innovation. Using data as a vision to solve real human problems.
The Importance of Trend vs Science and Customer Satisfaction
You can’t make good decisions just by relying on data. You should consult the data but not follow it too deeply. When it came to packaging design, we got some of that feedback that made everyone very anxious. I remember the special moment when we got to see the actual samples of the cans and we were looking at them. We were in different places, but I called him and said, “Bro, this is crystal clear.” Even in that story – with many external data points – he knew. Sometimes when you sit there and look at the physical thing, you have to be ready to face reality and
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/olipop-product-development
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