March 19, 2026 • 24 mins
Tom First - Founder & CEO of Culture Pop Soda - CEO's You Should Know
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, This is Steve Dallsign and welcome to this
week's edition of CEOs. You should know I am thrilled
to be joined by Tom First, the founder and CEO
of Culture Pop Soda. Tom, thanks for being here today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good to be here. Nice for me.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
We're excited to dive into the conversation, learn more about
you and learn more about Culture Pop Soda. So let's
jump into it. I know that you started in the
beverage industry co founding ntech nectar is at just twenty two,
and you really helped define that entire category. Looking back,
what were some of those lessons that you learned very
early on.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I mean, honestly, probably the biggest one was to it
was to never give up. I mean it's tough. I
was a twenty two year old kid.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
To date myself.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
There was no internet, there were no cell phones.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I was living on an island, and it was at
a time when a lot of people, you know, weren't
starting businesses. So, you know, my partner Tom Scott and
I started a company on a boat selling juice and
ended up manufacturing and figuring out all that stuff and
distribute and through the brand, so kind of fell in
(01:03):
love with the beverage industry. It's a really creative industry.
You know, you're making products that people really care about
they align their lives with. We were making what was
at the time of better for You juice a long
time ago, and it was sort of the dawn of
the changing of sort of food and drinking habits for Americans.
It was like we were one of the early products
(01:25):
that was like a little bit better for you at
the time. That's awesome, and it's sort of an insurgent brand.
And you know, the industry has changed so much in
the last twenty years where a lot of people are
creating products that are made with better ingredients.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I know that since then, you spent decades working along
other emerging food and beverage companies as well before you
founded Culture Pop, right, what were some of the patterns
or gaps that you noticed within the overall industry that
ultimately led you to that entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You know, I think that, I mean the biggest gap
is that the big companies that make food products are
driven by like efficiency and inexpensive ingredients and and and
really sort of.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The incumbent way that they make products.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So a lot of these brands that you see that
are newer, that have different ingredients, they're doing it a
hard way, they're doing it differently. The factories sometimes aren't
set up for it, or the consumer you know, doesn't
know about these products because the big brands control all
the marketing dollars. So those are big barriers to growth.
(02:37):
But I think one thing that's happened over the last
you know, however many years, is that people that walk
into stores are looking for items today that are better
than what you know, they better ingredients, they read labels,
they care about you know, less processed foods. So it
makes it at least a little bit easier for us
to build companies. But I looked at the soda and
(03:00):
in particular it's the biggest industry in all of beverages.
It started as a health tonic. That's what Coca Cola created.
Was that, you know, it's herbs and spices and something
that was supposed to be good for your stomach.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
That's what ginger ale was.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
But soda really over many years became something totally different.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Totally different path right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I mean it's you know, preservatives and colors and you know,
all sorts of sweeteners and and honestly, my goal with
Culture Pop was to make something that took soda back
to its roots, you know, really trying to use ingredients
where if someone picked up our can and turned it
around and read the label and read the ingredient panel,
(03:42):
I'd be very proud of everything that they read.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And we make soda.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
With no sweeteners. We sweetened with real organic fruit juice.
We use herbs and spices. We've got a live probiotic
which is good for your good for your stomach, so
and look in other food categories. That's how people are
thinking about building their brands is finding better ingredients and
to deliver better health outcomes for people.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I know you always weren't always in the beverage industry,
right You were an American history major and you said
building beverage bands felt like the liberal arts and businesses, right, Yeah.
How did that non traditional background, not being in the
beverage industry get you in develop that approach once you
took that entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I mean, it's funny when you start a business. I
think you think that people who are in the industry
that are you know, that dominate it.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Our experts.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I mean It's like when I started in the beverage
industry as a twenty something year old kid, I was like, oh,
the people from coke and PEPSI they must be like
beverage experts like there, and I'm, you know, a total novice.
I think what you learn after a while is by doing,
you become the expert. And when at Nantuck, a actor's
Tom and I early days, we were making the product,
(05:00):
we were delivering the product. We were working in the warehouse,
we're driving the truck and van, we're interacting with the retailers. Honestly,
we became experts. And a lot of it is by doing,
and you can figure things out. So honestly, there were
things where people would tell us this is how you
do it. I'll give you one example. Early on at
(05:21):
Nantuck Conectors, our product was ninety nine cents. At that time,
fruit juices that were in bottles were sixty nine cents.
And everyone who we thought, you know, knew the industries
are like you guys will never sell a bottle of
juice for a dollar.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It will never happen.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
And we didn't change our price for like we're leaving
it at a dollar. It's expensive to make it's a
better product, and the experts.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Were wrong and we were right.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
And a little bit of that is like we didn't
come from the industry, no, Yeah, he was an American
Civilization major. I was an American history major. But you know,
I will say, like it is, you know, products that
are consumer products, that are the people relate to, and
in building companies like this, it is like a liberal
arts of education. We're doing art or doing science, we're
(06:09):
doing communications. So it's it's very fun and it's why
I'm probably still doing it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, it's great analogy too. Yeah, and it kind of
allows you to have that experience of learning learning all
the different pieces of the industry too, when you're in
that startup ROWL.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, I mean we we had to.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
We had no choice because either you know, we couldn't
find a distributor so we had to distribute ourselves, or
you know, we couldn't you know, we were making something
totally different that people hadn't made before, so we couldn't
make it the way everyone was making it in a factory,
so we had to set up our own way. We
when we started Nantucket Nectar's it was you know, everybody
(06:46):
used hygh froctose corn syrup. When I started Culture Pop,
you know, we were trying to take herbs and spices
and put them into a soda. We had giant tea
bags in a juice blend, like almost steeping it in
to Culture Pop to create that flavor. No one ever
had done anything like that for soda. So when you're
(07:06):
building a company, you know, as crazy it is as
it is, you have to do things differently and honestly,
in the end, that's what consumers appreciate.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
That's awesome. So after being an investor advisor on so
many different brands, how does it feel different this time
being a founder at Culture Pop.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I mean one thing is I'm you know, I'm older.
Obviously I've done this before. I know the industry well.
And some people think, well, you're starting Culture Pop soda,
you have so much experience, you'll just automatically be successful,
and that, I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
That isn't how it works.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Like every every product has to stand on your own,
on its own, it's got to taste great, it's got
to look great. I'll tell you it doesn't feel that
different to me. I feel like, you know, started out
grinding delivering it on my own out of the back
of my car, started hiring the first people in the
company who joined it, who took the risk on joining
(08:08):
a little company. And then it's a matter of like
growing and building culture and you know, hopefully developing a
team of people that really believe in what you're doing,
and then you know, communicating that to consumers to explain
we're doing soda differently. We use way better ingredients. We
don't use stevia and erythritol and tons of sugar. And
(08:30):
we were, you know, figuring out a way to reach
as many people and tell them that you can enjoy soda,
you can taste something that's different, have a different experience,
same type of work I was doing when I was
twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
That's awesome. So culture Pop challenges those long held norms
within the soda industry. Right we talked about overfind sugar,
no sweeters, let sweetness overall. How does that innovation lead
when you're trying to convince decades long of consumers having
that previous condensation around.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I'll tell you it is tough. I mean, one thing
is the soda category is driven by sweetness. You know,
you have decades of whatever it is one hundred and
sixty calories and thirty grams of sugar, and that's what
people expect when they drink a soda, and we're, you know,
(09:21):
with Culture Pop, we're creating a bunch of flavor without
sugar or putting like a high intensity sweetener like stevia
in it. So the work is getting people to try
it to understand what we're making, that it's created with
real ingredients, like totally unprocessed foods, no processed sugars or anything.
(09:43):
We feel like, once someone tries our drink and they
have it like one or two times, actually drinking something
overly sweet and super sweet kind of fake tasting becomes
unappealing to them, and so it's a lot of work
for us. It's like trying to get that first tryal
trying to get the repeat trial to experience a soda
that has real ingredients to not think that everything you
(10:06):
have to drink or eat is like super sweet or
over salted. But ultimately you do change people's expectations of
food and flavor, and the people who come to love
our brand are just incredibly loyal.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
That's awesome to hear. We talked about this a little
bit earlier, right you described the analogy of being an
art to create the soda, right, How do you balance
the creativity and the discipline when you're leading a brand
that blends so many things together, like the art, the
science of it, and of course the business side so
closely together.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
I love the art part of building it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I think that you need to have.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
What I would say is like, you need to have
great people in the business that can do the things
that need to be done. And as a founder and
an entrepreneur, you need to know what you're good at.
I would say, I mean, I know finance. You know,
I've been doing this for a while. I don't think
it's my passion and I don't think I'm the best
(11:11):
CFO in the world. So I've got an incredible operator
in the business and a great CFO and an operation
team that I rely on. I will say, like, I
do love the art side of it. I love the
creativity of packaging and creating flavors and sourcing ingredients and
our product culture pop is it's like a very culinary product.
(11:32):
So I enjoy the process of like we look at
you know, mixology recipes and even food recipes to understand
how to pair herbs and spices with different fruits, and
then we try to recreate them in the form of
a soda. So I will say I spend probably more
time and energy and emotion on the that side of
(11:55):
the business than I do on the finance side of
the business. But ultimately, I would say for people who
are building a business. If you're building a business, we're
all salespeople, and learning how to sell and communicate what
we're creating to other people is so important.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
If you're growing up in the industry and.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
You can't sell, If you can't sell someone to invest
in your business, or a retailer to buy your product,
or consumers to taste your product, it's going to be tough.
So sales is a big part of it too, And
you know, I like that part absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I love the packaging too.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
No, thank you, great job there.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
You described culture Pop as really filling a void within
the soda industry, right, it's kind of this challenger brand
that's coming in to hopefully disrupt things in a good way.
How do you define the success of the brand over
the next five ten years.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I mean, first of all, I would say for consumers
that are or people that are out there looking at
the grocery stores. There's a wave of it's being called
modern soda. Okay, modern soda brands that have hit the shells.
You know, people know Poppy and Ollipop and a few
other brands, and you know, Poppy, Allipop and Culture Pop
(13:07):
were kind of the first three in the industry.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
But we've you know, if you had asked.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
People seven years ago, is the traditional soda aisle going
to be disrupted with modern brands that are going to
become a multi billion dollar category.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
No one would have believed it.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
We've become a multi billion dollar category that's growing at
high double digit rates, and a lot of it is,
you know, younger people didn't grow up with a traditional
soda on the dinner table, and so I think that
products like Culture Pop are bringing younger consumers that actually
care about health, that pay attention to ingredients into the
(13:47):
soda category. And we're the products of the next generation.
So for us, defining successes just reaching more people, bringing
both soda drinkers back into the category who have left
the category, or younger drinkers into the category that probably
wouldn't otherwise go there.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You just talked about having soda at the dinner table, right.
I think the unique thing is that culture pop fits
into so many different moments outside of just the dinner table. Right.
It could be a post workout drink, could be a mocktail,
It could be at your family gathering. How intentional is
when you created it to be that drink anytime type
of can?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I mean it was intentional.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I mean, first of all, when you the culinary part
of it, we certainly knew that it was like good
as a mocktail. I think that I always believe that
something that wasn't in the soda category, something that wasn't
sticky sweet or overly sweet, could make people want to
drink it, even for breakfast. Like our orange mango, which
(14:48):
is nicely sweet but not super sweet, is great in
the morning and you don't have to feel bad about
drinking as soda. And also because it isn't super sweet,
like you can crush one after a run or a
bike ride. So yeah, it's a very versatile product. It
does have a live probotic in it that's good for
your stomach, So it was really it was intentional to
(15:13):
make it a really versatile, versatile drink that could be
used on a bunch of different occasions.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Definitely a smart move. Yeah, I know you have some
exciting partnerships that were they're announced to partnership with Noacan
and the Busy Head Project. Those really mark that first
like celebrity project and collaboration that you've done. How do
those partnerships align with what culture props, broader mission and
values really stand for.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You know, I think if you've heard what I've said
about making the product, we use real stuff, We use
organic herbs and spices, we use a live probroduct, there's
really not a lot of ingredients in it. And I
think a lot of consumers that have come to love
our product appreciate that. I think the personality of the
(15:59):
company has just been being regular people, being real and
so I think we are attracted to relationships with people
who are sort of everyday, regular, real people that people
can relate to. And Noah con is like the quintessential
example of He's just and we kind of met him.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
He's a New England guy.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
You know, a lot of people in our obviously love him,
but when you get to know him, he's everything.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
He appears to be. He's a he's a very hard.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Working caring, good human and the Busy Head Project is
not It's not a marketing thing. He is so dear
to his heart. We're involved in it, and you know,
our black Cherry flavor, which is you know, out there
in Noah's name, also supporting the Busy Head Project is
(16:49):
a good example of tying like a real product to
a real person. And I think most of our relationships
that we've had with celebrities have come that way. We
haven't like chased down movie actors or fashion people or
big time influencers. And not that we don't work with influencers.
There's a lot of influencers that love our product and
(17:10):
come to us, and those are fantastic relationships with us.
But we don't want it to be really transactional. We
want it to fit, you know, sort of the way
our brand speaks to people in the first place.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I'd love to hear that we talked about this a
little bit earlier. Obviously, soda is one of the biggest
industries and also one of the most competitive industries. What
are some of the biggest obstacles or challenges you've been
noticing within the industry.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Look, I think the biggest obstacle is like any other business,
capitalism is competitive and challenging and you got to be great.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So you know, this is about building a business.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
We have to make a great product.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
We have to as you said, we have to have
great packaging, We have to be good at communication, We
have to figure out how to reach a lot of
people through advertising. We have to have good finance people
in the background, like making sure that we, you know,
have good unit economics in our business.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
So I mean, I think no matter.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
What the category is, we're in a big one with
a lot of headroom in it.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
But ultimately it's about.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Running a good business, you know, building a team of
people that truly care, like treating them well, like having people.
People aren't going to want to be a part of
your business if they don't like being there, they don't
believe in what you're making. And so we a culture
pot We work really hard at that, like it is
like a family, and we care about what we're doing,
and people are fully bought in because we were on
(18:41):
sort of a common mission to change the soda industry.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
That's great, I know that right now. Obviously you're the
founder of the company. You've had various roles in between
I love the story about the startup and really kind
of being every single role within it. Are there any
lessons or skills that stand out to you when you
look back that you have to learn the hard way?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I mean so many, you know. I think that.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Early on when you start a business, there you take
a lot of bumps and bruises, and at some point
you like you may not even believe you're going to
get there. I would say I have always been the
type of person where I like, I have high expectations,
like I kind of believe like it's gonna you know,
(19:30):
it's get the product is going to be everywhere you
know people are going to love it. And when you
set high expectations, it's kind of the only way to
achieve big things. If your expectations are down here somewhere,
you're never going to get where you really want to
get if you if that's what you want.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So I sort of learned early on.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
To set the goal pretty high and go shoot at
it high high expectations of my self, and then try
to get other people in the company who who lived,
you know, sort of lived that mission. They had high expectations. Well,
if someone's in marketing, like they wanted to be the
greatest marketing company in the world. If they were making product,
(20:16):
the product has to be great. If you're on my
team and you're helping formulate, we're not going to make
it average. We're going to make it great. And so
if you can do that, you can probably survive what
is a very tough world of capitalism. It's unrelenting and
there's always someone that's trying to be better than you are.
So to me, it's all about having really high expectations
(20:39):
and ultimately, if you do that and you make a
great product, you can reach the high expectations of consumers
because their expectations are high.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Also, for sure piggybacking off of that, because that was
great advice. If an entrepreneur or someone that wants to
be an entrepreneur's tuning in right now, what advice would
you wish you could give yourself way back when when
you first started this venture.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
One thing I would say is that I've had a
lot of people over the years have ideas that come
to me, Oh, I have this business idea, And I
think the biggest single reason that people don't become successful
is because they actually don't even start.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
And so I would say like, if you really.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Are passionate about something, the biggest part of getting to
where you want to go is actually starting the business.
And if you are a competitive person, you really believe
in what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
It's taking the first step.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I've always said like building a business is like hiking
up a mountain, and it's like when you're at the
bottom of the mountain, you can't see anything, you have
no perspective, and then you sort of start building the
business and you get part of the way up the
hill and you're like on this path and then you
turn around and you look at where you got from.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
You're like, oh, that's why I park the car.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
And there's that area over there. And then you go
a little further up the hill and you have more perspective.
And that's what I've found in all my businesses that like,
I get going and I learn more about where I am,
where the product is, what the category is, and it's
a journey. And if you believe in what you're doing,
you believe in yourself, you set high expectations. Each moment
(22:16):
is a moment to get better, and then you have
more perspective and hopefully you can build something and and
but you.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Have to start, you have to start the business first.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Absolutely, So we talked about a lot of exciting stuff.
What is next for culture pop, What are some of
the things that are in the developments or news to come.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So we just rolled out our Noah con black cherry product,
which I mean, the packaging is so fun and it
really I think in bodies Noah and he's rolling you know,
coming with his new album and tour soon, so that's exciting.
And then we're rolling out a raspberry lemonade, which I
think it's a really great flavor. It's got a fun label,
(22:56):
and I think this will be the beginning of us
doing some fun things with lemonade or maybe over the
next couple of years. So those are the big things
on the product front. But and then it's like summer's coming,
so we got to go work our butts off.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Love that well.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
We covered a lot. But if there is anything you
want the listeners to know as the core of your
mission or something we went and miss, what would that be.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I mean, I would just say, hey, look this is
a it's a great category. The fact you know, you
walk into the soda asle and look what's happening in
that aisle. There's a bunch of new brands. We truly
are doing it differently. You know, if you if you're
a soda drinker and you and you're addicted to super sweet.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know, maybe we're not for you.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
But if you want something that has a nice level
of sweetness that doesn't use sweeteners, better ingredients, and probably
you will get addicted to it, and then you'll feel
really good about yourself. After you have your second or
third one, you'll be drinking all the time and be like,
I've kicked the sweet habit. I kicked the sweetener habit.
No refined sh like fruit juice, organic spices.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I think culture Pop is probably for a lot of
people that don't even know it yet.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That's awesome. And if someone's listening that wants to try
culture pop or wants to learn more, what should they do.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
You can go to our website.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
You can walk into any Whole Foods or Alberson's, a
bunch of Walmart, ask your grocery store. We're in a
lot of places now, so go shop the isle and
buy many of them.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Awesome. I'm excited to try myself and Tom, thank you
so much for being here today. I loved hearing your journey,
your background, and learning all things about culture.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Pop Well, thanks for having me good to be here.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
We appreciate it, and thank you all for tuning in
to this week's edition. Tune in next week for next
week's edition of CEOs You Should Know
Hi everyone, This is Steve Dallsign and welcome to this
week's edition of CEOs. You should know I am thrilled
to be joined by Tom First, the founder and CEO
of Culture Pop Soda. Tom, thanks for being here today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good to be here. Nice for me.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
We're excited to dive into the conversation, learn more about
you and learn more about Culture Pop Soda. So let's
jump into it. I know that you started in the
beverage industry co founding ntech nectar is at just twenty two,
and you really helped define that entire category. Looking back,
what were some of those lessons that you learned very
early on.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I mean, honestly, probably the biggest one was to it
was to never give up. I mean it's tough. I
was a twenty two year old kid.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
To date myself.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
There was no internet, there were no cell phones.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I was living on an island, and it was at
a time when a lot of people, you know, weren't
starting businesses. So, you know, my partner Tom Scott and
I started a company on a boat selling juice and
ended up manufacturing and figuring out all that stuff and
distribute and through the brand, so kind of fell in
(01:03):
love with the beverage industry. It's a really creative industry.
You know, you're making products that people really care about
they align their lives with. We were making what was
at the time of better for You juice a long
time ago, and it was sort of the dawn of
the changing of sort of food and drinking habits for Americans.
It was like we were one of the early products
(01:25):
that was like a little bit better for you at
the time. That's awesome, and it's sort of an insurgent brand.
And you know, the industry has changed so much in
the last twenty years where a lot of people are
creating products that are made with better ingredients.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I know that since then, you spent decades working along
other emerging food and beverage companies as well before you
founded Culture Pop, right, what were some of the patterns
or gaps that you noticed within the overall industry that
ultimately led you to that entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You know, I think that, I mean the biggest gap
is that the big companies that make food products are
driven by like efficiency and inexpensive ingredients and and and
really sort of.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The incumbent way that they make products.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So a lot of these brands that you see that
are newer, that have different ingredients, they're doing it a
hard way, they're doing it differently. The factories sometimes aren't
set up for it, or the consumer you know, doesn't
know about these products because the big brands control all
the marketing dollars. So those are big barriers to growth.
(02:37):
But I think one thing that's happened over the last
you know, however many years, is that people that walk
into stores are looking for items today that are better
than what you know, they better ingredients, they read labels,
they care about you know, less processed foods. So it
makes it at least a little bit easier for us
to build companies. But I looked at the soda and
(03:00):
in particular it's the biggest industry in all of beverages.
It started as a health tonic. That's what Coca Cola created.
Was that, you know, it's herbs and spices and something
that was supposed to be good for your stomach.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
That's what ginger ale was.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
But soda really over many years became something totally different.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Totally different path right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I mean it's you know, preservatives and colors and you know,
all sorts of sweeteners and and honestly, my goal with
Culture Pop was to make something that took soda back
to its roots, you know, really trying to use ingredients
where if someone picked up our can and turned it
around and read the label and read the ingredient panel,
(03:42):
I'd be very proud of everything that they read.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And we make soda.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
With no sweeteners. We sweetened with real organic fruit juice.
We use herbs and spices. We've got a live probiotic
which is good for your good for your stomach, so
and look in other food categories. That's how people are
thinking about building their brands is finding better ingredients and
to deliver better health outcomes for people.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I know you always weren't always in the beverage industry,
right You were an American history major and you said
building beverage bands felt like the liberal arts and businesses, right, Yeah.
How did that non traditional background, not being in the
beverage industry get you in develop that approach once you
took that entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I mean, it's funny when you start a business. I
think you think that people who are in the industry
that are you know, that dominate it.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Our experts.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I mean It's like when I started in the beverage
industry as a twenty something year old kid, I was like, oh,
the people from coke and PEPSI they must be like
beverage experts like there, and I'm, you know, a total novice.
I think what you learn after a while is by doing,
you become the expert. And when at Nantuck, a actor's
Tom and I early days, we were making the product,
(05:00):
we were delivering the product. We were working in the warehouse,
we're driving the truck and van, we're interacting with the retailers. Honestly,
we became experts. And a lot of it is by doing,
and you can figure things out. So honestly, there were
things where people would tell us this is how you
do it. I'll give you one example. Early on at
(05:21):
Nantuck Conectors, our product was ninety nine cents. At that time,
fruit juices that were in bottles were sixty nine cents.
And everyone who we thought, you know, knew the industries
are like you guys will never sell a bottle of
juice for a dollar.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It will never happen.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
And we didn't change our price for like we're leaving
it at a dollar. It's expensive to make it's a
better product, and the experts.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Were wrong and we were right.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
And a little bit of that is like we didn't
come from the industry, no, Yeah, he was an American
Civilization major. I was an American history major. But you know,
I will say, like it is, you know, products that
are consumer products, that are the people relate to, and
in building companies like this, it is like a liberal
arts of education. We're doing art or doing science, we're
(06:09):
doing communications. So it's it's very fun and it's why
I'm probably still doing it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, it's great analogy too. Yeah, and it kind of
allows you to have that experience of learning learning all
the different pieces of the industry too, when you're in
that startup ROWL.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, I mean we we had to.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
We had no choice because either you know, we couldn't
find a distributor so we had to distribute ourselves, or
you know, we couldn't you know, we were making something
totally different that people hadn't made before, so we couldn't
make it the way everyone was making it in a factory,
so we had to set up our own way. We
when we started Nantucket Nectar's it was you know, everybody
(06:46):
used hygh froctose corn syrup. When I started Culture Pop,
you know, we were trying to take herbs and spices
and put them into a soda. We had giant tea
bags in a juice blend, like almost steeping it in
to Culture Pop to create that flavor. No one ever
had done anything like that for soda. So when you're
(07:06):
building a company, you know, as crazy it is as
it is, you have to do things differently and honestly,
in the end, that's what consumers appreciate.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
That's awesome. So after being an investor advisor on so
many different brands, how does it feel different this time
being a founder at Culture Pop.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I mean one thing is I'm you know, I'm older.
Obviously I've done this before. I know the industry well.
And some people think, well, you're starting Culture Pop soda,
you have so much experience, you'll just automatically be successful,
and that, I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
That isn't how it works.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Like every every product has to stand on your own,
on its own, it's got to taste great, it's got
to look great. I'll tell you it doesn't feel that
different to me. I feel like, you know, started out
grinding delivering it on my own out of the back
of my car, started hiring the first people in the
company who joined it, who took the risk on joining
(08:08):
a little company. And then it's a matter of like
growing and building culture and you know, hopefully developing a
team of people that really believe in what you're doing,
and then you know, communicating that to consumers to explain
we're doing soda differently. We use way better ingredients. We
don't use stevia and erythritol and tons of sugar. And
(08:30):
we were, you know, figuring out a way to reach
as many people and tell them that you can enjoy soda,
you can taste something that's different, have a different experience,
same type of work I was doing when I was
twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
That's awesome. So culture Pop challenges those long held norms
within the soda industry. Right we talked about overfind sugar,
no sweeters, let sweetness overall. How does that innovation lead
when you're trying to convince decades long of consumers having
that previous condensation around.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I'll tell you it is tough. I mean, one thing
is the soda category is driven by sweetness. You know,
you have decades of whatever it is one hundred and
sixty calories and thirty grams of sugar, and that's what
people expect when they drink a soda, and we're, you know,
(09:21):
with Culture Pop, we're creating a bunch of flavor without
sugar or putting like a high intensity sweetener like stevia
in it. So the work is getting people to try
it to understand what we're making, that it's created with
real ingredients, like totally unprocessed foods, no processed sugars or anything.
(09:43):
We feel like, once someone tries our drink and they
have it like one or two times, actually drinking something
overly sweet and super sweet kind of fake tasting becomes
unappealing to them, and so it's a lot of work
for us. It's like trying to get that first tryal
trying to get the repeat trial to experience a soda
that has real ingredients to not think that everything you
(10:06):
have to drink or eat is like super sweet or
over salted. But ultimately you do change people's expectations of
food and flavor, and the people who come to love
our brand are just incredibly loyal.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
That's awesome to hear. We talked about this a little
bit earlier, right you described the analogy of being an
art to create the soda, right, How do you balance
the creativity and the discipline when you're leading a brand
that blends so many things together, like the art, the
science of it, and of course the business side so
closely together.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
I love the art part of building it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I think that you need to have.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
What I would say is like, you need to have
great people in the business that can do the things
that need to be done. And as a founder and
an entrepreneur, you need to know what you're good at.
I would say, I mean, I know finance. You know,
I've been doing this for a while. I don't think
it's my passion and I don't think I'm the best
(11:11):
CFO in the world. So I've got an incredible operator
in the business and a great CFO and an operation
team that I rely on. I will say, like, I
do love the art side of it. I love the
creativity of packaging and creating flavors and sourcing ingredients and
our product culture pop is it's like a very culinary product.
(11:32):
So I enjoy the process of like we look at
you know, mixology recipes and even food recipes to understand
how to pair herbs and spices with different fruits, and
then we try to recreate them in the form of
a soda. So I will say I spend probably more
time and energy and emotion on the that side of
(11:55):
the business than I do on the finance side of
the business. But ultimately, I would say for people who
are building a business. If you're building a business, we're
all salespeople, and learning how to sell and communicate what
we're creating to other people is so important.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
If you're growing up in the industry and.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
You can't sell, If you can't sell someone to invest
in your business, or a retailer to buy your product,
or consumers to taste your product, it's going to be tough.
So sales is a big part of it too, And
you know, I like that part absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I love the packaging too.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
No, thank you, great job there.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
You described culture Pop as really filling a void within
the soda industry, right, it's kind of this challenger brand
that's coming in to hopefully disrupt things in a good way.
How do you define the success of the brand over
the next five ten years.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I mean, first of all, I would say for consumers
that are or people that are out there looking at
the grocery stores. There's a wave of it's being called
modern soda. Okay, modern soda brands that have hit the shells.
You know, people know Poppy and Ollipop and a few
other brands, and you know, Poppy, Allipop and Culture Pop
(13:07):
were kind of the first three in the industry.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
But we've you know, if you had asked.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
People seven years ago, is the traditional soda aisle going
to be disrupted with modern brands that are going to
become a multi billion dollar category.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
No one would have believed it.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
We've become a multi billion dollar category that's growing at
high double digit rates, and a lot of it is,
you know, younger people didn't grow up with a traditional
soda on the dinner table, and so I think that
products like Culture Pop are bringing younger consumers that actually
care about health, that pay attention to ingredients into the
(13:47):
soda category. And we're the products of the next generation.
So for us, defining successes just reaching more people, bringing
both soda drinkers back into the category who have left
the category, or younger drinkers into the category that probably
wouldn't otherwise go there.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You just talked about having soda at the dinner table, right.
I think the unique thing is that culture pop fits
into so many different moments outside of just the dinner table. Right.
It could be a post workout drink, could be a mocktail,
It could be at your family gathering. How intentional is
when you created it to be that drink anytime type
of can?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I mean it was intentional.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I mean, first of all, when you the culinary part
of it, we certainly knew that it was like good
as a mocktail. I think that I always believe that
something that wasn't in the soda category, something that wasn't
sticky sweet or overly sweet, could make people want to
drink it, even for breakfast. Like our orange mango, which
(14:48):
is nicely sweet but not super sweet, is great in
the morning and you don't have to feel bad about
drinking as soda. And also because it isn't super sweet,
like you can crush one after a run or a
bike ride. So yeah, it's a very versatile product. It
does have a live probotic in it that's good for
your stomach, So it was really it was intentional to
(15:13):
make it a really versatile, versatile drink that could be
used on a bunch of different occasions.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Definitely a smart move. Yeah, I know you have some
exciting partnerships that were they're announced to partnership with Noacan
and the Busy Head Project. Those really mark that first
like celebrity project and collaboration that you've done. How do
those partnerships align with what culture props, broader mission and
values really stand for.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You know, I think if you've heard what I've said
about making the product, we use real stuff, We use
organic herbs and spices, we use a live probroduct, there's
really not a lot of ingredients in it. And I
think a lot of consumers that have come to love
our product appreciate that. I think the personality of the
(15:59):
company has just been being regular people, being real and
so I think we are attracted to relationships with people
who are sort of everyday, regular, real people that people
can relate to. And Noah con is like the quintessential
example of He's just and we kind of met him.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
He's a New England guy.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
You know, a lot of people in our obviously love him,
but when you get to know him, he's everything.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
He appears to be. He's a he's a very hard.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Working caring, good human and the Busy Head Project is
not It's not a marketing thing. He is so dear
to his heart. We're involved in it, and you know,
our black Cherry flavor, which is you know, out there
in Noah's name, also supporting the Busy Head Project is
(16:49):
a good example of tying like a real product to
a real person. And I think most of our relationships
that we've had with celebrities have come that way. We
haven't like chased down movie actors or fashion people or
big time influencers. And not that we don't work with influencers.
There's a lot of influencers that love our product and
(17:10):
come to us, and those are fantastic relationships with us.
But we don't want it to be really transactional. We
want it to fit, you know, sort of the way
our brand speaks to people in the first place.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I'd love to hear that we talked about this a
little bit earlier. Obviously, soda is one of the biggest
industries and also one of the most competitive industries. What
are some of the biggest obstacles or challenges you've been
noticing within the industry.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Look, I think the biggest obstacle is like any other business,
capitalism is competitive and challenging and you got to be great.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So you know, this is about building a business.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
We have to make a great product.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
We have to as you said, we have to have
great packaging, We have to be good at communication, We
have to figure out how to reach a lot of
people through advertising. We have to have good finance people
in the background, like making sure that we, you know,
have good unit economics in our business.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
So I mean, I think no matter.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
What the category is, we're in a big one with
a lot of headroom in it.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
But ultimately it's about.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Running a good business, you know, building a team of
people that truly care, like treating them well, like having people.
People aren't going to want to be a part of
your business if they don't like being there, they don't
believe in what you're making. And so we a culture
pot We work really hard at that, like it is
like a family, and we care about what we're doing,
and people are fully bought in because we were on
(18:41):
sort of a common mission to change the soda industry.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
That's great, I know that right now. Obviously you're the
founder of the company. You've had various roles in between
I love the story about the startup and really kind
of being every single role within it. Are there any
lessons or skills that stand out to you when you
look back that you have to learn the hard way?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I mean so many, you know. I think that.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Early on when you start a business, there you take
a lot of bumps and bruises, and at some point
you like you may not even believe you're going to
get there. I would say I have always been the
type of person where I like, I have high expectations,
like I kind of believe like it's gonna you know,
(19:30):
it's get the product is going to be everywhere you
know people are going to love it. And when you
set high expectations, it's kind of the only way to
achieve big things. If your expectations are down here somewhere,
you're never going to get where you really want to
get if you if that's what you want.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So I sort of learned early on.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
To set the goal pretty high and go shoot at
it high high expectations of my self, and then try
to get other people in the company who who lived,
you know, sort of lived that mission. They had high expectations. Well,
if someone's in marketing, like they wanted to be the
greatest marketing company in the world. If they were making product,
(20:16):
the product has to be great. If you're on my
team and you're helping formulate, we're not going to make
it average. We're going to make it great. And so
if you can do that, you can probably survive what
is a very tough world of capitalism. It's unrelenting and
there's always someone that's trying to be better than you are.
So to me, it's all about having really high expectations
(20:39):
and ultimately, if you do that and you make a
great product, you can reach the high expectations of consumers
because their expectations are high.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Also, for sure piggybacking off of that, because that was
great advice. If an entrepreneur or someone that wants to
be an entrepreneur's tuning in right now, what advice would
you wish you could give yourself way back when when
you first started this venture.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
One thing I would say is that I've had a
lot of people over the years have ideas that come
to me, Oh, I have this business idea, And I
think the biggest single reason that people don't become successful
is because they actually don't even start.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
And so I would say like, if you really.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Are passionate about something, the biggest part of getting to
where you want to go is actually starting the business.
And if you are a competitive person, you really believe
in what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
It's taking the first step.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I've always said like building a business is like hiking
up a mountain, and it's like when you're at the
bottom of the mountain, you can't see anything, you have
no perspective, and then you sort of start building the
business and you get part of the way up the
hill and you're like on this path and then you
turn around and you look at where you got from.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
You're like, oh, that's why I park the car.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
And there's that area over there. And then you go
a little further up the hill and you have more perspective.
And that's what I've found in all my businesses that like,
I get going and I learn more about where I am,
where the product is, what the category is, and it's
a journey. And if you believe in what you're doing,
you believe in yourself, you set high expectations. Each moment
(22:16):
is a moment to get better, and then you have
more perspective and hopefully you can build something and and
but you.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Have to start, you have to start the business first.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Absolutely, So we talked about a lot of exciting stuff.
What is next for culture pop, What are some of
the things that are in the developments or news to come.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So we just rolled out our Noah con black cherry product,
which I mean, the packaging is so fun and it
really I think in bodies Noah and he's rolling you know,
coming with his new album and tour soon, so that's exciting.
And then we're rolling out a raspberry lemonade, which I
think it's a really great flavor. It's got a fun label,
(22:56):
and I think this will be the beginning of us
doing some fun things with lemonade or maybe over the
next couple of years. So those are the big things
on the product front. But and then it's like summer's coming,
so we got to go work our butts off.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Love that well.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
We covered a lot. But if there is anything you
want the listeners to know as the core of your
mission or something we went and miss, what would that be.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I mean, I would just say, hey, look this is
a it's a great category. The fact you know, you
walk into the soda asle and look what's happening in
that aisle. There's a bunch of new brands. We truly
are doing it differently. You know, if you if you're
a soda drinker and you and you're addicted to super sweet.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know, maybe we're not for you.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
But if you want something that has a nice level
of sweetness that doesn't use sweeteners, better ingredients, and probably
you will get addicted to it, and then you'll feel
really good about yourself. After you have your second or
third one, you'll be drinking all the time and be like,
I've kicked the sweet habit. I kicked the sweetener habit.
No refined sh like fruit juice, organic spices.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I think culture Pop is probably for a lot of
people that don't even know it yet.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That's awesome. And if someone's listening that wants to try
culture pop or wants to learn more, what should they do.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
You can go to our website.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
You can walk into any Whole Foods or Alberson's, a
bunch of Walmart, ask your grocery store. We're in a
lot of places now, so go shop the isle and
buy many of them.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Awesome. I'm excited to try myself and Tom, thank you
so much for being here today. I loved hearing your journey,
your background, and learning all things about culture.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Pop Well, thanks for having me good to be here.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
We appreciate it, and thank you all for tuning in
to this week's edition. Tune in next week for next
week's edition of CEOs You Should Know
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