January 30, 2025 • 20 mins
In this episode of Give an Ovation, we welcome Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest Tea and Just Ice Tea, chairman of Beyond Meat, and co-founder of PLNT Burger. Seth’s journey from government and activism to launching purpose-driven brands showcases his commitment to health, sustainability, and creating positive social impact.
Zack and Seth discuss:
- How Seth transitioned from politics to entrepreneurship to drive lasting change
- The story behind Honest Tea, its evolution into Just Ice Tea, and the focus on transparency and quality
- Why PLNT Burger empowers customers to invest and participate in its growth
- The importance of offering inclusive menu options to delight diverse guests
- How purpose-driven brands can make a real impact on health and the planet
Tune in to hear how Seth’s vision and leadership continue to inspire and transform the food and beverage industry!
Thanks, Seth!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast, where I talk to
industry experts to get theirstrategies and tactics you can
use to create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is sponsored byOvation, an operations and guest
recovery platform formulti-unit restaurants that
gives all the answers withoutannoying guests with all the
(00:21):
questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we have what couldonly be described as just like
the health dream with us todaySeth Goldman.
He's the co-founder and CEO ofJust Ice Tea.
The co-founder and board chairat Plant Burger.
The chairman of the board atBeyond Meat.
(00:42):
He's also a Harvard guy.
He's a Yale guy.
He's the co-founder of HonestTea.
I mean, he has just done.
If it has to do with healthythings that you put in your body
, I feel like Seth has the Midastouch and I'm so excited to
chat with you today, seth, andlearn more about your philosophy
and the guest experience andsome exciting things that are
(01:04):
happening with your businessesright now.
So welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Thank you, zach, and thank you for that very kind
introduction.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I appreciate that.
Well, it's easy when all yougot to do is like read LinkedIn
and it's like mind blowing.
I know I've followed you for awhile and so it's an honor to
finally have you on the podcast.
But I mean, you go to yourhistory and there's this common
thread of just things that aregood for you, and so I'd love to
understand where did that comefrom?
(01:32):
How this desire to live foreverwithout taking the blood of
your 18 year old son, like howhas that the business?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
decisions you've made .
Well, I've always consideredmyself an activist and I
actually, in college, had been agovernment major, so maybe I
was thinking about going intopolitics.
And as I sort of did some workand I worked in the Senate for a
few years, worked in somecampaigns I came to appreciate
that a lot of the changes we tryto make through political means
are challenging, meaning thatsometimes they're short term,
(02:01):
sometimes it's posturing notreal change, and they can also
get undone pretty quickly.
And so when I started to explorethe private sector, I realized
that the opportunity notnecessarily the guarantee, but
the opportunity to really makesome important changes through
how we consume, and I personallygot most excited about the idea
(02:22):
to protect the environment, tohelp people lead healthier lives
and also to think aboutcreating and extending economic
opportunity to communities thatdon't have it.
So that might sound like apolitical campaign platform, but
for me that's a businessplatform that turns out you can
create products people reallycome to, not just enjoy but
(02:43):
really adore and embrace, andwith that really makes them
change happen.
And whether it's looking atwhat we did with Honest Kids,
getting that into McDonald's, or, of course, democratizing
plant-based protein would be onmeat there's some changes that
we've been able to make in thediet that's really led to
important changes in the healthprofile of what people consume
(03:04):
and, obviously, their impact onthe planet too.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Now, where did you grow up?
Where did you start to thinkabout this healthy mentality?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I grew up in Wellesley, massachusetts.
My parents were both professorsand definitely not health nuts.
Sometimes you'll talk tosomebody and they were the kid
who drank.
You know who ate lentils forlunch or whatever.
That wasn't me, right?
My parent, our diet and oursort of food traditions were
pretty average, right?
Nothing creative there.
It wasn't until I reallystarted to explore.
(03:34):
I did run track in college andso was always thinking about
what I put in my body as fueland how to make it healthier
fuel, and also the fact that Iwas thirsty all the time because
I was running.
So I was dehydrating andthinking about how can we create
, make some more creativesolutions.
And as I got further into it Icame to appreciate how important
organic is.
And then I learned about thesupply chain on tea and I
(03:56):
learned that fair trade reallymakes an important difference in
the communities we source from.
And then, just getting moreinto the food world and,
partially through having afamily, got exposed to first the
vegetarian diet and then agetting more into the food world
and, partially through having afamily, got exposed to first a
vegetarian diet and then a vegandiet and really came to
appreciate how those choices canreally have a profound impact
on my health and on what happensto the rest of the planet and
to the other beings involved.
(04:17):
So I guess, when was the lasttime you had meat?
Oh boy.
Well, I've been vegetarian for18 years, almost now 19 years.
So there may be a time or twosomeone snuck some meat in.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
but I haven't consciously eaten Consciously.
That means that maybe whenyou're asleep, someone gave you
a bite of Five Guys or something.
But it's incredible to see, andI think that, with all of these
different businesses thatyou've been a part of, I mean,
there's a lot of success inthere.
What are some of the commonattributes of the successful
(04:50):
companies that you've been apart of?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So, number one, they're all on purpose driven,
meaning they all have arecognition that when we create
this and do it right, we'regoing to have a positive impact
on the person consuming theproduct and on the other
stakeholders, whether that's theplanet or the people producing
it or, in the case of BeyondMeat, the animals not involved
in the production of a product.
(05:12):
That's one key pillar, but theother one is transparency.
We always want to be as much aswe can make this accessible to
people.
So there's no smoke and mirrors, there's no gimmicks, it's just
a straightforward product.
They'll obviously, with tea,both the name Honest Tea and
Just Ice Tea really speak to thesimplicity of what we're
offering.
And then we do show that we goto the communities we source
(05:34):
from, so people can understand,when they make a choice for just
iced tea, what's happening tothe community where we're buying
the tea leaves from and how itimpacts their livelihoods and,
frankly, the future of theirfamilies and future of their
community.
Smaller challenger brands wehave to be scrappy, we have to
(05:58):
be resource efficient, we haveto think about how to build
these businesses without the bigadvertising budgets, and so one
of the ways you do that isthrough building an authentic
brand that resonates withconsumers, that they feel is
personality and a kind ofessence that relates to them.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Now.
Are there any plans on doinglike an herbal iced tea?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Oh, yeah, yeah, we have quite a few herbal
varieties.
That just iced tea.
So we have a berry hibiscus yes, so we've had that.
We have another.
We have some other herbalvarieties we'll be bringing out
later this year as well.
So, yeah, oh, fantastic yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I've always felt like that's a huge gap in the market
.
I don't drink black tea orgreen tea, but I used to and
miss the flavor of just the icedtea.
But there's not a lot of teasthat don't have black or green
tea in them.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
There's some beautiful drinks that you can
bring out there.
I will say that historically,the herbals don't sell as well
as the caffeinated ones, but westill love them and we have some
fun ones we'll be bringing outthis year.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
That's awesome.
Now, okay, looking at HonestTea.
I mean, obviously that'sprobably one of the biggest CPG
brands that has come in the foodand bev industry in the last 30
years, 40 years, and everyoneknows Honest Tea.
But being a co-founder of that,running that for 22 years
almost, I'm assuming now you'refully out right.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, not everyone's out, because Honesty got
discontinued by Coca-Cola.
Oh, that's right.
We built the brand.
We sold it to Coke in 2011.
I stayed on through 2019.
But in 2022, I got anunsolicited call from Coca-Cola.
They were kind enough to giveme the courtesy to tell me they
were going to have todiscontinue Ice-T.
They had basically lost trackof the brand during the pandemic
(07:43):
, meaning the supply chain brokedown.
It was sort of not on shelves.
Our team pivoted very quicklyand we launched Just Iced Tea,
which has now been out in themarket for about two years and
has grown extremely quickly.
And so we're all in on JustIced Tea and what we've seen now
(08:04):
is that it's growing far morequickly.
We're only in our second year.
We just passed our second year.
It's larger than Honest Tea wasin its 10th year.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Oh, wow.
And we still have so much moregrowth to happen, because we
were still in a third of thestores that Honesty was in with.
It was probably not what youwere hoping for, but when you
kind of lost some of thatcontrol when you sold it, was
that like a relief or was that aburden for you?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Well.
So we sold in 2011, but Istayed on through 2019.
So I really was stillcontinuing to steward the brand
and make sure that it was beingbuilt the right way and it's not
a total loss.
So Honest Kids is still out andactually is doing extremely
well, so you know?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Okay, because that's what I was going to say, because
I just took my kids toMcDonald's and that's what they
get there.
Yeah, so, honest, kids isthriving, all right, I wasn't
going to correct you when yousaid they discontinued it.
Oh no, the tea is gone.
Yeah, no, maybe I'm crazy.
All right, honest.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Kids is doing great and Honest Kids is achieving
what we had hoped, which was toreally expand the availability
and adoption of organic drinks,right?
So, as you mentioned, going toMcDonald's and getting Honest
Kids is something that did nothappen 15 years ago.
That didn't exist there, andpeople don't go to McDonald's in
general to look for organicdrinks, and so just through that
(09:35):
, I've actually seen Honest Kidsreally become sort of I think
it's probably the most widelyadopted organic product out
there Wow, meaning that formillions of Americans, obviously
anyone who gets it in a HappyMeal it's the first organic
drink they'll be consuming.
So for us that's a reallyexciting step.
And the other part about HonestKids that's so neat is it's also
(09:56):
a much lower calorie drink.
It's a 35 calorie per carton.
It replaced an 80 calorie juicedrink that was there before,
and so if you just take that 45calorie differential sold, they
sell over 200 million units ayear at McDonald's.
That's removing over a billionempty calories from the American
diet every year.
That's removing over a billionempty calories from the American
diet every year.
So it's really neat to see thatkind of impact still go on.
(10:19):
As I mentioned, politics, younever know exactly what's going
to stick, but this is one thatseems to really be resonating
with the customer, and that's aresult of having a real impact.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, I mean, as a parent going to McDonald's, you
don't always think, okay, likeI'm going to make all these
healthy choices, let's go toMcDonald's.
But you do feel a little bitbetter when you know that it's
not going to be this just likesugar bomb that they get.
And when it comes to like themeat there and things at
McDonald's, they do buy highquality food.
(10:49):
So I think that that's onething that, as I look at kind of
what the honest kids it'sawesome to see that kind of
impact that you're able to have,and I know one of the things
that we wanted to talk about wasthe ability for people to get
involved in some of the thingsthat you're doing, like, for
example, I know Plant Burger isa brand that I've been a fan of
(11:09):
for a long time.
It took me a few months tolearn how to say the name,
because I always wanted to sayPlanet Burger.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That's okay.
We answer to that too.
It's fun, yeah, yeah, it's beenreally fun to build Plant
Burger.
We have 13 restaurants now andit is it's still early stage,
but what we've just done islaunched a start engine campaign
that lets our customers andfans and other followers invest
and build a business with us andobviously ideally be rewarded
(11:37):
when we reach the potential wethink this has.
It's a different world todaythan it was 20 years ago.
You want to start a business.
You definitely had to find highnet worth investors and bring
money and often sign over partsof the major parts of the
company.
But what's neat today withthese crowdfunding campaigns is
you can have people invest asmall amount of money, but they
(11:59):
still get to be part of theaction, they still get to feel a
sense of ownership and theystill have to really build the
next generation of futurelooking companies.
So the StartEngine campaign isexciting for us and we've seen a
really nice response.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, I was one of the people that was able to
participate in that.
Thank you.
That's right.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
It's awesome and I love that tobe able to put some money
behind brands that I believe in.
I love that there's,historically, some of these
restaurants that are veganfriendly restaurants.
They have not done super wellright, and they've struggled.
And I look at Plant Burger andit's like I get a little bit of
(12:36):
the backend view because I getto see what unfiltered feedback
is coming in from the customersand the great thing is that
people like me, who I meet everysingle day, I love it Like it's
a great product.
It's delicious.
Thank you, it's a reallycool-looking brand, like there's
a lot of really great thingsabout Plant Burger that I love.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
And it's being well-run.
I mean, that's one of thechallenges.
As you know, a lot ofrestaurants, not just
plant-based restaurants justdon't make it, and so to see
every restaurant of the 13, allof them are profitable, to see
the businesses that sellprofitable, is really rare when
you're only at sort of the scalewe are.
So that's exciting too.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And then- Especially in New York, where the leases
are like wild.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
The other piece is that it allows people to do it
in a lower risk way.
I remember when I was launchingHonesty and my oldest son was
just starting elementary schooland one of the parents said, hey
, I'd love to invest some of mykids' college money in Honesty.
And I'm thinking, oh my gosh.
First of all, like I'm going tobe seeing this guy for 13 years
his college, like if they losehis kids' college money, his
kids aren't going to college.
(13:41):
That felt like a bigresponsibility.
And what's nice about a startengine campaign is you can put
even a few hundred or a fewthousand dollars and it is.
You know, every dollar you putin means something and it
certainly means a lot to us.
But it's not like someone hasto bet their kid's college money
on this and what the postscripton that, with honesty, was that
actually got to speak at hisoldest son's high school
(14:03):
graduation and by that time hehad gotten his money.
I said I'm glad to say we'regoing to be able to pay for it
and your parents will be able topay for college.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Okay, so he did invest his kids' college funds?
He did invest.
Yeah, oh, he did Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It worked out, but it was still a little
nerve-wracking for me.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
That's funny.
I had a family member whoinvested in Ovation and it's one
of to pretend like it's gone,right, it's give it to me as a
gift and then maybe one dayyou'll get something back from
it.
Right?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
A lot of pressure, a lot of pressure, but it is
rewarding when you can deliveron it and I think, like I said,
my first impulse is to resist it, but then the next impulse is
to recognize this person wantsto be part of that opportunity
and it creates, I would say,some positive pressure.
We really do take a seriousobligation when we take people's
money and we need to certainlybe as responsible as we can with
(14:56):
it.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Now, with all these things going on, Seth, I know
that you've got some.
I'm sure you've got a lot ofexciting things happening and,
by the way, I totally forgot tomention the fact that you're
also involved in Tony'sChocolony.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yes, yep, a wonderful company involved in Tony's
Chocolony.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yes Yep, Wonderful company, which is a great
company.
Actually, I'm one of these guyswhere I eat candy every single
day.
What I do is I have a box ofcandy in my closet and then I'm
allowed to whatever I can fit inone handful.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I can bring to bed and like.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
That's the only way that I'm able to portion control
myself.
So how does chocolate fit intoall of this?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Well, again, the purpose-driven company.
So Tony's has this commitment toeradicating exploitation in the
cocoa supply chain and in thecase of cocoa, it's really a
concern around child labor, andthey have set up what I really
believe is the most rigorousinspection and enforcement
system to help their supplychain move away from child labor
(15:54):
.
Now the challenging part of thisis there is child labor in the
supply chain.
Tony's acknowledges it.
There's a lot less in there,there's far more.
The prevalence of child laborin their supply chain with their
cooperatives is about 3%, andwhen you go be outside of Tony's
it can be as high as 50%.
So it's really a challenge andyou know what?
(16:15):
I give them credit.
They said look, we're not goingto pretend it doesn't exist,
we're not going to try to takethe sales, we're going to engage
in the ground in the countrieswhere it does exist and really
try to address it.
And so that's hard work, butit's one of the reasons that
brand is so beloved.
It's also one of the reasonsthat brand is growing so quickly
.
So that's a fun role, and myjob as chair of the mission
(16:36):
guardians is to help make surethe company lives up to the
obligations it's taken on aroundthat labor.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
That's powerful, that they even have a whole mission
guardians, that their mission isso important to them that
they've created a group tooversee, to make sure that
they're adhering to theirmission.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, because and it's not that their board
doesn't care about that, but theboard ultimately is accountable
to the shareholders and themission guardians are
accountable only to the mission.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And so that is a.
It's a different, a new role.
That's one I've really enjoyedand I got to last year, went to
Cote d'Ivoire, to Iv.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
That is amazing.
That's super cool.
What other cool things aregoing on?
What other things should weknow about?
With your menu, I feel likethis is like your life, is like
the Cheesecake Factory menu oflike all these cool things going
on.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I think we see it at Beyond Meat as well, I think you
know.
One thing I would say I wouldchallenge and encourage all
restaurant operators to thinkabout is how to make your
offerings available to everybody.
And so as a vegan now part of avegan family, I can say that
(17:50):
it's always both surprising anddisappointing how many
restaurants just don't eventhink about the need to appeal
to a wide audience.
And I'm not talking about justto please vegans, because even
with plant burger, we always saythis isn't a restaurant just
for vegan.
That's too small a businessmodel.
But you always want to be asinclusive as you can.
So how do you make sure as manypeople as possible can come?
(18:11):
And one of the themes I know youalways focus on, zach, is how
do you create that delight withthe customer?
How do you create excitement?
And for me it's to show thatwe're thinking about you and to
provide these different options.
And just as an example, lastnight my wife and I went to a
wonderful pizza restaurant.
Everything there could be youhad a vegan choice.
And the alternative to that iswhen you go to a restaurant and
(18:33):
there's no vegan options, andwhat do you have that's vegan.
Well, go to a restaurant andthere's no vegan options and
what do you have that's vegan?
Well, we have pasta.
That's not very exciting,that's not very creative, and so
just taking that extra stepespecially I'm in California
this week, where not that thereare more vegans out here, but
there are more people who areflexitarian, there's some people
who just want to have thoseplant-based options and just
(18:54):
challenging the restaurants tomake sure they can provide food
to everybody.
I hope and encourage therestaurants to make sure they
can provide food to everybody.
I hope and encourage therestaurants to think, evolving
that direction.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I love that and, by the way, that's why I wore this
shirt today, because I have yeah, I love that, I have shirts
that have a lot of cooked foodon them.
This one is my shirt that hasall the chickens are alive,
which is why I wore this shirttoday for you, Seth.
Thank you One of the things Iwant to know is you know so many
people in this industry.
Who is someone that deserves anovation?
(19:22):
Who's someone that we should befollowing?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Well, I would say a company like Beyond Meat, ethan
Brown CEO there is one who'sbeen working super hard, and
that whole sector got attackedby the meat industry.
And what I've been impressed bywith Ethan and the team is how
they've just stuck to theirmission.
They've continued to challengethemselves on seeing beyond meat
evolve the portfolio ofproducts.
(19:45):
So you now have, where therehad been attacks around some of
the oil, they switched over toavocado oil as a source of fat
in the burgers.
But they've also really stuckto their mission.
They haven't been, I'd say,intimidated or dissuaded from
doing what they're doing, andthat's hard when a public
company like that comes underthat kind of pressure.
So I'm whether it's of thematter this week is to help and
(20:07):
provide encouragement andsupport to that business.
And then, of course, I'm alsoout here selling tea, so I'm
never traveling without multipleagendas in mind.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Well, I love that.
I mean, this has been such acool conversation and I'm really
excited about it.
Where do people go to find andfollow you?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, on LinkedIn is where I'm most active and it's
just Seth Goldman there.
I obviously Just Ice Tea has avery busy Instagram and TikTok
activity, but I don't have myown sort of separate personality
, it's just on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Okay, awesome, we'll make sure to put this in the
notes, but the startenginecomforward slash offering forward
slash plant burger, p-l-n-thyphen burger, or you just
Google start engine plant burgerand this goes, I believe, until
time's running out on this one.
So I know there's an end datein mind.
I believe it's in end of Q1 orin March or something like that.
(20:59):
Right, that sounds right, yeah,okay.
So go check that out, go be apart of the vision and the
mission and join Seth and turnin a chicken safe again, right?
So for making healthy coolagain.
Seth, today's ovation goes toyou.
Appreciate you coming on, givean Ovation.
So fun to hang out with you.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Thank you, zach, great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Thanks for joining us today.
If you liked this episode,leave us a review on Apple
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We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
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platform built for multi-unitrestaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
(21:43):
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast, where I talk to
industry experts to get theirstrategies and tactics you can
use to create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is sponsored byOvation, an operations and guest
recovery platform formulti-unit restaurants that
gives all the answers withoutannoying guests with all the
(00:21):
questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we have what couldonly be described as just like
the health dream with us todaySeth Goldman.
He's the co-founder and CEO ofJust Ice Tea.
The co-founder and board chairat Plant Burger.
The chairman of the board atBeyond Meat.
(00:42):
He's also a Harvard guy.
He's a Yale guy.
He's the co-founder of HonestTea.
I mean, he has just done.
If it has to do with healthythings that you put in your body
, I feel like Seth has the Midastouch and I'm so excited to
chat with you today, seth, andlearn more about your philosophy
and the guest experience andsome exciting things that are
(01:04):
happening with your businessesright now.
So welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Thank you, zach, and thank you for that very kind
introduction.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I appreciate that.
Well, it's easy when all yougot to do is like read LinkedIn
and it's like mind blowing.
I know I've followed you for awhile and so it's an honor to
finally have you on the podcast.
But I mean, you go to yourhistory and there's this common
thread of just things that aregood for you, and so I'd love to
understand where did that comefrom?
(01:32):
How this desire to live foreverwithout taking the blood of
your 18 year old son, like howhas that the business?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
decisions you've made .
Well, I've always consideredmyself an activist and I
actually, in college, had been agovernment major, so maybe I
was thinking about going intopolitics.
And as I sort of did some workand I worked in the Senate for a
few years, worked in somecampaigns I came to appreciate
that a lot of the changes we tryto make through political means
are challenging, meaning thatsometimes they're short term,
(02:01):
sometimes it's posturing notreal change, and they can also
get undone pretty quickly.
And so when I started to explorethe private sector, I realized
that the opportunity notnecessarily the guarantee, but
the opportunity to really makesome important changes through
how we consume, and I personallygot most excited about the idea
(02:22):
to protect the environment, tohelp people lead healthier lives
and also to think aboutcreating and extending economic
opportunity to communities thatdon't have it.
So that might sound like apolitical campaign platform, but
for me that's a businessplatform that turns out you can
create products people reallycome to, not just enjoy but
(02:43):
really adore and embrace, andwith that really makes them
change happen.
And whether it's looking atwhat we did with Honest Kids,
getting that into McDonald's, or, of course, democratizing
plant-based protein would be onmeat there's some changes that
we've been able to make in thediet that's really led to
important changes in the healthprofile of what people consume
(03:04):
and, obviously, their impact onthe planet too.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Now, where did you grow up?
Where did you start to thinkabout this healthy mentality?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I grew up in Wellesley, massachusetts.
My parents were both professorsand definitely not health nuts.
Sometimes you'll talk tosomebody and they were the kid
who drank.
You know who ate lentils forlunch or whatever.
That wasn't me, right?
My parent, our diet and oursort of food traditions were
pretty average, right?
Nothing creative there.
It wasn't until I reallystarted to explore.
(03:34):
I did run track in college andso was always thinking about
what I put in my body as fueland how to make it healthier
fuel, and also the fact that Iwas thirsty all the time because
I was running.
So I was dehydrating andthinking about how can we create
, make some more creativesolutions.
And as I got further into it Icame to appreciate how important
organic is.
And then I learned about thesupply chain on tea and I
(03:56):
learned that fair trade reallymakes an important difference in
the communities we source from.
And then, just getting moreinto the food world and,
partially through having afamily, got exposed to first the
vegetarian diet and then agetting more into the food world
and, partially through having afamily, got exposed to first a
vegetarian diet and then a vegandiet and really came to
appreciate how those choices canreally have a profound impact
on my health and on what happensto the rest of the planet and
to the other beings involved.
(04:17):
So I guess, when was the lasttime you had meat?
Oh boy.
Well, I've been vegetarian for18 years, almost now 19 years.
So there may be a time or twosomeone snuck some meat in.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
but I haven't consciously eaten Consciously.
That means that maybe whenyou're asleep, someone gave you
a bite of Five Guys or something.
But it's incredible to see, andI think that, with all of these
different businesses thatyou've been a part of, I mean,
there's a lot of success inthere.
What are some of the commonattributes of the successful
(04:50):
companies that you've been apart of?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So, number one, they're all on purpose driven,
meaning they all have arecognition that when we create
this and do it right, we'regoing to have a positive impact
on the person consuming theproduct and on the other
stakeholders, whether that's theplanet or the people producing
it or, in the case of BeyondMeat, the animals not involved
in the production of a product.
(05:12):
That's one key pillar, but theother one is transparency.
We always want to be as much aswe can make this accessible to
people.
So there's no smoke and mirrors, there's no gimmicks, it's just
a straightforward product.
They'll obviously, with tea,both the name Honest Tea and
Just Ice Tea really speak to thesimplicity of what we're
offering.
And then we do show that we goto the communities we source
(05:34):
from, so people can understand,when they make a choice for just
iced tea, what's happening tothe community where we're buying
the tea leaves from and how itimpacts their livelihoods and,
frankly, the future of theirfamilies and future of their
community.
Smaller challenger brands wehave to be scrappy, we have to
(05:58):
be resource efficient, we haveto think about how to build
these businesses without the bigadvertising budgets, and so one
of the ways you do that isthrough building an authentic
brand that resonates withconsumers, that they feel is
personality and a kind ofessence that relates to them.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Now.
Are there any plans on doinglike an herbal iced tea?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Oh, yeah, yeah, we have quite a few herbal
varieties.
That just iced tea.
So we have a berry hibiscus yes, so we've had that.
We have another.
We have some other herbalvarieties we'll be bringing out
later this year as well.
So, yeah, oh, fantastic yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I've always felt like that's a huge gap in the market
.
I don't drink black tea orgreen tea, but I used to and
miss the flavor of just the icedtea.
But there's not a lot of teasthat don't have black or green
tea in them.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
There's some beautiful drinks that you can
bring out there.
I will say that historically,the herbals don't sell as well
as the caffeinated ones, but westill love them and we have some
fun ones we'll be bringing outthis year.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
That's awesome.
Now, okay, looking at HonestTea.
I mean, obviously that'sprobably one of the biggest CPG
brands that has come in the foodand bev industry in the last 30
years, 40 years, and everyoneknows Honest Tea.
But being a co-founder of that,running that for 22 years
almost, I'm assuming now you'refully out right.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, not everyone's out, because Honesty got
discontinued by Coca-Cola.
Oh, that's right.
We built the brand.
We sold it to Coke in 2011.
I stayed on through 2019.
But in 2022, I got anunsolicited call from Coca-Cola.
They were kind enough to giveme the courtesy to tell me they
were going to have todiscontinue Ice-T.
They had basically lost trackof the brand during the pandemic
(07:43):
, meaning the supply chain brokedown.
It was sort of not on shelves.
Our team pivoted very quicklyand we launched Just Iced Tea,
which has now been out in themarket for about two years and
has grown extremely quickly.
And so we're all in on JustIced Tea and what we've seen now
(08:04):
is that it's growing far morequickly.
We're only in our second year.
We just passed our second year.
It's larger than Honest Tea wasin its 10th year.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Oh, wow.
And we still have so much moregrowth to happen, because we
were still in a third of thestores that Honesty was in with.
It was probably not what youwere hoping for, but when you
kind of lost some of thatcontrol when you sold it, was
that like a relief or was that aburden for you?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Well.
So we sold in 2011, but Istayed on through 2019.
So I really was stillcontinuing to steward the brand
and make sure that it was beingbuilt the right way and it's not
a total loss.
So Honest Kids is still out andactually is doing extremely
well, so you know?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Okay, because that's what I was going to say, because
I just took my kids toMcDonald's and that's what they
get there.
Yeah, so, honest, kids isthriving, all right, I wasn't
going to correct you when yousaid they discontinued it.
Oh no, the tea is gone.
Yeah, no, maybe I'm crazy.
All right, honest.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Kids is doing great and Honest Kids is achieving
what we had hoped, which was toreally expand the availability
and adoption of organic drinks,right?
So, as you mentioned, going toMcDonald's and getting Honest
Kids is something that did nothappen 15 years ago.
That didn't exist there, andpeople don't go to McDonald's in
general to look for organicdrinks, and so just through that
(09:35):
, I've actually seen Honest Kidsreally become sort of I think
it's probably the most widelyadopted organic product out
there Wow, meaning that formillions of Americans, obviously
anyone who gets it in a HappyMeal it's the first organic
drink they'll be consuming.
So for us that's a reallyexciting step.
And the other part about HonestKids that's so neat is it's also
(09:56):
a much lower calorie drink.
It's a 35 calorie per carton.
It replaced an 80 calorie juicedrink that was there before,
and so if you just take that 45calorie differential sold, they
sell over 200 million units ayear at McDonald's.
That's removing over a billionempty calories from the American
diet every year.
That's removing over a billionempty calories from the American
diet every year.
So it's really neat to see thatkind of impact still go on.
(10:19):
As I mentioned, politics, younever know exactly what's going
to stick, but this is one thatseems to really be resonating
with the customer, and that's aresult of having a real impact.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, I mean, as a parent going to McDonald's, you
don't always think, okay, likeI'm going to make all these
healthy choices, let's go toMcDonald's.
But you do feel a little bitbetter when you know that it's
not going to be this just likesugar bomb that they get.
And when it comes to like themeat there and things at
McDonald's, they do buy highquality food.
(10:49):
So I think that that's onething that, as I look at kind of
what the honest kids it'sawesome to see that kind of
impact that you're able to have,and I know one of the things
that we wanted to talk about wasthe ability for people to get
involved in some of the thingsthat you're doing, like, for
example, I know Plant Burger isa brand that I've been a fan of
(11:09):
for a long time.
It took me a few months tolearn how to say the name,
because I always wanted to sayPlanet Burger.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That's okay.
We answer to that too.
It's fun, yeah, yeah, it's beenreally fun to build Plant
Burger.
We have 13 restaurants now andit is it's still early stage,
but what we've just done islaunched a start engine campaign
that lets our customers andfans and other followers invest
and build a business with us andobviously ideally be rewarded
(11:37):
when we reach the potential wethink this has.
It's a different world todaythan it was 20 years ago.
You want to start a business.
You definitely had to find highnet worth investors and bring
money and often sign over partsof the major parts of the
company.
But what's neat today withthese crowdfunding campaigns is
you can have people invest asmall amount of money, but they
(11:59):
still get to be part of theaction, they still get to feel a
sense of ownership and theystill have to really build the
next generation of futurelooking companies.
So the StartEngine campaign isexciting for us and we've seen a
really nice response.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, I was one of the people that was able to
participate in that.
Thank you.
That's right.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
It's awesome and I love that tobe able to put some money
behind brands that I believe in.
I love that there's,historically, some of these
restaurants that are veganfriendly restaurants.
They have not done super wellright, and they've struggled.
And I look at Plant Burger andit's like I get a little bit of
(12:36):
the backend view because I getto see what unfiltered feedback
is coming in from the customersand the great thing is that
people like me, who I meet everysingle day, I love it Like it's
a great product.
It's delicious.
Thank you, it's a reallycool-looking brand, like there's
a lot of really great thingsabout Plant Burger that I love.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
And it's being well-run.
I mean, that's one of thechallenges.
As you know, a lot ofrestaurants, not just
plant-based restaurants justdon't make it, and so to see
every restaurant of the 13, allof them are profitable, to see
the businesses that sellprofitable, is really rare when
you're only at sort of the scalewe are.
So that's exciting too.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And then- Especially in New York, where the leases
are like wild.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
The other piece is that it allows people to do it
in a lower risk way.
I remember when I was launchingHonesty and my oldest son was
just starting elementary schooland one of the parents said, hey
, I'd love to invest some of mykids' college money in Honesty.
And I'm thinking, oh my gosh.
First of all, like I'm going tobe seeing this guy for 13 years
his college, like if they losehis kids' college money, his
kids aren't going to college.
(13:41):
That felt like a bigresponsibility.
And what's nice about a startengine campaign is you can put
even a few hundred or a fewthousand dollars and it is.
You know, every dollar you putin means something and it
certainly means a lot to us.
But it's not like someone hasto bet their kid's college money
on this and what the postscripton that, with honesty, was that
actually got to speak at hisoldest son's high school
(14:03):
graduation and by that time hehad gotten his money.
I said I'm glad to say we'regoing to be able to pay for it
and your parents will be able topay for college.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Okay, so he did invest his kids' college funds?
He did invest.
Yeah, oh, he did Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It worked out, but it was still a little
nerve-wracking for me.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
That's funny.
I had a family member whoinvested in Ovation and it's one
of to pretend like it's gone,right, it's give it to me as a
gift and then maybe one dayyou'll get something back from
it.
Right?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
A lot of pressure, a lot of pressure, but it is
rewarding when you can deliveron it and I think, like I said,
my first impulse is to resist it, but then the next impulse is
to recognize this person wantsto be part of that opportunity
and it creates, I would say,some positive pressure.
We really do take a seriousobligation when we take people's
money and we need to certainlybe as responsible as we can with
(14:56):
it.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Now, with all these things going on, Seth, I know
that you've got some.
I'm sure you've got a lot ofexciting things happening and,
by the way, I totally forgot tomention the fact that you're
also involved in Tony'sChocolony.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yes, yep, a wonderful company involved in Tony's
Chocolony.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yes Yep, Wonderful company, which is a great
company.
Actually, I'm one of these guyswhere I eat candy every single
day.
What I do is I have a box ofcandy in my closet and then I'm
allowed to whatever I can fit inone handful.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I can bring to bed and like.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
That's the only way that I'm able to portion control
myself.
So how does chocolate fit intoall of this?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Well, again, the purpose-driven company.
So Tony's has this commitment toeradicating exploitation in the
cocoa supply chain and in thecase of cocoa, it's really a
concern around child labor, andthey have set up what I really
believe is the most rigorousinspection and enforcement
system to help their supplychain move away from child labor
(15:54):
.
Now the challenging part of thisis there is child labor in the
supply chain.
Tony's acknowledges it.
There's a lot less in there,there's far more.
The prevalence of child laborin their supply chain with their
cooperatives is about 3%, andwhen you go be outside of Tony's
it can be as high as 50%.
So it's really a challenge andyou know what?
(16:15):
I give them credit.
They said look, we're not goingto pretend it doesn't exist,
we're not going to try to takethe sales, we're going to engage
in the ground in the countrieswhere it does exist and really
try to address it.
And so that's hard work, butit's one of the reasons that
brand is so beloved.
It's also one of the reasonsthat brand is growing so quickly
.
So that's a fun role, and myjob as chair of the mission
(16:36):
guardians is to help make surethe company lives up to the
obligations it's taken on aroundthat labor.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
That's powerful, that they even have a whole mission
guardians, that their mission isso important to them that
they've created a group tooversee, to make sure that
they're adhering to theirmission.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, because and it's not that their board
doesn't care about that, but theboard ultimately is accountable
to the shareholders and themission guardians are
accountable only to the mission.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And so that is a.
It's a different, a new role.
That's one I've really enjoyedand I got to last year, went to
Cote d'Ivoire, to Iv.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
That is amazing.
That's super cool.
What other cool things aregoing on?
What other things should weknow about?
With your menu, I feel likethis is like your life, is like
the Cheesecake Factory menu oflike all these cool things going
on.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I think we see it at Beyond Meat as well, I think you
know.
One thing I would say I wouldchallenge and encourage all
restaurant operators to thinkabout is how to make your
offerings available to everybody.
And so as a vegan now part of avegan family, I can say that
(17:50):
it's always both surprising anddisappointing how many
restaurants just don't eventhink about the need to appeal
to a wide audience.
And I'm not talking about justto please vegans, because even
with plant burger, we always saythis isn't a restaurant just
for vegan.
That's too small a businessmodel.
But you always want to be asinclusive as you can.
So how do you make sure as manypeople as possible can come?
(18:11):
And one of the themes I know youalways focus on, zach, is how
do you create that delight withthe customer?
How do you create excitement?
And for me it's to show thatwe're thinking about you and to
provide these different options.
And just as an example, lastnight my wife and I went to a
wonderful pizza restaurant.
Everything there could be youhad a vegan choice.
And the alternative to that iswhen you go to a restaurant and
(18:33):
there's no vegan options, andwhat do you have that's vegan.
Well, go to a restaurant andthere's no vegan options and
what do you have that's vegan?
Well, we have pasta.
That's not very exciting,that's not very creative, and so
just taking that extra stepespecially I'm in California
this week, where not that thereare more vegans out here, but
there are more people who areflexitarian, there's some people
who just want to have thoseplant-based options and just
(18:54):
challenging the restaurants tomake sure they can provide food
to everybody.
I hope and encourage therestaurants to make sure they
can provide food to everybody.
I hope and encourage therestaurants to think, evolving
that direction.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I love that and, by the way, that's why I wore this
shirt today, because I have yeah, I love that, I have shirts
that have a lot of cooked foodon them.
This one is my shirt that hasall the chickens are alive,
which is why I wore this shirttoday for you, Seth.
Thank you One of the things Iwant to know is you know so many
people in this industry.
Who is someone that deserves anovation?
(19:22):
Who's someone that we should befollowing?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Well, I would say a company like Beyond Meat, ethan
Brown CEO there is one who'sbeen working super hard, and
that whole sector got attackedby the meat industry.
And what I've been impressed bywith Ethan and the team is how
they've just stuck to theirmission.
They've continued to challengethemselves on seeing beyond meat
evolve the portfolio ofproducts.
(19:45):
So you now have, where therehad been attacks around some of
the oil, they switched over toavocado oil as a source of fat
in the burgers.
But they've also really stuckto their mission.
They haven't been, I'd say,intimidated or dissuaded from
doing what they're doing, andthat's hard when a public
company like that comes underthat kind of pressure.
So I'm whether it's of thematter this week is to help and
(20:07):
provide encouragement andsupport to that business.
And then, of course, I'm alsoout here selling tea, so I'm
never traveling without multipleagendas in mind.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Well, I love that.
I mean, this has been such acool conversation and I'm really
excited about it.
Where do people go to find andfollow you?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, on LinkedIn is where I'm most active and it's
just Seth Goldman there.
I obviously Just Ice Tea has avery busy Instagram and TikTok
activity, but I don't have myown sort of separate personality
, it's just on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Okay, awesome, we'll make sure to put this in the
notes, but the startenginecomforward slash offering forward
slash plant burger, p-l-n-thyphen burger, or you just
Google start engine plant burgerand this goes, I believe, until
time's running out on this one.
So I know there's an end datein mind.
I believe it's in end of Q1 orin March or something like that.
(20:59):
Right, that sounds right, yeah,okay.
So go check that out, go be apart of the vision and the
mission and join Seth and turnin a chicken safe again, right?
So for making healthy coolagain.
Seth, today's ovation goes toyou.
Appreciate you coming on, givean Ovation.
So fun to hang out with you.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Thank you, zach, great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Thanks for joining us today.
If you liked this episode,leave us a review on Apple
Podcasts or your favorite placeto listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
two-question, sms-basedactionable guest feedback
platform built for multi-unitrestaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
(21:43):
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
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