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Since its launch in 2018, Olipop has been a bit of a Cinderella story in the oft-unforgiving beverage game. The prebiotic, fiber-laden soda designed to be healthier than the category classics is currently thriving: It just closed a $50 million Series C and announced a $1.85 billion valuation. Last year, it surpassed $400 million in revenue. Its reps cite it as the No. 1 nonalcoholic brand in dollar and unit growth, outpacing legacy giants like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Red Bull. Its now sold in nearly 50,000 stores and is even outselling Coke at one major national retailer (though they wont disclose which one, per that retailers regulations). Which is all to say: Theres no way cofounder and CEO Ben Goodwin still formulates all of the brands cult-fave flavors in his laundry room himself, as he did back in the day. . . . Right? People would be shocked. Established flavor chemists, if they walked into my little laundry room lab, their heads would explode, he says with a laugh. I have my own kind of differentiated way that I approach formulation. And from there, it’s all about my nose and its about my senses and my vision for the formula. And it’s all I need. In lieu of Cinderella, Goodwin has been described as the Willy Wonka of soda. And, well, that tracks. [Photo: Olipop] Oli and Microbiology Goodwin grew up in Monterey, California, in a low-income family with food instability and food insecurity. As a result, he says he suffered from weight issues and anxietybut he realized at 14 that better health would yield a better life in the long run. So, he actively pursued just that through a variety of means, notably nutrition and adopting a vegetarian diet. Ben Goodwin [Photo: Olipop] It was a very powerful interpersonal awakening for me [that] also affected my emotional stability, my cognitive function, he says. It was like a paradigm shift for me as a person, and it’s also part of what then led me to have this really deep passion about how poor nutrition and poor health outcomes can undermine society’s well-being on all levels at scale. Goodwin went on to study environmental science in college, but didnt want to emerge saddled with debt. After reading about successful entrepreneurs, he dropped out of college in the early 2000s. He says he felt drawn to the beverage industry, and went to help out a friend who had launched Kombucha Botanica . And thats when he began to go down the rabbit hole of microbiomes. The connectivity occurred for me of, Oh, wow, this is probably what I activated as I went through my own nutritional journeyand so that really then became the center of my focus. After a few years at the company, he spent half a decade freelancing in product development, but eventually found himself pulled back to the beverage industry. He took what he had learned about fermentation at Kombucha Botanica and worked with a microbiologist to develop Obi Probiotic Soda, which was made from non-dairy kefir. He realized he could go the natural product route, or he could meet soda customers where they truly were in the mainstream and think biggersomething that would prove critical for Olipop down the line. [Soda] is arguably the most deleterious nonalcoholic drink in all of human history, he says. So, if I want to make the most impact, here’s where I can make the most impact. He met ex-Diageo innovation head David Lester as he was working on the product, and the two launched Obi together in 2013. The brand eventually folded a few years later due to what Goodwin dubbed partnership issues on the investor side, but the pair had witnessed something critical: potential. We learned that there was a real opportunity here around this healthy soda concept, he says. When Obi came to its conclusion in late 2016, my passion for the mission was not only not diminishedit was actually enhanced. [Photo: Olipop] A Sodastream and a Dream After Obi folded, Goodwin says he and Lester took $100,000 they had made from the brand and immediately went back into the soda game. For Goodwin, that meant formulating. He was focused on fiber, prebiotics, and nutritional diversityand, of course, flavor. From a makeshift lab in his California kitchen, he started working on the first three Olipop varieties: Cinnamon Cola, Strawberry Vanilla, and Ginger Lemon. The first was the most soda-like, but while cola traditionally contains cinnamon, people assumed it would be spicyso they changed the name to Vintage Cola, which Olipop drinkers know today. Ginger Lemon, meanwhile, was intended for health-focused kombucha consumers, and Strawberry Vanilla was an innovation test flavor inspired by one of Goodwins favorite candies as a kid. Goodwin still formulates flavors much the same way today, despite running a company worth billions of dollars. He is the chief formulator, and his lab is now in the laundry room of his Washington-state home by virtue of convenience. Theres a sink, and he can put a metal table in there. Its an otherwise deceptively simple rig consisting of a couple scales, a Vitamix, pipettes and measuring devices, and a Sodastram. [At our headquarters] we’ve got a much more sophisticated setup with an Alpha MOS mass spectrometer and all that kind of stuff. But when I’m in what I would call the artistic phase, I don’t want any of that stuff interfering with my process. He says he knew he had a knack for formulating back at Obi, and enters a flow state when hes working. He spends a lot of time up front thinking about the architecture of the flavor he wants to create: Whats the story he wants it to tell? Whats the mouth-feel? The acidity? The resolution as you drink it? Critically, he says he always tries to create something that has a nostalgic anchor, but is innovative and ownable at the same time. As the flavor progresses, he breaks out a yellow legal pad to jot down his formulas. He has cupboards filled with these notebooksin total, he has created more than 50 flavors over the past seven years, and has brought 22 of them to the market, including favorites like Crisp Apple, Tropical Punch, Cherry Cola, and Cream Soda. Olipop’s flavors have the essence of traditional soda drinks, but they don’t taste exactly like a Coca-Cola or a Dr. Pepper. Rather, they look to channel a similar vibe using sweeteners like stevia, cassava syrup, and fruit, alongside botanicals, plant fiber, and prebiotics (the stuff that feeds the good bacteria in your stomach). Something I love about formulating: It’s a proper blending of science and art. And I’m still growing as a formulator every time I formulate, he says. I take craftsmanship extremely seriously, and it’s like the formulas that I create have the least distance between me and the Olipop customer of anything I will ever do. It is my most direct and unfiltered communication tool. [Photo: Olipop] Olipops can design is perhaps the ultimate mirror to his formulation strategy. Its clean, thanks to the brand name set in the Ano typeface and the accompanying minimalist illustrations; its warm and nostalgic, owing to each flavor name set in the friendly Windsor; and ultimately it harkens back to a more innocent time when we didnt know traditional soda was terrible for us. (As for the healthiness of Olipop and its competitors, with fewer calories and added sugars than traditional soda, and no high-fructose corn syrup to speak of, they’re indeed a healthier choice than cracking a Coke. But the Cleveland Clinic and others have written that while they can be a good occasional supplement, it’s still best to get prebiotic fibers naturally from eating whole foods.) [Photo: Olipop] Olipop pops off When Goodwin and Lester were trying to get Olipop off the ground, they approached the distributor Dairy Delivery, which Goodwin says agreed to launch the brand if they could get 100 stores on board. Olipop managed to net 40 or 50 accounts, and Dairy Delivery got them into some small chains in Northern California. Goodwin says Olipop has always had robust organic traction, experiencing triple-digit growth every year since launching in 2018; 2020 was particularly critical, with 960% growth. Influencers and TikTok played a big role, and at a time when the world receded from groceries, Olipops in-store sales were strong, indicating people were picking it up as an essential item in their strategic grocery runs. The companys DTC sales (which today account for less than 5% of the business) were an added bonus on top of it all. That was actually my first clue that something really different was happening with this brand than what is even remotely typical, Goodwin says of Olipop’s COVID-era sales surge. Olipop has a lot of flavors compared to most bev brands. While Crisp Apple is the company’s top seller, Goodwin says none of the brand’s kaleidoscopic cans have ever really been a failure, so Olipop walks a careful line of skew effectiveness and the right cadence of novelty. It’s a great problem to have, but it does add to the complexity in terms of what choices we make, he says. It’s always a tension between supply chain going, Guys, you’ve got enough SKUs, you’re going to kill us, and sales saying, We want more SKUs, we want to go sell more product. Of course, the behemoth brands have been watching. What does he make of Coke joining the category last week with the launch of Simply Pop, with Pepsi also reportedly prepping its own response? I gotta tell you, there is kind of no bigger compliment, Goodwin says. Back in 2010, [I said], I think this is important. I wonder how this will do. And now in 2025 to have the biggest soda brands in all of human history decide that they agree, putting their money where their mouth is and launching products . . . it’s incredible.
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E-Commerce
Most chatbots want to appear human. But their efforts to sound just like us only widen their uncanny valley feeling. Many are Elon Musk-level awkward. And most are annoyingly verbose. Theres only one AI persona that offers a completely different user experience: Tolan. This AI-powered beingwhich you can teleport into your iPhonedoesnt pretend to be like us. Quite the opposite. Tolan embraces being very much unlike us. But in doing so, it feels more human and relatable than any other AIs Ive come across. Tolan is an alien. The whimsical, colorful creature is made of friendly curved shapes that are designed to reflect, converse, and grow with its user. These AI-driven entities engage in conversations on various topics, including sports, games, movies, and personal feelings, aiming to provide a sense of companionship and support. Each alien is uniquely shaped, with its own personality. It will listen to anything you tell it about your life, answering you with intent, focus, and creativity. It also keeps a memory of you through its entire existence, and develops its own personality with each interaction. Now, with its latest update released today, Tolan comes with its own planet. Its not just a place for this being to live, walk, and wait for you to return. Its actually a new method of expression and connection to the user, which expands the relationship beyond dialogue. The Tolan planet is a visual representation of your relationship with the being that inhabits it. As your connection with this alien deepens, its small, barren world flourishes into a lush, vibrant landscape.We wanted to create a world that made the experience of interacting with AI feel differentless like typing into a search box and more like an evolving relationship, says Quinten Farmer, cofounder and CEO of Portola, the company behind Tolan. The idea of the planet came from wanting to represent that in a way that felt organic, personal, and visually compelling.[Image: Portola]The Inspiration Behind the PlanetsThe idea of giving Tolan its own little world wasnt merely about aesthetics or adding a gamification element to the app. Like the Tolan itself, its an element deeply rooted in storytelling and emotional resonance. When I first saw the mock-ups, I immediately thought of The Little Prince, says Eliot Peper, the sci-fi novelist who was brought in by Farmer to develop Tolans lore. When Peper founded Portola with Ajay Mehta, he realized that if they wanted to build a humanistic bridge to get over the current AI uncanny valley, the company needed to hire a writer to create a culture behind the aliens. The small, floating planet felt whimsical and poetic in the way The Little Princes tiny worlds did, Peper tells me. [Image: Portola]That comparison wasnt accidental. The developers (including Farmer, Mehta, creative director Lucas Zanotto, and animation director Eran Hilleli) took the precious, deeply moving creations of the French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry as both a visual and spiritual reference. It has this magical simplicityone character on a tiny planet, a self-contained universe full of imagination. We wanted that feeling in Tolans world, Zanotto tells me over Zoom. [Image: Portola]The Design Philosophy: Warmth Over RealismPlanets arent a static environment. Each Tolan (and thus, each human user) gets a unique planet, with vegetation, terrain, and structures that evolve based on their interactions. These are procedural elements, meaning the computer system creates objects like plants and trees using some basic seeds that evolve and grow in different ways.Hilleli, also cofounder and partner of the game design and animation studio Iorama, says designing a world that scales visually and emotionally using procedural technology was a big challenge. The planet had to function as both a backdrop and as an interactive, evolving space. It needed to feel like a living environment that responds to user engagement. [Image: Portola]First, the planet needed to resonate with Tolans visual language, which is deliberately distinct from the hyper-detailed realism of most digital experiences. A big goal was to make the AI feel warm and inviting rather than eerie or overly human, says Farmer. We didnt want it to feel like you were talking to an avatar pretending to be a person. Thats where the alien design comes in. The planets follow the same principle, Zanotto tells me, by emphasizing minimalism and abstraction. A simplified character leaves mor room for users to project their own emotions onto it, he says, making interactions feel more personal and engaging.The team experimented with AI-generated objects but found that they often resulted in cluttered, meaningless landscapes. Handcrafted design, combined with procedural growth, created a more meaningful experience.[Image: Portola]Hilleli took cues from the Tolans shapesits hair, its small tentaclesand reflected those organic forms in the flora. Trees and bushes are designed to feel like they belong in Tolans world, rather than generic sci-fi landscapes. The colorful shapes that compose these objects, which are rendered in 3D but feel as though theyve been painted with watercolor, are gently rounded, and they move delicately, responding to the Tolan and the atmosphere of the planet. The aesthetic also draws from the spirit of the most iconic of the animation studios. Studio Ghibli was a big reference, says Hilleli. That blend of handcrafted charm and digital world-building made something procedural feel personal. The approach involved striking a balance between a world that felt magical and one that was technically feasible.[Image: Portola]More than a virtual petPlanets introduce a subtle form of gamification, but the team was careful to distinguish it from traditional game mechanics. Gamification can feel manipulative, like its using dopamine hits to keep you engaged, Farmer says. Instead, planets are a way to make your connection with Tolan feel tangible, so it needs to be grounding and calming, inviting contemplation and reflection, not triggering actions and anxiety.Peper framed it in narrative terms. In Tolans fictional culture, small planets serve as a way to represent relationships. The evolving landscape functions like a shared garden, symbolizing the depth and progression of a users connection with their Tolan.The planet evolves over roughly 30 days, mirroring a psychological model describing how relationships deepen over time. Early on, the planet is barren. As engagement grows, the landscape flourishes, providing a tangible representation of a users investment in the experience. This pacing was crucial, Hilleli says. If the changes felt too immediate, they would lack emotional weight. If they were too slow, they would feel unrewarding. The team fine-tuned the timeline to make progress feel satisfying but natural.[Image: Portola]A different approach to AIOther AI companions often drift into unsettling territory, but Tolan aims to chart a different course. We didnt want it to simulate a human relationship, says Farmer. That gets into weird, unhealthy dynamics really fast. Tolan is a reflection tool, a creative partner, not a surrogate friend or therapist. The team deliberately avoided making Tolans responses overly humanlike. We worked hard to balance personality with clarity, says Peper. It shouldnt feel like its mimicking human emotions. Instead, its more like an alien pen palcurious about you, interested in your world, but always distinct. The planet update is just the beginning, the team says. Theyre already considering expanding into new environments, each with distinct characteristics. Theyd also like to introduce the ability to visit other Tolans planets (which means connecting to other Tolans users).The core goal will remain the same through future expansions. Farmer and the rest of the Portola team seem convinced that this is a strong way to use artificial intelligence to its full humanistic potential at this point. In other words, using AI to enhance a human experience, not replace it. Tolan isnt about escaping into a fantasy, Farmer says. Its about helping people reflect on their own lives, using an AI that doesnt pretend to be something its not.With planets, that reflection now has a homea tiny, living world that grows as you and your friend do.
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E-Commerce
The new Netflix series Running Point stars Kate Hudson as president of a fictional pro basketball team, the Los Angeles Waves. And the Pepperdine Waves have a problem with it. Attorneys for Pepperdine University in Malibu have filed a lawsuit against the streaming service and Warner Bros. Entertainment arguing they have taken valuable intellectual property from the school and infringed on its trademark ahead of the show’s premiere today. Attorneys for the University claim the fictional team’s branding is too similar to its own, and that it uses the same blue and orange team colors and mascot. They argue this will create consumer confusion and falsely suggest a link between Running Point and the university. There’s an added layer to Pepperdine’s argument. The school, a Christian university, isn’t happy with details from the show they say don’t align with their values. Noting examples of substance use and profanity in the show’s trailer that go against the school’s code of conduct, attorneys argue they’re misrepresentations of Pepperdines marks in connection with topics wholly inconsistent with its values and will harm its reputation. From top: Scenes from Running Point; Pepperdine University branding [Photos: Kat Marcinowski/Netflix 2024 (top), Pepperdine University (bottom)] Litigating fiction vs. real life At the heart of the dispute is whether a work of fiction can use names from real life. Courts have historically resolved litigation between First Amendment freedoms and trademark infringement via the Rogers test, named after actress Ginger Rogers, who sued over a film called Ginger and Fred that depicted fictional performers seemingly inspired by Rogers and her on-screen partner Fred Astaire. A 1989 ruling in the case found that use of a celebrity’s name in the title of an expressive work is fine if it doesn’t inaccurately claim that a celebrity sponsors or endorses the work and isn’t explicitly misleading. Applied to the Pepperdine suit, the Rogers test might find the use of the Waves team name is fine for Netflix and Warner Bros. since the show doesn’t imply a connection to or endorsement from the university, and the storyline has nothing to do with an elite, private college in Malibu. I am no fan of these types of lawsuits because I dont think consumers will be confused in a way that damages Pepperdine, Kevin Greene, a law professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles who specializes in entertainment and intellectual property law, tells Fast Company. He says several years ago, a case like Pepperdine’s “probably wouldn’t go anywhere,” but a 2023 Supreme Court infringement case ruling potentially threw the limits of the Rogers test into question. In the case, Jack Daniel’s alleged a dog toy made in the shape of its whiskey bottle infringed on its trademark. The court ruled in favor of the liquor company. Blue waves in California? Netflix says it’s not so notable Attorneys for Netflix wrote in an opposition filing that the series “has nothing to do with universities or college sports, and never mentions or alludes to Pepperdine. They say the show was in fact written with Jeanie Buss, daughter of the late Lakers owner Jerry Buss, in mind. Pointing to other Southern California teams that also have wave mascots, including a hockey club, cricket club, and flag football club, the attorneys say “hundreds of wave-related marks exist.” The Waves team name, according to Netflix, is instead a nod to the Lakers. The Waves name evokes the LA area in which the fictional team plays, they wrote. In naming the ‘LA Waves,’ the creators did not believe it would cause confusion, as there is no major pro sports team with the name. As for the similar blue-and-orange color palettes for the real-life and fictional teams, attorneys for Netflix lean on color theory to defend the show’s choices. Waves are blue in real life, so the idea of a blue wave is common, they wrote, and since orange is at the other end of the color wheel, it complements and contrasts blue. A court will now weigh in on the Waves fate, and considering the unsettled nature of the Rogers test, whatever they decided could have a ripple effect.
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E-Commerce
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