No Investors? No Problem. How Biolyte Bootstrapped Its Way To $22M.

0:10Hello, friends. I'm Ray Lateef, and you're tuned in to Taste Radio, the leading podcast for entrepreneurs, makers, and innovators in the food and beverage industry. She went from selling hydration drinks out of the trunk of her car to building a$20 million brand without investors, industry experience, or playing by the rules. In this episode, Jessalyn Rollins, the CEO of BioLite, reveals how grassroots hustle, relentless sampling and a medical grade IV in a bottle helped her break into one of the most competitive categories in beverages and why the brand is now ready to make its boldest move yet.

0:59Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to be sitting down with Jessalyn Rollins, the CEO of BioLite. Jessalyn, it's great to see you. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for coming out to BevNet Live LA 2025 here in sunny Marina Del Rey. We're both coming from the East Coast. I don't know what the weather is like in Atlanta, but it's freezing in Boston. It's foggy in Atlanta. Foggy. Foggy is better than freezing, though. Yeah, I would take foggy. It's kind of cold in here in the studio, though. I'm glad you're wearing a fleece or what?

1:30It's like velour. What is that? I think it's velvet. Okay. Oh, I called it velour. Whoops. I don't even know what velour is, to be honest with you. But this is, yeah, it's my little fancy velvet Biolite sweatshirt. And I'm always cold. So it's a good go-to. Are you always on brand? You also got some Biolite earrings. I do. Look at the bottle, each one. So, yep. I have two pairs of every single flavor of Biolite. I can wear whatever I want as long as I wear the earrings. Okay. The earrings are great for close-up conversations. Yep. The logo that's right here is good for if you want to spot me from a mile away.

2:05It's also good when you do some store checks so that when you're going to see people and how they're shopping for the brand or other brands, you're like, oh, you don't want that. You want this. And they're like, hey, wait. Oh, you're involved with the company, aren't you? Yes. I'm the CEO of BioLite. Let me tell you more about my brand. My voice actually changes too. I'm the CEO of BioLite. Yes, exactly. You've always got to affect a British accent when you have a position like yours. That's good life advice. You were here last on stage at DevNet Live 2022, about three years ago, and a very well-received talk.

2:44I was really impressed with the fact that this is a company on the rise in the midst of competition, unlike any other category. I guess outside of energy drinks, like what's more competitive than hydration and sports drinks, really? Nothing? Nothing. Yeah. So just for context, where was the brand then in 2022? Where is it today just in terms of retail distribution otherwise? So great question. We were sitting around 16, 17 million in revenue. And then we were predominantly in the Southeast. So we were in Kroger. We were in Publix. We were in Quick Trip, Racetrack, but really just focused on that Southeastern region.

3:33And then now fast forward to where we are today. This year, we're going to be approaching close to 22 million. And we've expanded very recently into the Midwest. So that Kroger partnership is expanded. We're in Mariano's up there. We are really excited about also expanding into HEB and a couple of other really exciting partnerships that I'll share later that'll come on board in 26. Yeah. Well, as part of the announcement about your rebrand, which happened this year, congratulations, we'll talk about that. Thank you. Your powder packs are nationwide. Yes. In two of the biggest, I say, I think the biggest drug retail stores in this country.

4:18Yes. Yes. So that was really exciting. Very similar to how Publix came on board, we had an email, Walgreens slid into our email and said, hey, absolutely love your product. We love that it's differentiated with this much stronger medical strength foundation and the story. And so that was really exciting that we got into Walgreens that way. And then CVS, we went national with them as well. And that has proven to be quite a challenging partnership. the rollout has definitely, you know, in full transparency, it has taken a lot longer to roll out than anybody on our team would have liked. And so that's something that we definitely want to tackle in 26 of how we can better roll out on the shelf in a timely manner in those chains.

5:08You're not the only one who's had some of these problems. I mean, I feel like the beverage industry itself is certainly one of the most challenging to get into as a founder, because you have to learn so much so quickly. Yes. And even if you have a good team around you, you're still learning constantly years after you got into the business. Talk about the origins of BioLite and how you decided to make that career pivot from stand-up comedian. Oh, yeah, right. To beverage CEO. Yeah, that story, it's kind of like the fish that you caught a couple years ago. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

5:47I mean, it's a good part of your story. Like anytime you do a little bit of research on people, you're like, what were they doing before this? And if standup comedian comes up, of course, no one's going to ask you about it. So the story goes that I was working at the Laughing Skull Comedy Lounge in Atlanta selling tickets. I took one standup comedy class and within 20 minutes realized very quickly that I had no raw talent for that profession. And so the owner of the Laughing Skull agreed with me and decided I would be a very good fit for customer service. So that's what I was doing back in 2016, obviously living at home.

6:23And my dad approached me and was like, hey, Jessalyn, I have something that I want to share with you. And he tells me that for the past four years, he had worked to create an IV in a bottle. Pretty much what it was, was it was going to be a premium rehydration drink that literally solved all issues when it came to dehydration. And he had the product. It was going to be arriving the very next day, but he had no business plan and he had nothing other than the product itself. And he had nobody on the team. And so he thought that me and my dead end comedy career would be a great fit to start paying rent now that I was living at home.

7:12It wasn't so much a dead end comedy career. It was a dead end customer service in comedy career, which somehow is like another peg lower than that. It's a few pegs lower. Yeah. I would say about a couple hundred. Yeah. He was also probably like, you got to get your own place at some point. A thousand percent. Yes. I'm in favor of that. I think there's, you know, this was in 2016 you're talking about, right? Yep. Nowadays, I see kids living at home like well after college into their almost their 30s. I'm like, you got to understand what it's like to have to pay rent, you know, and pay for your own food and cable bill and phone bill and all this other stuff that you have to do when you're an adult.

7:51But anyway, that's huge tangent there. You started just selling out of the back of your car. Yes. This is also something that, you know, doesn't necessarily happen all the time in the beverage industry. It's not completely uncommon to hear things like that. Maybe sometimes people are selling out of a Winnebago, not necessarily out of a Toyota Highlander. Toyota Highlander. Named Turtle. Turtle. Is that an SUV? It is. Yeah. Yeah. Where were you selling the product? How were you getting people to become aware of the product? So when dad told me about BioLite, I wanted to go to low hanging fruit.

8:27and so I'm a fifth generation Atlantan. I went to my school, Lovett, from K through 12 and so I thought very easy, low barrier to entry was to go to Lovett and sample it with their head athletic trainer. And Lovett's the name of the high school? Lovett's the name of the high school and so I met with Sean DeFalverow, told him about the product, told him that it was an IV in a bottle that was gonna help with all things dehydration, muscle cramps, headaches, fatigue. And he was like, okay, thanks. And I left the product there on a Thursday. And he called me that Saturday after the football game that Friday night.

9:07He said that he had given BioLite to 10 of his players on the team that typically cramp, one before the game and one at halftime. And when he gave them that much, he said nine of them did not cramp at all. And so that sent me on this journey of going and visiting every single high school that had made the playoff in the GHSA playoff bracket all across Georgia, all across Florida and Alabama. And that was the start of getting BioLite into people's hands was just showing up at high schools, meeting with their athletic trainers, letting them sample the product, and then they would buy it. I love that because you're learning so much about how people use the product.

9:52Now, how football players, high school football players use this product versus say, an everyday fitness enthusiast, someone who just runs every morning is a little different. But I imagine that you wanted to get this brand in the hands of as many consumers as possible. What did you learn about how people use the product that you could apply to a broader communication strategy so my dad always had bigger dreams for biolite what we were all my whole family was concerned about was that this would just be the muscle cramp drink or the cancer drink or the sickness drink and we were very focused on kind of seeding it to as many different types of people as humanly possible.

10:43So in those early years, yes, I started with high school football teams, but we also did different run clubs. I sampled in over 200 Kroger stores all across Atlanta and South Carolina and Tennessee. Did you have distribution or did Kroger let you come in just to sample the product and, you know, see how people responded to it? So I skipped a step. So I was sampling and selling to high school football teams. Then the opportunity presented itself for me to meet with the head of the all natural division for Kroger. I met with them in January of 2017. So, I mean, a little bit over six months since we first got the product in my parents' garage.

11:29And they said yes. They put BioLite into 300 Kroger's in Georgia, South Carolina, and a little bit in Tennessee. And that was really BioLite's big break. Did they merchandise it with other hydration beverages? Or was it, did they have like a natural sort of store within a store kind of concept? So they had a natural store within a store. BioLite was placed in over 300 coolers all across their all natural division. And we were in there with different juices, kombuchas, but the greatest thing about it was that they were on the end of an aisle. Okay, perfect. And it was cold. And the product is very, like it is known to be very salty, especially in those early years.

12:19So when the product was cold, it honestly was a better customer experience. And so those two things, being on end caps, being cold, it was critical for us to start to get movement in those stores. Anytime you talk about being in that cold case, it's a win. Yes. If you're in an ambient shelf, it's harder for people to just drink your product right then and there. Totally. So yes, certainly grab and go really important. I think sometimes that natural store within a store concept kind of gets a bad rap because it's like, it doesn't turn products in that area don't turn as much, but it almost seems like you would have done better for years or you did better for yourself being there than you would have been just like sitting on a dusty shelf, you know, next to seven up or Gatorade or what have you.

13:10I don't think we would have grown. So that first year we did$157 ,000 in sales. That next year we did 1.3 million. Wow. We could not have done that if we were put in the planogram on the shelf. We got visibility. It was cold. It was, like I said, it was a better customer experience. And so that's one of those chocolate chip cookie moments, like a happy accident that happened for BioLite. Chocolate chip cookies were an accident? Yes. Oh, I think I heard that once. Yes. Yeah. So if you're interested. I am. Real quick. Sure. There was a woman with the last name Toll House up in Boston. How about that?

13:51Look at that. I should know these things. You know what? I did see this in the airport at Logan Airport. They have like a thing. This is where the chocolate chip cookie was. But I'm always like running to my gate. So that's probably why. But it's subconsciously you knew about it. So the story is, is that she was trying to make chocolate cookies for this hotel called the Toll House. And I think her and her husband ran it. And she was like, shoot, I don't have any of the ingredients that I typically use for my chocolate cookies. So she had these little itty bits of chocolate. And so she was like, well, maybe if it melts, it'll all swirl and turn into chocolate cookies.

14:26But what she did was she accidentally created the most popular cookie on the planet, a chocolate chip cookie. Now, how do you scale that happy accident? How do you take what you've learned from that happy accident to create a bigger concept or create a bigger brand? Yes. What were you able to take in terms of data, anecdotal data, analytical data, and apply it to your next pitch, your next big retailer? God, that's such a great question. So something that we did that was very critical was sampling in store. So I had just gotten this product and I was getting bits and pieces of information from the high school football teams, but there was nothing better than being in those stores and talking to customers one-on-one.

15:13And we shaped everything from the packaging to the liquid itself based off of that customer feedback. What I noticed in those stores was that, hey, if somebody's walking past and I say, hey, would you like to try BioLite? They were like, no, that's like a Gatorade wannabe. I don't I'm not interested. But if I said, hey, do you want to try an IV in a bottle? People were apt to be like, hey, I'm sorry, what did you say? So from a packaging perspective, we put the IV in a bottle right smack dab in the middle of the packaging. And the sales pitch, because I've got that theater background, that improv background, I use those customers as scene partners to literally tweak my pitch every single time.

16:06And it would get sharper and sharper until we had something that I could write down and feel comfortable giving to the rest of the growing team. But in those early years, that was really critical. And then that$1.3 million went to$3.4 million and then$6 million and all that kind of good stuff. Yeah, it's so important to speak in the same voice when you are doing those demos or hiring an outside demo team to make sure that they are speaking in the same voice that actually motivates the customer to want to learn more and hopefully buy the product for sure. And to that point, you know, scaling that because I'm the one that has the most passion for this brand.

16:47And I know that you're not going to replicate me in the store or if you are and they're part of our team because we have to be very, very thoughtful with where our funds go because we don't have any outside investment. You can have really good quality of samplings, but you cannot have quantity. And that's something that we're currently working through of how do you balance quality of samplings with quantity. And so I'm going to test out a few different strategies to try and help us grow in the Midwest and grow in Texas and Arizona through samplings when I can't be everywhere all at once. Did you hire outside firms to do your demos for you or did you maintain control of that in-house?

17:34Both. Tried hiring people to go into stores, But the issue with that was that there was a lot of communication that was dropped of the individual would show up with their little sampling table and all their products. But then the store manager was like, I don't have you booked for a sampling today. So there is another layer of something we're exploring is how do we do samples and samplings potentially with the sampling companies that already work with these retailers? But then you have the concern of are they going to be as passionate? Are they going to know about the product? What is the quality that's going to go down?

18:12So I'm going to A-B test both of those. Quick break. If this episode has you thinking about what's next in food and beverage, explore BevNet and Nosh Insider, our subscription platform with deeper insights from the BevNet team. Visit tasteradio.com slash insider to learn more. You said it, and I think it's so true. It's that old cliche, the catchphrase, liquid to lips. Yes. And it's such an important part of building awareness and getting people interested in a brand. But you've got to have a point of difference. You've got to be able to stand out. And I think IV in a bottle, medical grade hydration, these things worked to separate BioLite from the other brands that were out there.

18:58But it's really interesting because as you have tweaked your pitch, your pitch for the brand, your communication for the brand is tweaking now, even in real time. We were talking about this before we hopped on the mics, where if you really want to get to the next level and go, say, 5x revenue right now, you need to not drop that language, but it needs to evolve. Why do you feel like that it needs to change when it's gotten you this far? because of what we have recently learned in the data and because of people being more comfortable with using products like BioLite on a day-to-day basis. When we first got started, the only products that were on the shelf were Gatorade and Powerade.

19:47And like that was it. Now you have this enormous appetite for functional products that are going to help me feel better, perform better on a day-to-day basis. When you look at traditional sports drinks, I don't think any of us realized how underserved we all were as customers with what those products had to offer. One of my favorite things to tell people is that you have more sodium in a petite dill pickle than you do in a traditional sports drink. BioLite has as much potassium as a full medium-sized banana, where typically an average sports drink, you're looking at one eighth of a banana. So it's no wonder people have cramped, people have been sick to their stomach, gotten headaches, gotten fatigue, especially when they're sick or especially when they're performing in an athletic endeavor.

20:47It just makes a lot of sense why so many people have run into physical issues when that's what you're working with from a sports drink perspective. What BioLite brings to the table is literally what a sports drink should have always been, which is an extremely high concentration of electrolytes, close to seven times what you'd get from an average sports drink, a little bit of sugar to help with the absorption and to help with some of the symptoms of dehydration and then natural hard-working ingredients. They're going to help you feel and perform your best. And what has shocked me and what really has evolved over time is thinking that this was a niche product, but it becoming so much more because it makes people feel so much better in their day-to-day lives.

21:40And so as Poppy says that they are the soda for the next generation. We believe that we have the sports strength for the next generation. Sometimes you see brands enter an industry, whether it's food or beverage, and they say they're one thing. But a lot of times that one thing was so that they could figure out who they are and what their value is to the end consumer. Yes. Certainly you have to have some sense of what you're delivering, some kind of white space that you're tackling. But you also don't want to bite off more than you can chew. Yeah. I've seen a lot of brands get into sports drinks and they are just so overwhelmed and outmatched as they would be, right?

22:30I mean, the big brands have billion dollar budgets. They have distribution like you just couldn't believe. And it's really hard to compete against those. But if you're BioLite and you say, well, we're a medical grade hydration beverage or IV in a bottle. I think a buyer is much more interested in saying, OK, well, they are actually different. But now that you are established, I think it's that you have a great foundation for saying, you know what? We can tackle the bigger market. We can reach more consumers now because you have that established base. A thousand percent. And I think that that's what we're on a journey of.

22:59it's not that the foundation is wrong at all. It's just tweaking it, evolving it to make it bigger, to scale it. Very similar to the sampling conversation that we had at the beginning. Like how do you take it from what is working but scale it? And our consumer base is so much bigger than just sports or just sickness. Like it truly is rapid rehydration is what we're trying to tackle across multiple different fronts. But using the term sports drink is probably the easiest way to get someone to understand what you're doing. Yes and no. Okay. Because when you say sports drinks, it's got sports in the name where, and as you've seen in our category, there is a rapid rehydration movement happening in the sports drink category.

23:52When you're talking to general consumers, they understand sports drinks. But when you talk to people in the industry, it's all rapid rehydration. Because now you don't just have Gatorade, you have Gator Light. You don't just have Body Armor. You have Body Armor Flash IV. BioLite led the charge of these rapid rehydration drinks coming to the table. But what we need to do is really be firm, really be competitive and say, no, we're not only the first, we are the best rapid rehydration sports drink out there. And here's why. Can you tell that story without referencing competing brands? That's a great question.

24:33And I'll get back to you when I solve that because I would absolutely love to leave them out of the mix of that. Yeah, it's tough when you, even if you say, okay, well, we have more potassium. Yes. You know, way more potassium than, say, a competing brand. If you think about, you know, just a medium-sized banana and you do that advertisement where you actually show the banana and how much the banana is actually in their product, potassium, and so on and so forth. I feel like that's a strong proposition. That's a strong message to sell. but at the same time it's going to be a hard one for consumers to at least I think so it might be hard for some consumers to buy into that because they're gonna be like well that's all well and good but I can get a Gatorade anywhere by light I can't necessarily get everywhere so I disagree with that okay I would disagree with that because I talked to a ton of consumers not only today but you know every single week and there's a lot of people that our opportunity is because people don't trust sports drinks.

25:38Gatorade, Powerade, the legacy brands have not done a good job making the consumers trust that even though they have these billion, million dollar marketing budgets, what is actually in the liquid is not really serving them. And that's what my family found. Like when we were going to the sports drink aisle to try and get, you know, mom hydrated for treatment, they weren't serving my mom who needed more next level hydration. And that's what I would love to do is that when people do walk down the sports drink aisle, they know that the brand that they're selecting is going to be exactly what it says it's going to be.

26:22It's going to build trust back in that entire space. Because right now, you do have a lot of distrust going on. I guess I misspoke when I was talking about consumers, because before you even get to consumers, you have to get to the retail buyer. Yeah. And so if you go to a mass retailer, you've got to convince that person that they're going to see more incremental value. Yes. Bringing BioLite into their stores than they would a Body Armor, a Gatorade or what have you. And, you know, if I were a retail buyer, I'd say, well, I need a lot of convincing here because, you know, they have advertisements all over the place, you know, 24-7.

27:00I know that, you know, I can call them and I'll have product on my shelves all the time. It's just much broader awareness and broader distribution. So convincing that retail buyer is really, really important. Convincing them that the consumer is going to want a product like this now and even more so in the future. that seems to be the billion dollar question is how do I get to these retail buyers? How do you cultivate a relationship with retail buyers? How do you get them on your side? How do you get them believing in you and the brand, not just in the short term, but going, you know, months and years ahead?

27:35So historically, the way that we have positioned the product is this is a medical strength premium rapid rehydration drink. And right now we kind of think about it in different sections when it comes to the sports drink aisle is you've got your basic, which is your Gatorades. You've got your enhanced, which is your Gator lights. And then you have your premiums. And a lot of people, the way that we're pitching it is leading with that functionality and leading with the premium price point of saying, hey, I think that there are so many consumers out there that want to trade up for a better quality product.

28:19And I mean, you can look at our numbers in Publix and Kroger and especially in the Southeast where we've had a stronghold. We as a brand have been able to weather the storms that have come our way through competitors. And that shows that we have a brand that has massive sticking power. And so really it's using the data and positioning it as this is the premium option that you're generally missing on your shelf. You have a ton of basic, you've got a decent amount of enhanced, but you don't have that premium option. And people for quality for trust, if they are looking for quality, if they are looking for trust, BioLite's going to be their best option.

29:08I'm throwing some tough questions your way, Jessalyn. And I'm doing it because I think you're going to respond in a way that's going to convince me. And I'm convinced. You know, I think that's the most important thing that a founder and an entrepreneur can do is convince people as to their vision. Get them on your side. Yeah. And whether it's a retail buyer or an investor or the consumer, you've got to get people to believe in your vision. And there's a lot of doubt in this industry among founders and entrepreneurs and operators. How do you stay motivated? How do you stay? How do you keep that belief in yourself and the brand, even when sometimes the chips are down, the challenges are, you know, never ending?