The Good Food CFO podcast · The Good Food CFO

Poppi's $1.95B Exit: Who Really Won and What the Media Got Wrong

·46 min·3 clips

A Forbes report said the Series A and Series B returns were 144x and 78x, but the math does not work.

1. The Good Food CFO Podcast examines PepsiCo’s acquisition of Poppy and the numbers around the $1.95 billion deal. 2. Sarah Delavan hosts with producer Chelsea Steer, and both matter because they frame the episode as a fact-checking case study. 3. The episode asks whether Poppy’s sale was really a “new North Star” for founders and investors. 4. Sarah and Chelsea use several news articles to compare the acquisition narrative with the underlying financial details. 5. They begin with Poppy’s origin as Mother Beverage, founded by Allison and Steven Ellsworth in Austin, Texas. 6. The founders appeared on Shark Tank in 2018 and received $400,000 from Rohan Oza for 25% of the company. 7. Sarah says that Shark Tank structure feels “predatory” because of the equity given away for cash. 8. The founders used the investment for an eight-month rebrand and later relaunched as Poppy in 2020. 9. Sarah and Chelsea describe the new identity as brighter, more youthful, and better aligned with a mainstream customer. 10. They note that brand strategy included customer targeting, retail placement, and how the product should be presented on shelf. 11. In 2020, an Angel Group invested $105,000 at a reported $22 million valuation. 12. In 2021, Cavu Consumer Partners led a $13.5 million Series A round. 13. In 2022, Poppy raised another $25 million in a Series B round, bringing total investment to $39 million. 14. The hosts say the funding was used to buy inventory, add staff, and expand distribution nationwide. 15. They discuss reported store velocities, including over 1,000 units per store per week in Whole Foods and a three-month Target order selling out in days. 16. Sarah explains direct store distribution, or DSD, as selling directly to retailers instead of through distributors like UNFI. 17. They say Poppy wanted to work with about 200 Tier 1 DSD networks and was closing multiple contracts per day. 18. Chelsea cites reported 2023 revenue of $153.5 million and mentions a reported 65% gross profit margin, while noting profitability claims from 2024 could not be verified. 19. The episode sounds like a skeptical business debrief with a conversational, evidence-heavy style. 20. Listeners interested in CPG exits and founder economics will get the most from it, while people wanting light food news may skip it.

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