Allison Ellsworth Reveals the Founder Traits She Invests In (and the Red Flags She Won’t Ignore)

The Poppi co-founder is the first ‘Shark Tank’ contestant to return to the show as an investor.

BY ANNABEL BURBA, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT @ANNIEBURBA

Allison Ellsworth. Photo: Getty Images

Allison Ellsworth is having what can only be classified as a full-circle moment. About eight years ago, she and her husband Stephen Ellsworth went on Shark Tank to pitch their better-for-you soda brand Poppi, which was called Mother Beverages at the time. The co-founder—who happened to be nine months pregnant at the time—walked away with a $400,000 deal with consumer investor and branding expert Rohan Oza in exchange for 25 percent equity.

In 2021, Ellsworth posted a TikTok about her Shark Tank experience. It went viral, amassing more than 1 million views and leading to $100,000 in Amazon sales overnight. Poppi then hit its stride, experiencing explosive growth which eventually translated to a $1.95 billion sale to PepsiCo last spring.

Ellsworth tells Inc. that going back on Shark Tank was at the top of her list of things to do post-acquisition. So when the show’s executive producer Clay Newbill texted her, “Want to chat?” shortly after news of the sale broke, the entrepreneur felt like she manifested the opportunity. 

In advance of the release of her second guest appearance today (her first premiered in November), we spoke with Ellsworth about the experience of becoming the first former Shark Tank contestant to return to the show as an investor and her larger investment strategy. Our conversation has been edited for length, clarity, and grammar.

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What was it like to return to Shark Tank as an investor?

There aren’t a lot of things that make me very nervous in life anymore, but this experience was something that I was excited-nervous about.

You’re in the studio from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and you hear nine pitches, and maybe only seven to eight make the show. After the first one, I felt great. I got in the groove of things. I had my husband, who is the other founder of Poppi, backstage. You can text a little bit, like: “Hey, do you like this valuation?” So you’re actually doing business deals—you’re actually taking your money, and you’re investing in these people. I did one deal on the first episode for 11 percent of Freestyle Snacks for $300,000 but ended up not closing it after four or five months of due diligence.

Because I had stood where those people stood, I had so much respect, admiration and empathy for how stressful that moment is. I remember after I got a deal on Shark Tank, we went and took a nap. It’s like running a marathon, you almost brown-out. There were multiple times where I was looking at the founders, like, “you’re doing good!” I found myself being the mom coach. You don’t see that stuff on the show, obviously, but I have a lot of respect for them.

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