In 2015, Allison Ellsworth was in her kitchen experimenting with different gut-healthy drink recipes, trying to make apple cider vinegar taste good. Little did she know that the concoctions she was mixing would eventually become a billion dollar business.
Today, the 38-year-old is the co-founder of prebiotic soda brand Poppi, which she started alongside her husband Stephen Ellsworth. Almost a decade after her kitchen experiments, in May 2025, Ellsworth sold the business to PepsiCo for $1.95 billion.
The deal includes $300 million in anticipated cash tax benefits for a net purchase price of $1.65 billion.
Ellsworth has always been a hustler.
“I just knew I never wanted to work for anyone ... I was good at, like, hacking systems and ... I always had this really great gift to be visionary [and] see through cracks,” Ellsworth told CNBC Make It.
