Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio right now. I am supremely honored to be sitting down with Jesslyn Rollins, the CEO of Biolyte. Jesslyn, 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 dunno what the weather's like in Atlanta, but it's uh, it's freezing in Boston. It's foggy in Atlanta. Foggy. Yeah. Foggy is better than freezing though. Yeah, I would take foggy. Yeah. It's kind cold in here, in the studio though. I'm glad you're wearing a, a, a fleece or what?
What? It's like velure. What is that? It's, I think it's velvet. Okay. I'm, I'm, oh, I called it velour. Whoops. I don't, I don't even know what velour is, to be honest with you. But this is, yeah, it's my little fancy velvet by a light sweatshirt and I'm always cold so. It's a good go-to. Are you always on brand?
You also got some Biolyte earrings. I do look at the bottle. Each one, so yep. I have two pairs of every single flavor of Biolyte. I can wear whatever I want as long as I wear the earrings. Okay. The earrings are great for closeup conversations. Yep. The logo that's right here Yep. Is good for if you wanna spot me from a mile away.
It'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 and 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. Oh, yep. I'm the CEO of Bio Lights.
Let me tell you more about my brand and my voice actually changes too. I'm the CEO of Bio Lights. Yes, exactly. You, you've always got to, uh, you've always gotta affect a British accent when you have a position like yours. Yes. Yeah, that's good life advice. Uh, you were here last on stage at BevNET Live 2022.
Mm-hmm. About three years ago. And, uh, a very well received talk. I was really impressed with the fact that this is a company on the rise. In the midst of competition, unlike any other category. I, I guess outside of energy drinks, like what's more competitive than hydration and sports drinks, really I, 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. Mm-hmm. And then we were. Predominantly in the Southeast. So we were in Kroger, we were in Publix, we were in QuickTrip racetrack, but really just focused on that southeastern region and then.
Now fast forward to where we are today. This year we're gonna 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. Yes. 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. Yes, 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've liked. And so that's something that we definitely wanna tackle in 26 of how we can better rollout on the shelf in a timely manner in those chains. You'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 Biolyte and how you decided to make that career pivot from standup comedian.
Oh yeah. Right to DCEO. 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. I mean, it's a good, 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?
Yeah. And if standup comedian comes up, of course you, someone's gonna 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 school agreed with me and decided I would be a very good fit for customer service. Okay, so that's what I was doing back in 2016. Obviously living at home and my dad. Approached me and was like, Hey Lyn, I have something that I wanna 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 gonna be a premium rehydration drink that literally solved all issues when it came to dehydration and he. Had the product, it was gonna 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, it wasn't so much a dead end comedy career. It was a dead end. Customer service in comedy career. Yes. Which somehow is like another peg lower than that. It, it was, it's a few pegs lower.
Yeah. I would say about a couple hundred. Yeah. He was also probably like, you gotta, you gotta get your own place at some point. Maybe a thousand percent. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. 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.
Mm-hmm. Into, they're almost their thirties. I'm like, you gotta, you gotta 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. But anyway, I'm, that's huge tangent there. You started just selling outta the back of your car?
Yes. This is also something that uh, yeah. You know, doesn't necessarily happen all the time in the beverage industry. Yeah. But it's not on, 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 or like It is? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, where were you selling the product? How were you getting people to be, become aware of the product? So, when dad told me about Biolyte, I. Wanted to go to low hanging fruit, and so I'm a fifth generation Atlantan. I went to my school, love it from K through 12, and so I thought very easy, low barrier to entry was to go to Lovet 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 De Alro, 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. He said that he had given. Bio light 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 of high school that had made the playoff in the GHSA playoff bracket, all across Georgia, all across Florida and Alabama. And that was the. The start of getting bio 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 now, how football players, high school footballer, yes. Ball players use this product versus say, an everyday fitness enthusiast, someone who just runs every morning, um, is a little different. But I imagine that you want 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 Biolyte. What we were all my whole family was concerned about was that this would just be the muscle cramp drink. Mm-hmm. 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. So 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, and you know, see how people responded to it. So I skipped a step. Mm-hmm. 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.
Okay. 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 and. They said yes. They put Biolyte into 300 Kroger's in Georgia, South Carolina, and a little bit in Tennessee. And that was really bio light'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? Mm-hmm. Biolyte was placed in over 300. Coolers all across their all natural division. And we were in there with different juices, kombucha. 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 it like it is known to be very salty, especially in those early years. So 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've done better for your, or you did better for yourself being there than you would've been, oh, just like sitting on a dusty shelf, you know, next to Seven Up, or Gatorade or what have you.
I don't think we would've grown. Hmm. 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 Biolyte chocolate chip cookies were an accident. Yes. Oh, I think I heard that once. Yes. Yeah. So if you're interested I, I am real quick. Sure. There was a woman with the last name Tollhouse, up in Boston. How about that? Look 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. I, but I'm always like running to my gate. Yes. So that's probably why. But it's subconsciously you knew about it. Yes. 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. But what she did was she accidentally created the most popular cookie on the planet. Yeah, a chocolate chip cookie. Now, how do you scale that happy accident? Yeah.
How do you take what you've learned from that happy accident to create a bigger concept or create a bigger brand? Yes. You know, what were you able to take? Yeah. 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. And 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 Biolyte? They were like, no, that's like a Gatorade wannabe. I don't, I'm not interested. But if I said, Hey, do you wanna 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 ivy 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 used those customers as scene partners to literally tweak my pitch every single time, and 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 and then six 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 Yes has actually motivates the customer to wanna 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 and I know that you're not gonna 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 gonna test out a few different strategies to try and help us grow in the Midwest and grow in. You know, 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? Both 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 gonna be as passionate? Are they gonna know about the product? What is the quality that's gonna go down?
So I'm gonna AB test both of those. I mean, you said it and I think it's so true. It's that old cliche, the catchphrase liquid to lips. Yes. And it, it's such an important part of building awareness and getting people interested in a brand, but you've gotta have a point of difference. You've gotta be able to, yeah.
Stand out. And I think Ivy, in a bottle, medical grade, hydration, these things worked to separate Biolyte from Yes. The other brands that were out there. But it's really interesting because. As you have tweaked your pitch, your pitch for the brand, your communication for the brand is, is tweaking. Now, even in real time, we were talking about this before we hopped in the mics where if you really want to get to the next level yes, and go say five x revenue right now, you need to not drop that language, but it needs to evolve.
Why do you feel like that's that, 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 Biolyte on a day-to-day basis, when we first got started, the only products that were on the shelf were Gatorade and Powerade and 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.
Biolyte 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 on an ath like in an athletic endeavor.
It just makes a lot of sense why so many people have run in to physical issues. When that's what you're working with from a sports drink perspective, what Biolyte 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, hardworking ingredients.
They're gonna 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. And so, as Poppy says that they are the soda for the next generation, we believe that we have the sports drink for the next generation.
Sometimes you see brands enter an industry, whether it's food or beverage. Mm-hmm. 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. Mm-hmm. 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 wanna 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. I mean, you just, 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 your bio. Then you say, well, we're a medical grade hydration beverage. We're IV in a bottle. I think a buyer's much more interested in saying, okay, well they are actually different. Yeah. 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. 'cause you have that established base a thousand percent. And I think that that's what we're on a journey of. It's not that the foundation is wrong at all, it's just tweaking it, evolving it to. 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. When you're talking to general consumers, they understand sports drinks, but when you talk to people in the industry, it's all rapid rehydration.
'cause now you don't just have Gatorade, you have gator light. You don't just have body armor. You have body armor, flash iv. Biolyte 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 are 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, and 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, yeah. It's tough when you, even if you say, okay, well we have more potassium. Yes. You know, that way more potassium than say, a competing brand.
If you think about, you know, just a medium sized banana. You know, you do that advertisement where you actually show the banana and how much the banana is actually in their product, potassium and and so on and so forth. I feel like that's a strong proposition. That's, that's a strong message to sell, but at the same time, it's gonna be hard wand for consumers to at least, I think, so it might be hard for some consumers to buy into that, 'cause they can be like, well, that's all well and good, but I can get a Gatorade anywhere.
I can't necessarily get everywhere, so I disagree with that. Okay. I would disagree with that because I talk to a ton of consumers, not only today, but you know, every, every single week. And there's a lot of people that our opportunity is because people don't trust sports drinks. Mm-hmm. Gatorade, 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 gonna be.
It's going to build trust back in that. Entire space. 'cause right now you do have a lot of distrust going on. I guess I misspoke when I was talking about consumers. 'cause before you even get to consumers, you have to get to the retail buyer. Yeah. And so if you go to a, a mass retailer, you've gotta convince that person that they're going to see more incremental value.
Yes. Bringing Biolyte into their stores than they would a body armor, a Gatorade or what have you. Yes. And. 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. I 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 and convincing them that the consumer's gonna 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. So historically the way that we have positioned the product is this is a medical strength premium rapid rehydration drink.
Mm-hmm. 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 are 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. And I mean, you can look at our, 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. Mm-hmm. 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're looking for trust, violet's gonna be their best option. I'm throwing some tough questions your way, Jesslyn, and I'm doing it because I think you're going to respond in a way that's gonna convince me and I'm convinced, you know, and I think that's the most important thing that a founder and an entrepreneur can do is, 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 gotta get people to believe in your vision. 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 chip are down?
The challenges are, you know, never ending. It's a great question and there have been a lot of times where. You jump over a speed bump to meet a brick wall, climb over the brick wall to then find a pit. It's like every single problem looks bigger and looks different every single time. And what I don't want to do is sell something that, another product that you can get on the shelf today that another product offers.
Biolyte what has really been my North Star has been reading our customer testimonials of this product has literally helped me. Battle through cancer or this product has helped me stay in my garden from sun up until sundown without getting a muscle cramp. This product was alongside me as I was going from, you know, Atlanta all the way out to California on a biking trip with my friends.
It's the customer testimonials that have really provided that North Star for me, when things look really. Bleak. Mm-hmm. But there's also a point. So there was an amazing podcast that I listened to, taste Radio. I know it wa Yes, that one. And then you know, a second choice was, it's called Game Changers. And this woman, I think, I believe her name is Mel, she was interviewing this lady that specializes in resilience and she said that.
When, 'cause a lot of times, especially in this industry, it's just like, bang your head against the wall and, and then you'll break through. And what she was saying was, was that that is a myth. Typically when you really need to change what you are doing is when one, the little things become big. So it's like your reactions to stuff are just overblown and you need to chill, but like don't know how.
Mm-hmm. The second thing was when your tactics of, for example, me saying go into customer reviews. If I don't get that same sense of like motivation or drive after the 400th time that I've gone to the customer reviews, you might need to change something. And then the third piece was when you lose your mojo.
When you're in a situation where. You've tried something and you've tried different things, or you've done different things and you're still banging your head against the wall and you just don't have the same passion or enthusiasm that you had in the beginning. She was like, that is when you need to look at yourself in the mirror and you need to say.
We have to do something drastically different. And for us, where we are as a company, and it's been amazing that we grew to 20 million without outside investment, no beverage experience whatsoever. But all of us at Viol, my mom, my dad, myself, our team, we are ready to go from 20 to 50 to a hundred. 'cause we think that we have an amazing liquid, an amazing brand, and.
That's what we are assessing right now is what is gonna get us to that next level. What is gonna make us Biolyte that product that says we are the rehydration drink for the next generation. Like that is us. And what we are doing is great. It's been incremental, you know, adding a million here, adding 2 million there, but to go from 20 to 50.
I want to do something differently. Yeah. And I think that at this point, it's not going back to the well of what is worked in the past. It's let's do something different. Let's supercharge what we've got, what is working. Let's leave out what's not, and then let's take this thing to the moon. You have a theater background, you have a, a great background in business.
Now under your belt, I can see a, a potential future in politics for you, Jesslyn, right now. Oh, I don't know what that means. Bad Good. No, that's a good thing. Okay. Yeah. 'cause you have like a good presence. You, you, you're charismatic, you're obviously intelligent and you have actual experience in the real world as opposed to some politicians that have no experience in the real world.
Well, okay. Justly 2020. Eight. Yeah. Give, give it, give it another, you know, two, two and a half, three years. And we'll work on that tagline. Okay. I like it. I like it. In the meantime, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me. Like I said to you earlier, this has been a long time coming and I, I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to sit down.
Congrats on everything you've built at this point. Thank you. And, uh, let's do this again when you actually do five X the business, and I think you, I think you're gonna get there. I really do. I do too. I'm super pumped. Yeah. Well, thank you so much again. Absolutely. Thank you.
