Maya Research: The Business of Culture I 2025 I Download Now
Olipop maintains startup culture while scaling to national distribution
2025 I DEEP DIVE INSIDER PROFILES
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Olipop has grown from a small team to a company with national distribution in major retailers while keeping a 94% retention rate. The gut-health company's co-founders David Lester and Ben Goodwin say the hardest part of scaling has been maintaining the workplace culture they built early on. We visited their offices to understand what's working, what's breaking, and how they're adapting as they grow.
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Lester and Goodwin view culture as something you build through systems and structural changes. They treat workplace issues the same way they treat product problems: identify what's broken, test solutions, measure results. "Culture comes from how work actually happens," Goodwin says. "We focus on changing the mechanics of how people collaborate and make decisions."
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Olipop started in 2018 after difficult experiences at a previous beverage startup. Before they formulated their first drink, they wrote down their cultural values: radical honesty, scientific curiosity, joy as a metric. "We wanted to create the workplace we wished we'd had," Lester says.
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The biggest test came in 2022 when the company experienced rapid growth. They slowed hiring intentionally and turned down additional funding. "We passed on a huge strategic investor because they wanted us to hire faster than we felt was healthy," Lester says. "That was a multi-million dollar decision."
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The founders admit some early practices don't scale. They used to involve everyone in every major decision. That stopped working as the team grew. "We had to create actual decision-making frameworks," Goodwin says. "Some people were frustrated by that change. They felt like we were becoming more corporate."
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Sara Johnson, Head of Partnerships, says the company walked away from their biggest potential deal last year after employees raised concerns about the partner's sustainability practices through an anonymous feedback portal. "Several people questioned things we hadn't fully investigated. The leadership team thanked everyone for the pushback." Johnson admits this approach slows down deals. "We've definitely lost opportunities because of how we operate. The question is whether we're okay with that."​
Olipop maintains salary transparency. Every role has defined salary bands that all employees can see, and the requirements for moving up are visible. The policy extends to the founders. Diego Ramirez, a supply chain analyst, says he knows exactly what he needs to accomplish to reach the next level. "At my previous job, advancement felt mysterious. Here it's straightforward."
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The company runs quarterly "Failure Festivals" where people present their biggest mistakes. Max Rivera, a marketing manager, once detailed an influencer campaign that underperformed badly. "I totally missed that our audience follows gut health experts," he explained to the room. "Classic case of projecting my own interests onto our customers." Claire Wong, Customer Experience Lead, says presenting her first failure was terrifying. "Now it's my favorite workday of the quarter. There's something freeing about working somewhere that expects you to fail sometimes."
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Goodwin acknowledges the approach has limits. "This works now. I don't know if it works when we're much bigger." They're testing new structures. Some departments have more autonomy than they used to. Product development still involves everyone in blind taste tests, but supply chain decisions happen with smaller teams. Hiring has become more complex. They added "culture interviews" where candidates meet team members to see if they'd fit how the company works. Tanya Morris, now Head of Retail Strategy, says she bombed her first interview but clicked during the culture conversation. "They hired me despite my initial nervousness."
The founders say they're okay with slower growth if it means keeping what works. When supply chain issues delayed a product launch last year, they sent handwritten apology notes to customers. "We just told the truth about messing up our production forecasting," Goodwin says. Subscription numbers increased during what should have been a crisis.
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Lester points to their dashboard where employee satisfaction scores appear next to revenue figures. "Happy people do better work. That shouldn't be revolutionary." He pauses. "The real question is what happens as we keep growing. We're figuring that out as we go."
The company plans to open a second office next year. That will test whether their culture can exist across locations. "We don't have the answers yet," Goodwin admits. "We're just committed to not becoming the kind of place we left to start this company."
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