Poppi founders launch Jetty to challenge Gatorade

The founders of Poppi are launching Jetty, a hydration drink aimed at Gatorade, betting that the boom in weight-loss drugs has created a new class of customers who need electrolytes, CNBC reported.

Allison and Stephen Ellsworth, who built Poppi into a prebiotic soda brand and sold it to PepsiCo, are self-funding Jetty with $2.5 million. The drink is designed for people on GLP-1 drugs who report dehydration, muscle cramps, and electrolyte loss as side effects.

The move puts the Ellsworths back in competition with PepsiCo, which owns Gatorade and bought Poppi in a deal that has underperformed. Allison Ellsworth lost 60 pounds on a GLP-1 drug and said she struggled to stay hydrated, which gave her the idea for the brand.

The GLP-1 opening

The GLP-1 connection is the thesis. Roughly 6 million Americans are taking drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, and the number is growing. Patients report nausea, vomiting, and dehydration as common side effects. Doctors recommend increased fluid and electrolyte intake, but most sports drinks are loaded with sugar, which GLP-1 patients are often trying to avoid.

Jetty is formulated with electrolytes and minimal sugar, positioned as a hydration drink for people who are losing weight and need to replace what they lose. The positioning is narrow, but the audience is growing fast. If GLP-1 adoption continues at its current pace, the addressable market for a dedicated hydration product could expand with it.

The sports drink category grew 20% last year to $2.6 billion in U.S. sales, according to Circana data. Gatorade controls about 60% of the market. BodyArmor, owned by Coca-Cola, is second. The category is dominated by two companies with deep distribution and marketing budgets, and a new entrant faces long odds.

The Poppi precedent

The Ellsworths have done this before. They launched Poppi in 2020 as a prebiotic soda, positioning it against mainstream soda brands with a gut-health angle. The brand grew fast on social media, particularly TikTok, where Allison Ellsworth built a following by documenting the startup journey.

PepsiCo bought Poppi for a reported $1.8 billion in 2025, but the integration has been rocky. Poppi’s sales have fallen short of the targets PepsiCo set at the time of the acquisition, with revenue tracking around $12 million against projections of $300 million, according to industry reports. The gap has raised questions about whether PepsiCo overpaid or mismanaged the brand.

The Poppi experience informs the Jetty launch. The Ellsworths are self-funding rather than taking outside money, and they are not selling through traditional retail immediately. The lesson from Poppi is that a social media following can build a brand, but scaling through a corporate parent can dilute the identity that made the brand work.

The Gatorade defense

Gatorade is not a passive incumbent. PepsiCo has extended the brand into zero-sugar variants, fitness-oriented formulations, and new flavors. The company spent an estimated $100 million on Gatorade marketing last year, and its distribution reaches every convenience store and grocery in the country.

A challenger brand needs a narrow entry point, and Jetty’s GLP-1 positioning is narrow enough to avoid a head-to-head fight. Gatorade is built for athletes; Jetty is built for people on weight-loss drugs. The audiences overlap, but the use cases are different. A patient who is nauseous from a GLP-1 injection is not reaching for a sugary sports drink.

The risk is that Gatorade notices the opening and launches its own GLP-1-targeted product. PepsiCo has the formulation expertise, the distribution, and the marketing power to copy Jetty and bury it. The Ellsworths’ defense is speed and authenticity: build the brand with the GLP-1 community before Gatorade recognizes the opportunity.

What I think

The GLP-1 angle is smart. Six million Americans are on these drugs, the population is growing, and the side effects are real. A hydration drink formulated for people who are losing weight and feeling sick is a narrow but defensible position. Gatorade is not going to rebrand itself for GLP-1 patients, and that leaves room for a specialist.

The $2.5 million in self-funding is both a strength and a limit. The Ellsworths retain control and can build the brand on their terms, but $2.5 million does not buy national distribution. Jetty will start online and in select stores, and the path to scale runs through social media and direct-to-consumer. That worked for Poppi, but the hydration category is more crowded than prebiotic soda was in 2020.

The Poppi track record is the reason to pay attention. The Ellsworths built a brand from nothing, sold it for $1.8 billion, and watched the acquirer fumble the integration. They know what works and what does not, and they are launching Jetty with the lessons from that experience. The food and beverage industry is full of founders who succeeded once and failed the second time, but the Ellsworths have a specific thesis and a specific audience.

The threat is PepsiCo. If Gatorade launches a GLP-1 variant, Jetty is finished. The question is whether the Ellsworths can build enough brand loyalty in the GLP-1 community that a Gatorade copycat feels inauthentic. Authenticity is the only moat a $2.5 million brand has against a $100 million marketing budget, and it is a thin moat. The distribution problem is the other barrier. Gatorade is in every convenience store, grocery, and gas station in America. Jetty will start online and in a handful of specialty retailers. A hydration drink is an impulse purchase for many consumers, and impulse purchases happen in stores, not on websites. The Ellsworths need to get Jetty onto shelves where thirsty people buy drinks, and that requires a distributor network that costs money and time to build. The GLP-1 community may buy online, but the broader hydration market does not.