Kara Goldin

When former tech executive Kara Goldin decided to start a unsweetened flavored water company, Hint®, she had zero experience in the beverage industry or starting her own company – but that didn’t stop her. She asked questions, overcame her doubts, faced her fears and forged ahead to create the largest privately-held, non-alcoholic beverage company in the U.S. today. In addition to launching a new product and company, she created a new category and disrupted one of the largest most competitive industries around. How? She flew the plane as she was building it. Goldin inspires and humors audiences with her stories and authenticity while sharing lessons of what she learned along the way.

How did a former tech executive-turned-entrepreneur and now beverage Founder and CEO create one of the largest, private-held non-alcoholic beverage companies in the U.S. today? Kara Goldin created a new category in the beverage industry, unsweetened flavored water, after realizing that her challenges in her own health were solvable by shifting away from diet sweeteners. How can an industry be disrupted by someone with no industry experience? What lessons can we learn from mission and purpose driven entrepreneurs? Kara shares her journey to success from building a business from scratch and raising startup capital as a female entrepreneur to transforming rejection and challenges while turning those into opportunities and learning experiences. Goldin inspires with her obvious commitment to making a difference in the health of consumers. Her story of following her passion and making the leap to an entirely new industry is never boring. This talk will leave audiences energized and ready to move forward with excitement!

What would you do if you didn’t worry about failing? Kara Goldin knows that everyone has doubts and fears. She certainly did. And so do all successful people as well. Entrepreneurs. Managers. Humans. But the key to business and life is figuring out how NOT to allow doubts and fears to limit you from moving forward. You need to face those doubts and fears head on and learn from them. And learn a lot about yourself along the way. You don’t have to be a fearless risk taker to start a new company. And you can hike the Grand Canyon even if you are afraid of heights as long as you are willing to face your fear of heights head on. Goldin reveals how having zero experience in an industry is daunting and scary but learning what you are capable of makes it all worthwhile. She explains how being curious and vulnerable created better opportunities. And finally, how living undaunted is the key to building the life you love.

After having her third child, Goldin was overweight had adult acne, and was generally low energy. She realized that diet soda was the culprit, and decided to switch to water. She saw results quickly, but hated the taste of water, so she started slicing up fruit and putting it in water, which was just the hint of flavor she needed to make drinking water more enjoyable. Goldin knew that there were lots of consumers addicted to sugary drinks but plain water was too boring, and when she couldn’t find a product on the shelves like the one she created in her kitchen, she decided to produce it herself.

This is a hot topic now, especially with the rise of so many companies that are just out there pushing profit over consumer benefits. Several brands that consumers think are “healthy” are not doing the consumer any good with their products. She can speak to how she owns the hint® board, most of the company, no private equity, and more. She can dictate protocols like no cans, for example, because she does not want to give the consumer BPA even though companies often make ten times the profit doing that.

This the story of how Goldin went up against the $100 billion soda industry. She has innovated a product into a drink that consumers can enjoy without concern. Several major brands that have since gone bankrupt or closed their doors firmly believed they had no need to innovate to captivate consumers, whereas companies like hint® did the opposite and continue to thrive.

Goldin will share the unusual story of how she landed her very first job at TIME. She flew all over the country and had well over 60 offer letters by the end of the interview process.

How Goldin took a putdown from a major influence/powerful figure in the beverage industry and flipped it into a $500 million brand.