Eighteen months ago, Allison Ellsworth had a huge payday when her prebiotic soda brand, Poppi, was acquired by PepsiCo for $1.95 billion. Now she’s launched her next venture.
After weeks of teasing followers on social media, Ellsworth on Nov. 9 unveiled Jetty, a line of sports and performance drinks and powders, at Target, Amazon, Whole Foods, and Sprouts Market.
With five flavors of ready-to-mix electrolyte powders and bottles, Jetty is trying to carve out space in the multibillion-dollar sports and performance drinks category by not catering to athletes. Formulated without artificial colors, dyes, or sweeteners, it contains only 100 mg of sodium, compared to roughly 300-500 found in leading brands. Ellsworth is aiming to position it as a product for everyday wellness.
“When I say wellness, it’s not athletes. It’s like, hot girl, mom walk, and I just did a quick little Pilates this morning. That type of wellness is really important,” Ellsworth tells Fast Company. “It’s not for a marathon, not for a gym. It’s just yummy hydration. You can just have hydration for existing and have fun while doing it.”
[Photo: Jetty]
Taking on giants—again
Like she did with Poppi, Ellsworth is launching a new brand in a category already dominated by big names.
Other brands have established themselves as leaders of the industry. Gatorade remains the top brand with over $11 billion in annual sales, along with Propel, according to a PepsiCo report . Powder mix Liquid IV is another athlete-targeted product that has grown quickly, with almost $1 billion in U.S. retail sales in 2025, according to data from Circana . But Ellsworth says hydration needed a rebrand.
“We didn’t create this because [I realized] ‘Oh, there’s this white space in the market,’” she says. “I was like, I needed this in my life.”
But when she went to Expo West in March, she found that there was real demand for hydration products not geared toward athletes.
“Big hydration…is trying to make moves and take dyes out and update ingrdients,” Ellsworth says. “But it doesn’t change the fact that the branding is still for a sports drink.”
That framing, she says could be another multibillion-dollar opportunity. “I took on soda, the biggest category before. Why can’t I do that with hydration? It doesn’t scare me.”
[Photo: Jetty]
No, really—what is jetty?
Going up against established brands also means competing with large marketing operations. And Liquid IV recently hired former PepsiCo CMO Jenny Danzi to spearhead its cultural impact as it has shown up at music festivals like Lollapalooza and Governors Ball.
Ellsworth says Jetty is focused on gaining recognition among younger consumers—and to do that she’s borrowing from a playbook she built while growing Poppi. The rollout has been focused on leveraging the relatability of micro-influencers, rather than relying on celebrity star power.
“I think what a lot of people get really caught up on with working with talent, especially in the early stage, is you really do want to work with creators and influencers and not celebrities,” Ellsworth says. She noted that in the early Poppi days, Jennifer Lopez shared photos
Ahead of launch, Jetty used Ellsworth’s substantial social media following and relied on creators to help cultivate an air of mystery about what the brand is. Before launching, the brand posted hints on its Instagram page, keeping consumers on their toes about what the new product could be.
The page features a “j-card,” offering VIP perks like first access to new product drops and insider-only information and colorful jelly bites with “jetty” on them. It also posted a social video with branded lipgloss, face mist and a gua sha. It all hinted at wellness, but kept the ultimate product a mystery until launch.
It’s a serious strategy for a serious brand builder, for Ellsworth “it’s fun to be at it again and building.”
