16 Sep 2025

Vanessa Dew (Health-Ade Kombucha): From Farmers' Markets to a $500M Empire, Life After an Exit and Fundraising 101

From hand-bottling kombucha in an apartment kitchen to building a $500 million brand sold in tens of thousands of stores across the country, Vanessa Dew didn’t just build a company— she built a movement. As the co-founder of Health-Ade Kombucha, Vanessa turned a niche wellness drink into a household name, all while keeping true to the company’s artisanal roots. When Health-Ade was acquired in 2021, she had to redefine what success means in her second act as an advisor and investor. In this conversation, Vanessa opens up about the company’s scrappy beginnings, the hardest decisions she had to make while building her business, what it really feels like to exit, and how she’s now paying it forward by backing the next generation of founders. Follow Sammi on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter Follow Vanessa Here’s what Sammi and Vanessa cover today: 00:00 Vanessa Dew’s Social Currency 00:34 The Businesses Vanessa Almost Built 01:53 Kombucha Beginnings: Health-Ade’s First Batches 02:52 The Scrappy Startup Phase 04:33 From Farmers’ Markets to Grocery Shelves 09:52 Raising the First Round of Capital 13:22 The Rollercoaster of Funding Rounds 17:50 Co-Founders: Dividing Roles and Responsibilities 21:08 Scaling Without Losing Quality 23:44 Navigating Relationships Between Investors and Partners 25:58 Taking Health-Ade Nationwide 26:43 The Emotional Reality of Acquisition 28:21 Life After Exit and Redefining Success 35:49 Investing in Women Founders 38:48 Building Systems for Work-Life Balance 41:24 Where CPG Acquisitions Are Headed + Vanessa’s Advice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Episoder(129)

Saul Cohen (Sammi’s Husband) on Marriage to a Creator, AI Agents for Wall Street and Raising $12.5 Million

He’s been the most requested guest in Sammi’s DMs… and he also happens to be her husband. Today, Sammi sits down with Saul Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Clifton AI and the third Cohen to ever appear o...

27 Okt 49min

Mary Holland Nader (Mary & Pip) on Fintech Fundraising, Reality TV and Shame-Free Money

Mary Holland Nader spent five years managing money for ultra-high-net-worth clients at Deutsche Bank. Then she quit to film a reality show with her three sisters… and pitched a fintech company on came...

20 Okt 1h 4min

Alpha School: Two-Hour Learning, the $150K Founders School and the Future of AI Education

What if kids could finish a full day of academics in just two hours? That’s the promise behind Alpha School, the AI-powered private school claiming its students learn 2.6 times faster than their peers...

13 Okt 20min

Natalie Holloway (Bala) on Bootstrapping, Shark Tank and Dupe Culture

Bala started with $5,000, a sketch and a yoga class that wasn't hard enough. Today, the brand behind the bangles on every workout influencer's wrists is growing 50% year over year with just 12 full-ti...

6 Okt 58min

Peloton: First Profit, the Spotify Deal and Why the Stock Still Fell

For the first time in its history as a public company, Peloton turned a profit. After years of billion-dollar losses, the fitness brand posted $63 million in net income this fiscal year. Just three ye...

29 Sep 15min

Evan Spiegel (Snap) on AR Glasses, Getting Copied by Big Tech and the Social Media Age-Gating Debate

Nearly a billion people open Snapchat every month, and almost half a billion use it every single day. Fifteen years after Evan Spiegel and his co-founders launched the app, formerly known as Peekaboo,...

22 Sep 52min

Jim McKelvey (Square) on Beating Amazon, The Innovation Stack and Fixing FDA Drug Trials

How does a scrappy startup beat Amazon when Amazon copies your product, undercuts your price and slaps its own name on it? According to Square co-founder Jim McKelvey, you don't. Except, once in a whi...

15 Sep 1h 7min

Van Leeuwen vs. Rebel: The $24 Million Ice Cream Copycat Lawsuit

A federal judge just ordered an ice cream company to hand over nearly $24 million because their pint looked a little too much like someone else's. Today, Sammi breaks down the case of Van Leeuwen ver...

9 Sep 14min