Poppi Founders Return With Jetty, a Low-Sugar Hydration Play

Two years after selling Poppi to PepsiCo for $1.95 billion, founders Allison and Stephen Ellsworth are launching their second brand: Jetty, a hydration drink aimed squarely at the $40 billion electrolyte drinks sector.

Jetty enters a category still dominated by legacy players Gatorade and Powerade. The Ellsworths are positioning their newcomer for everyday consumers rather than elite athletes, with a nutritional profile built for mainstream shelves: 6 grams of sugar, 45 calories per serving, and no artificial colors or sweeteners.

How did Jetty start?

The origin story mirrors Poppi's kitchen-table beginnings. Allison Ellsworth, 39, is an active mother of three boys who struggled to stay hydrated. Her routine relied on electrolyte powders she ripped open and mixed into water, spilling powder across the kitchen counter. Stephen Ellsworth, her husband, responded by mixing his own hydrating beverages for her at home.

One day she looked at him and said: "Oh my god, we're doing this again, aren't we?"

They were. The couple had already traveled this road once. Poppi, the probiotic soda they started in their kitchen, became one of the defining better-for-you beverage successes of the past decade and sold to PepsiCo last year for $1.95 billion — a sum that placed the husband-and-wife team among the most closely watched founders in the drinks industry.

What does Jetty change?

The product's specification sheet reads as a direct challenge to established hydration brands. At 6 grams of sugar and 45 calories, Jetty sits well below the formulation of traditional sports drinks, and its clean-label positioning — no artificial colors, no artificial sweeteners — targets the same ingredient-conscious consumer who drove Poppi's rise.

The competitive target is clear. Gatorade and Powerade continue to control the bulk of the $40 billion electrolyte drinks market, a figure that dwarfs the entire category Poppi helped popularize. The Ellsworths are betting that hydration, not soda alternatives, is the next functional-beverage frontier.

Can lightning strike twice?

The track record gives the launch credibility few challengers can match. Poppi proved the Ellsworths can build a better-for-you brand from a home kitchen into a multibillion-dollar acquisition. Jetty now tests whether that playbook transfers from prebiotic soda to electrolytes, where incumbents defend far deeper distribution and marketing budgets.

Jetty is making its public debut now, with the founders applying lessons from a $1.95 billion exit to a category four times larger than the one they just left. If Poppi's arc repeats, the legacy hydration brands face their most credentialed challenger in years.