Maya Research: The Business of Culture I 2025 I Download Now
Inside the Culture Behind Your Favorite Gut-Friendly Soda
APRIL I 2025 I DEEP DIVE INSIDER PROFILES
.png)
Olipop's culture operates on a simple but powerful philosophy: scientific rigor meets radical transparency in an environment where personal authenticity drives professional excellence. It's a workplace where failure is celebrated as learning, hierarchy flattens during decision-making, and emotional honesty is considered as valuable as technical skill. The result is a team that moves with the agility of a startup while maintaining the emotional maturity rarely seen even in established corporations.
​
The morning ritual at Olipop's Oakland headquarters begins with what they call a "fizz meeting." In a sunlit corner of their open office, team members gather in a circle, each holding their preferred flavor of the prebiotic soda they've helped create. Co-founders David Lester and Ben Goodwin join the circle without fanfare, indistinguishable from the rest of the team except for the subtle deference others show them when they speak. "We raise a can, share something we're grateful for, and then dive into whatever's happening that day," explains Lester, taking a sip of Vintage Cola, his current favorite. "It started organically when we were just seven people, and we've kept it going even as we've grown to over 50."
​
This distinctive approach powers Olipop, the gut-health focused beverage company that's disrupting the soda industry with flavors like Strawberry Vanilla and Orange Squeeze. Behind the playful branding and scientific formulations lies a workplace philosophy that team members describe as "radically authentic."
​
A Culture Born from Rejection
​
"This culture exists because Ben and I both had terrible experiences elsewhere," Lester shares. "We wanted to create the workplace we wished we'd had." Before Olipop, Goodwin and Lester worked together on another beverage startup, encountering what they describe as toxic investor relationships and growth expectations that compromised their values. When they launched Olipop in 2018, they made a pact to prioritize their team's wellbeing alongside business metrics.
​
"We wrote our cultural values before we formulated our first drink," Goodwin says. A framed, slightly wrinkled piece of paper with handwritten notes now hangs in their main conference room. The list includes phrases like "radical honesty," "scientific curiosity," and "joy as a metric."
​
No Meetings Wednesday
​
Perhaps the most telling example of Olipop's approach to work is their "No Meetings Wednesday" policy. Every Wednesday, the entire company goes into deep work mode. Slack notifications are turned off, the office becomes library-quiet, and team members focus entirely on creative or analytical tasks that require uninterrupted attention. "It saved my sanity," says Melanie Chen, Olipop's lead food scientist. "Wednesday is when I do my best formulation work. I know I won't be interrupted, so I can really get into flow state." The policy originated after a company-wide survey revealed that constant context-switching was burning people out. Rather than offering platitudes about work-life balance, the founders implemented a structural solution. "We track innovation output, and we found that about 60% of our breakthrough ideas come from Wednesday work," notes Lester. "That's powerful data to support what intuitively felt right."
The "Taste Everything" Rule
​
At Olipop, hierarchy flattens completely during product development. Every team member, regardless of role, participates in blind taste tests for new flavors. "Our office manager vetoed a flavor that our entire product team loved," laughs Goodwin. "And she was absolutely right – it tested poorly with consumers. That taught us to truly value every perspective." This commitment extends beyond product. When the company was considering a major partnership last year, they created an anonymous feedback portal where any team member could share concerns about the potential deal.
"The feedback was raw and honest," admits Sara Johnson, Head of Partnerships. "Several people raised red flags about the partner's sustainability practices, which we hadn't fully investigated. We ultimately walked away from what would have been our biggest deal to date because it didn't align with our values."​ Johnson pauses, then adds: "The remarkable thing is that the leadership team genuinely thanked everyone for the pushback. There was no resentment."
​
The Failure Festival
​
Every quarter, Olipop hosts what they've dubbed a "Failure Festival." Team members present their biggest mistakes and what they learned, while others respond with supportive snaps and thoughtful questions. During one such session, Max Rivera, a marketing manager, detailed an influencer campaign that dramatically underperformed. Rather than defensiveness, his presentation brims with analytical clarity and even humor. "I totally missed that our audience doesn't follow workout influencers. They follow gut health experts," he explained, showing slides of engagement metrics. "Classic case of projecting my own interests onto our customers."
​
What's remarkable isn't just Rivera's candor, but how the room responds – with genuine curiosity rather than judgment. After each presentation, team members offer insights rather than advice, asking questions that deepen everyone's understanding of what went wrong. "The first time I presented at Failure Festival, I was terrified," admits Claire Wong, Olipop's Customer Experience Lead. "Now it's oddly my favorite workday of the quarter. There's something freeing about working somewhere that expects you to fail sometimes and just wants you to learn from it."
​
Salary Transparency
​
Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of Olipop's culture is their internal salary transparency. Every role has clearly defined salary bands that are accessible to all employees, and the criteria for advancement are equally visible. "Money secrecy creates unnecessary politics," says Lester. "We decided early on that transparency reduces anxiety and builds trust." The policy extends to the founders themselves, whose compensation is known to the entire team. This transparency has created what employees describe as a remarkable sense of fairness. "I know exactly what I need to accomplish to reach the next level," says Diego Ramirez, a supply chain analyst who joined the company eight months ago. "At my previous job, advancement felt mysterious and political. Here, it's refreshingly straightforward."
The Real Test: Growth Under Pressure
​
Olipop's culture faced its greatest challenge in 2022, when the company experienced explosive growth, doubling revenue and expanding from 25 to 40 employees in just six months. "That's when most companies see their culture dilute," notes Goodwin. "We were determined not to let that happen." Their solution was characteristic: they slowed hiring intentionally, even turning down additional funding that would have accelerated growth but potentially compromised culture. "We passed on bringing in a huge strategic investor because they wanted us to hire faster than we felt was healthy," Lester reveals. "That was a multi-million dollar decision that prioritized culture over speed." During this period, they implemented what they call "culture interviews," where potential hires meet with team members specifically to assess value alignment rather than technical skills. "I bombed my first interview with Olipop," laughs Tanya Morris, now their Head of Retail Strategy. "But in my culture interview, we clicked immediately. They hired me despite my initial nervousness because they sensed I'd thrive in their environment. They were right."
The Power of Being Yourself
​
Throughout Olipop, one theme emerges consistently: authenticity. Team members bring their full selves to work, sharing personal challenges alongside professional updates. During a recent team meeting, one employee announced they're starting gender transition and was met with genuine support. Another shared they're struggling with anxiety and needed to adjust their workload temporarily. Both conversations happened with remarkable matter-of-factness. "We don't have work selves and home selves here," explains Wong. "That division requires emotional energy that could be better spent on creative work or actual rest."
​
This authenticity extends to how they interact with retail partners and customers. When supply chain issues delayed a product launch last year, the team sent handwritten apology notes to disappointed customers along with early access to the next release. "We just told the truth – that we'd messed up our production forecasting," says Goodwin. "The response was incredible. People appreciated the honesty so much that our subscription numbers actually increased during what should have been a crisis."
​
The Bottom Line Impact
​
While culture stories often feel disconnected from business outcomes, Olipop's approach shows measurable results. Their employee retention rate stands at 94%, dramatically above industry averages. Their productivity per employee outpaces competitors by nearly 40%. "Happy people do better work," shrugs Lester, pointing to their quarterly metrics dashboard where employee satisfaction scores sit alongside revenue figures with equal prominence. "That shouldn't be revolutionary, but somehow it still is."
​
The team's fizz meetings offer a daily glimpse into what makes Olipop's culture work. The team member leading a recent session, an engineer named Alex, asked everyone to share something they're excited about for the weekend. Answers ranged from hiking trips to baking projects to simply catching up on sleep. What's striking is how genuinely interested everyone seems in each other's responses – this isn't performative bonding but actual human connection. When it was his turn, Goodwin mentioned he was looking forward to trying a competitor's new product. "We always have to stay curious," he said with a grin, raising his can of Cherry Vanilla Olipop. "That's how we stay ahead." The team cheers, cans fizzing as they're opened, the sound of a culture that's working not despite its humanity, but because of it.
.png)
Leading insights from the most influential companies and company cultures of our time
Join over 500,000 monthly readers and subscribe to receive the latest global insights & news for free.