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Hint Water's A Hit: Drink Brand Born In Kitchen Will Do $90M Sales In 2016

This article is more than 7 years old.

The most successful ventures often begin as solutions to an entrepreneur's own problem. Sara Blakely started Spanx when she couldn't find the right undergarment to wear with white pants. Jessica Alba co-founded The Honest Company after suffering an allergic reaction to baby detergent. (Both are now worth over $1 billion.)

Kara Goldin just wanted to lose some weight. The former AOL  exec noticed she couldn't shift an extra 45 lbs despite daily exercise. After exhausting all other possibilities, and visiting multiple doctors, she decided to ditch her beloved Diet Coke.

"I never really realized how much I was drinking," she said. "On a slow day, eight cans a day. On a good day, 12 cans a day."

Despite withdrawal symptoms, she persevered, losing 20 lbs in two weeks. But she soon found herself bored drinking gallons of water. She'd squeeze or slice some fruit into the pitcher to keep things interesting.

The idea for Hint Water as a brand rather than a hobby came on a 2004 trip to her local Whole Foods in San Francisco, when Goldin realized she couldn't buy a bottled version of the fruit-infused water she'd made in her kitchen, without sugar or sweeteners.

The early 2000s was the era of "enhanced" water brands like neon-colored Vitamin Water, which promised energy thanks to electrolytes but also contained almost as much sugar as a can of Coke.

"Thinking back, I didn't say to myself, 'I'm going to go start a company," Goldin said. "I said, 'I'm going to develop a product that I can buy and potentially other people that are having this need will want to buy too.'"

This year, the company is on track to do $90 million in revenues. Not only is it sold in Whole Foods, but it's on shelves in retail giants Target  and Walmart and in canteen fridges on the campuses of companies including Google and Facebook.

Goldin takes us behind the scenes of Hint Water's early days as a guest on this week's episode of Forbes’ newest podcast, Million$, hosted by yours truly. Every other Tuesday, I talk with women entrepreneurs about the good, the bad, and the ugly of founding and funding a business.

You'll hear how Goldin convinced well-known women investors to back her venture -- and how she created a new consumer category out of the back of her car.

Subscribe to Million$ on iTunes, and if you like what you hear, please feel free to rate and review. There’ll be new episodes online every other Tuesday. Check out episode one, an interview with Tyler Haney, founder and CEO of hot activewear brand Outdoor Voices, and episode two, a conversation with Jessica Beck, co-founder and COO of on-demand butler service Hello Alfred.

 Listen to this week's episode with Hint founder Kara Goldin here: 

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