Ben Weiss is an American entrepreneur who founded the beverage companies Bai Brands and Crook & Marker. He is the author of Basementality: How This Entrepreneur Drove His Fight Against Big Sugar and Rose from the Basement to a $1.7 Billion Brand, and is the host of Billion Dollar Idea on Fox Business Network.
Weiss was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised on Staten Island. He graduated from Boston University with a finance degree in 1992 and then pursued an interest in entrepreneurship that he developed as a child. [1]
In 1994, Weiss started his first business, a venture with Godiva Chocolatier to sell coffee in movie theaters, and later created the Chocolixir frozen chocolate beverage for Godiva's retail stores. [2] His other early ventures included a coffee distribution business and a café in Queens, New York. [3]
In 2009, Weiss founded the antioxidant beverage brand Bai in the basement of his Princeton, New Jersey, townhouse. [4] Weiss built Bai into one of the fastest-growing brands in the beverage industry as a lower-calorie alternative to soda without artificial sweeteners. [5] In 2016, Dr Pepper Snapple Group announced a cash purchase of Bai for $1.7 billion. [6] Weiss departed Bai in 2017 after the acquisition. [7]
In 2019, Weiss founded Crook & Marker, an organic alcohol beverage line that competes with hard seltzers to challenge established alcohol brands. [8]
In 2020, Weiss released his book Basementality, which covers his entrepreneurial career. The book includes a foreword by singer Zac Brown and endorsements from entertainer Justin Timberlake, journalist Katie Couric and former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley. Following the publication of Basementality, Weiss frequently speaks on entrepreneurship and innovation at colleges and universities. [9] [10] [11]
In 2022, Weiss's show, Billion Dollar Idea, debuted on Fox Business Network as part of its new primetime lineup. The show features entrepreneurs competing in a variety of challenges to win an investment from Weiss. [12]
Weiss lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife, Danna, who co-founded Bai, [13] and his children, Jack and Shayna.
7 Up or Seven Up is an American brand of lemon-lime–flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The brand and formula are owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, although the beverage is internationally distributed by PepsiCo.
RC Cola is a cola-flavored carbonated beverage owned in the U.S. by U.S. coffee and beverage company Keurig Dr Pepper, and owned outside the U.S. by RC Global Beverages, Inc.
Yoo-hoo is an American brand of chocolate-flavored beverage that was created by Natale Olivieri in Garfield, New Jersey, in 1928 and is currently manufactured by Keurig Dr Pepper. As of 2019, the drink is primarily made from water, high-fructose corn syrup and whey.
Orangina is a lightly carbonated beverage made from carbonated water, 12% citrus juice, as well as 2% orange pulp. Orangina is sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup and in some markets with artificial sweetener. Natural flavors are also added.
Stewart's Fountain Classics is an American brand of premium soft drinks. Stewart's are nostalgic "old fashioned" fountain sodas, having originated at the Stewart's Restaurants, a chain of root beer stands started in 1924 by Frank Stewart in Mansfield, Ohio. In 1990, the bottling rights to Stewart's were acquired by the Cable Car Beverage Corporation. Cream Soda and Ginger Beer flavors were introduced in 1992. Other flavors have been added since then. In November 1997 Cable Car Beverage Corporation was purchased by Triarc. Cadbury Schweppes PLC acquired the Stewart's brands in 2000 along with Snapple and Mistic Brands for $1.45 billion.
Dublin Dr Pepper is the popular name for a style of Dr Pepper soft drink made by the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company in Dublin, Texas. Dublin Dr Pepper followed the original recipe, using cane sugar as the sweetener as opposed to newer high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The Dublin plant formula's use of sugar made it popular among soda fans. According to the corporate headquarters at Dr Pepper Snapple Group, this resulted in clashes with other bottlers and the parent company of Dr Pepper. On 12 January 2012, it was announced that the drink will no longer be produced, after the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company settled the trademark dispute instigated by Dr Pepper Snapple Group. In 2014, the surviving Dublin Bottling Company was the subject of a documentary "Bottled Up: The Battle Over Dublin Dr Pepper" which followed the bottling company as it dealt with the response to the lawsuit and building a new brand without Dr Pepper.
Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. was a soft-drink manufacturing company based in Plano, Texas. It was created by the merger of Dr Pepper, Inc. and The 7 Up Company on May 19, 1986. The merger was a result of the independent bailouts of both companies and the subsequent Federal Trade Commission blockage of a Dr Pepper merger with Coca-Cola. The DPSU merger resulted in the breakup of international branding rights held by the two independent companies.
Snapple is a brand of tea and juice drinks which is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, based in Plano, Texas, United States. The original producer of Snapple, a company that was known as Unadulterated Food Products, was founded in 1972. The brand achieved some fame due to various pop-culture references including television shows.
Nantucket Nectars is an American beverage company created by Tom First and Tom Scott, which began as a small business selling a variety of items to yachts in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Eventually they began selling juice blends that were originally inspired by a peach nectar Tom First had while on a visit to Spain. Today the brand is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper and offers drinks in several different flavors.
Polar Beverages is a soft drink company based in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is a manufacturer and distributor of sparkling fruit beverages, seltzer, ginger ale, drink mixers, and spring water to customers in the United States. It is the largest independent soft-drink bottler in the United States.
Keurig is a beverage brewing system for home and commercial use. The American company Keurig Dr Pepper manufactures the machines. The main Keurig products are K-Cup pods, which are single-serve coffee containers; other beverage pods; and the proprietary machines that use these pods to make beverages.
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1981–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts and Frisco, Texas. Formed in July 2018, with the merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Keurig Dr Pepper offers over 125 hot and cold beverages. The company's Canadian business unit subsidiary operates as Keurig Dr Pepper Canada.
John Joseph Bello is an American entrepreneur best known for creating and building the SoBe brand of New Age beverages.
Sunkist is a brand of primarily orange-flavored soft drinks that launched in 1979. Sunkist primarily competes with The Coca-Cola Company's Fanta brand and Keurig Dr Pepper's Orange Crush brand.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group was an American multinational soft drink company based in Plano, Texas. Since July 2018, it is a business unit of the publicly-traded conglomerate Keurig Dr Pepper.
Leonard Marsh was an American businessman who co-founded the Snapple Beverage Corporation in 1972. Marsh co-founded Snapple, which was originally known as Unadulterated Food Products, with his brother-in-law, Hyman Golden, and childhood friend, Arnold Greenberg.
JAB Holding Company is a German conglomerate, headquartered in Luxembourg, that includes investments in companies operating in the areas of consumer goods, coffee, luxury fashion, animal health, and fast food, among others.
Bai Brands is a beverage company founded in 2009 in Princeton, New Jersey, by entrepreneur Ben Weiss. Weiss started Bai after he learned about the coffeefruit – the fruit that surrounds the outside of the coffee bean — and decided to use it to create a new brand of beverages. The company offers a line of low-calorie soft drinks sweetened with erythritol and rebaudioside A, ascorbic acid, and extract from coffea fruit harvested in Indonesia; its flavors typically are identified by the name of an exotic locale along with the natural fruit flavor used. Its flagship product is Bai Antioxidant Infusions. In 2015, it launched a brand of bottled water called Bai Antiwater.
Rohan Oza is an American businessman, investor, and marketing expert behind several large brands. Rohan has been a recurring guest on the television show Shark Tank.
Robert J. (Bob) Gamgort is an American businessman who is the Chairman and CEO of Keurig Dr Pepper, the seventh largest food and beverage company in the United States. Gamgort became President and CEO in July 2018, upon the completion of the merger between Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and added the responsibility of Chairman in January 2019.