The Finnish Long Drink tripled in size since 2022 while the broader RTD category hit a wall. Today Mark Anthony Brands acquired it for $325 million. The story of how Evan Burns and his co-founders built a brand worth buying in the hardest environment the category has ever faced is one every RTD founder should read carefully.

In 2014 Fairlife had $10 million in retail sales. By 2024 it had nearly $4 billion. Coca-Cola acquired it and then did something most large companies cannot do with a small brand: they left it alone long enough to find out what it actually was.

Poppi was turned down on Shark Tank, nearly ran out of money, and spent years building in a category nobody believed in. Then PepsiCo paid $1.95 billion for it. The story of how it got there is one of the most instructive brand building narratives in recent beverage history.