Mark Rampolla's experience of founding, selling, and repurchasing ZICO Coconut Water, culminating in its acquisition by Coca-Cola and later repurchase.
Mark Rampolla's experience of founding, selling, and repurchasing ZICO Coconut Water, culminating in its acquisition by Coca-Cola and later repurchase. It also touches on his entrepreneurial journey and the personal growth that accompanied these business milestones, including the struggles and insights gained post-exit.
But I've realized it's the inner work that often leads to outer success in [music] the business. Where I feel like I want to dedicate my life is to help people achieve their personal freedom so they can bring their greatest gifts to the world. [music] All righty. Hello everyone and welcome to the dealmaker show. So today we have a a founder, you know, that is quite an amazing founder. I mean I'm actually, you know, a big fan and and also I was a customer, you know, of theirs. I mean I I bought, you know, their drink every day all day. You know, I remember especially after a night out, you know, it came in handy. Uh and I think that his story is super inspiring. I think we're all going to learn a lot. I'm really excited about this. Uh and again building, scaling, financing, exiting, also rebying again, you know, like the previous company. I mean, brace yourself for quite the um for quite
the episode. But without further ado, let's welcome our guest today, Mark Rampola. Welcome to the show. >> Thank you, Alejandro. I'm happy to be here. I'm a fan of yours as well in the show. So, it's great to be here. I'm honored. >> So, originally born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up for you? Oh boy, life was uh life was simple and easy in Pittsburgh in that era. You know, I was a big sports fan then. Everybody was fanatical. Uh life, you know, my family didn't have any money. We weren't poor, but nobody in the neighborhood had any money. So, it was just a great place to grow up. I I could be outside all day, go play for for hours at a time, and I I love I love growing up that way. Youngest of six kids. It was a It was a good time and place. So how does this whole idea of um entrepreneurship do you think for
you it developed over time or you had people in the family you know you were born with it you know how what does this whole thing come from? I was definitely maybe I was born with it but I wasn't raised with it. Not only entrepreneurship but business there was no one in my family that was in business at all. And even in my neighborhood I remember the only b I I've thought back on this. The only true business person I can remember that was any family friend was a guy who was the Maxwell House Coffee, if you remember that brand, salesperson for Southwestern Pennsylvania. That was it. But I do remember he had just a little bit nicer house, just a little bit nicer car. He was kind of a salesy type guy. And I that planted a little bit of a seed, but it really wasn't until I went to college and met friends that, you know, grew up in business families or had an interest in business that I began
to even take an interest. And even then, entrepreneurship seemed weird to me. You know, this is the '9s and and it just was not my I felt like to change the world or have an impact or make money, the place to be was corporations, and that's what I went after. >> Well, I mean, corporate tech sounds like it was your thing in the 90s. So I guess how was that journey like for you and what was your big takeaway? >> You know my it's been a it's been a a circutous journey in many ways. So I I started I I w up getting an internship with IBM during college suit and tie days. Um basically teaching Lotus 123 for those that are older than a certain age the pre precursor to Excel to their customers. And interesting also, I was I was helping little tech companies from this weird place called Silicon Valley integrate and sell their their software to IBM customers in Wisconsin, right? But I
it didn't click for me that there was this whole tech revolution and I was not a suit and tie guy. So I quit that to join the Peace Corps and became a Peace Corps volunteer in Central America. >> That's amazing. I mean, how did you get that calling? you know, all of a sudden, you know, like switching and and and finding yourself in in Latin America. I mean, that's quite the shift. >> Yeah, that's a great question. It's oh boy, I when I look back on that, I think in many ways that would be that was more characteristic of my family. Although no one traveled, my my my parents were activist and very Catholic, but an activist Catholic like Jesus was a radical. We go out and we serve the poor. We help. And so that that was planted in my mind. I did go to a Jesuit college and there's some aspect of social service there. And so I think that resonated, but also I think I had an
adventurous spirit. I know I had an adventurous spirit and and that was I I remember going down a career fair with all these little booths back in that day and I was interviewing for some corporate jobs and I wasn't exactly getting a crazy positive response. My grades weren't great. My test scores weren't great. I think I could look back now and see I really had ADHD uh pretty seriously. But then I saw this little teeny booth of with a a little table with a Peacecore stand and that resonated with me as much for the adventure as anything. Get out of the country, start to explore. I'd never been out of the country, didn't speak any languages, and this just sounded like something fun and adventurous. >> [snorts] >> So obviously for you being able to see, you know, more of the world outside of the US, I'm sure that that gave you quite a bit of perspective because especially when
you're in Latin America, it's not as comfortable as being in the US. So I guess what do you think that opened up for you in terms of perspective? >> Oh, it changed my life. Alejandro, you're absolutely right. It just it opened up the world to me and it helped me see one of the things a couple things I saw. One was I had all these projections and imaginations and stories I told myself of what you know living a place like that and and and frankly what poor how quote unquote poor people might live. What I found was man they were happy living their lives had same dreams and hopes as anybody else. I also quickly had, you know, didn't grow up like I mentioned with with with any real money, but I made $187 a month. Now, living in this was Costa Rica pre-zipline in Four Seasons. That was enough to live comfortably. I rented a teeny little house. My daughter saw it some years later and said
it was a shack. It was, but I I was fine. And so, I had a great time. And so, I didn't build any association of money and happiness. see it was like like I can get by on on that. I also saw um early indications of sort of sustainability work and I loved seeing early you know I did meet a lot of entrepreneurs I met family businesses so that that laid a foundation for me in many ways and I'll tell you one thing I remember that years later would come back I remember hiking into some of the mo most remote villages across Central America after the piece I backpacked across Central America or three months, you could get a place where there it's mud roads. You can barely hike there. And what would I see? Coca-Cola. And I do remember even thinking back then, wow, what would it be like to leverage the power of business, the power of that sort of infrastructure to do more than just deliver sugar
and water somewhere, you know? And so that that seed has sort of stuck with me. It wasn't until years later I thought about about you know the beverage industry or coconut water but there was some seed around that and of course I tasted coconut water there for the first time right you're at the beaches you're running around did have it as a hangover cure did have it as a mixer so it just was part of my life >> so obviously as they say you know ideas they're dormant we don't even know that they're there right now in your case you ended up coming back you do your MBA at Duke but typically when people do their MBAs you know they go at it and you they start their first business or they have the business plan, you know, as the final paper, you know, kind of thing. But in your case, you decided to, you know, keep going on the corporate side and and and and take a a tour through Asia. So,
why was that the case? >> Yeah, great question. Look, e even then I would say the the world has shifted. So, so even in the late 90s, entrepreneurship was not what it is today. It just wasn't. And so there were a few few uh students uh in my class that were interested in it, but not a lot. And I I'll alone I I I'm influenced by those around me. I also think there was a an insecurity in me and and that was in part driven by the fact that I had 100,000 plus in debt coming out of knew I would have that coming out of grad school. So I wanted a job. I wanted a paycheck. I was in a relationship. I'd fallen in love. So I started kind of thinking I need security. I need security. And so, um, I took I took this opportunity that came up, right? And again, I I wasn't top in my class back then. I can tell you interviewing and mentioning that I went to the Peace Corps after IBM. The question I…