Mark Rampolla

CEO

Mark Rampolla is a visionary entrepreneur and the founder of ZICO Coconut Water, a brand that helped create the now $8 billion global coconut water category. After growing ZICO into one of the fastest-growing beverages worldwide, Mark sold the company to Coca Cola in 2013. He then transitioned into investing, co-founding PowerPlant Partners, where he played a key role in the plant-based food movement, including the success of Beyond Meat.

In 2020, Mark made a bold move by repurchasing ZICO from Coca Cola with a group of investors, including Jesse Itzler and tennis star Naomi Osaka. Now, through GroundForce Capital, Mark manages $500 million in assets, focusing on health, wellness, and sustainability investments. His journey reflects a deep commitment to innovation and positive change in the consumer goods industry.

Feb. 10, 2025

Can Entrepreneurs Become Great Investors

And I'll tell you why. This has been fascinating in my journey from an entrepreneur to investor. I've come to realize why so few great entrepreneurs become great investors and and because and in many ways, it's taken me. It took me about five years to sort of, you know, train the the entrepreneur out of me. One of the main reasons is because I'm an optimist and entrepreneurs are optimists and we see possibilities. And so the mistake I made as an investor is I'd meet somebody, I'd hear their pit...

Guest: Mark Rampolla

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Feb. 7, 2025

From Coconut Water to Ground Force Capital

After my corporate career. My first sort of brand after a couple failed ventures was Zico coconut water. And I'll come kind of circle back to that. But I started that, built that, and then sold that to Coca-Cola at the end of 2013. And then I became an active angel investor and eventually started an investment firm, first called Power Plant, where we invested in plant based businesses. So there we backed Beyond Meat, Thrive market Appeal Sciences had some good wins there and also some painful le...

Guest: Mark Rampolla

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Feb. 5, 2025

How To Spot a Winning Founder

But what I love is every once in a while you come across that entrepreneur that just says, you know what? I think I'm going to be the exception, but I don't really care. What else am I going to do? Like, I love this, I'm passionate about it. I'm doing it anyway. So it's going to be what it's gonna be. That's the person I want to back, right? Because you just don't know. And here's the reality as well. What I've come to realize, Josh, I've been you know, I started Zico 20 years ago. Now I have, ...

Guest: Mark Rampolla

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