The journey from a water bottle salesman to the CEO of a million dollar sports drink company

From a comedy club ticket seller, Jesslyn Rollins built a career and became the CEO of Biolyte sports drink brand. The company now has a strong foothold in the $33 billion sports drink market.

In 2012, to help his wife through chemotherapy, Jesslyn Rollins’ father set out to develop a hydrating drink that works like an over-the-counter infusion. Now, 10 years later, the Rollins family’s Biolyte brand has achieved an impressive growth rate, with sales of nearly 17 million USD in 2021. And things do not stop here. According to Allied Market Research, the global sports drink market is expected to grow from $33 billion in 2020 to $56 billion by 2030, meaning that Biolyte has a sizable growth potential.

Here’s the story of Jesslyn Rollins, from her early days when she started selling sports drink bottles in her car, to hitting major retail deals across the country.

My mother found out she had breast cancer in 2005. When she went through chemotherapy, our family tried everything to help her stay hydrated, from sports drinks to hydration products. chemistry for children to electrolyte powder, but nothing really worked. She was constantly given intravenous infusions.

My father is an anesthesiologist and anesthesiologist. With all his experience during all these years in the profession, he came up with a nutritional supplement formula for my mother. The recipe looked like it would work, so he spent all his savings of $750,000 creating something that looked like an intravenous infusion but was taken orally. My dad calls it Biolyte. It has electrolytes, a liver detoxifier and is sugar-free, which helps relieve headaches, fatigue and nausea caused by dehydration – conditions that often arise during medical treatment, when you are drunk or simply This is when your body doesn’t get enough water. The amount of electrolytes in a bottle of Biolyte was equivalent to the amount of electrolytes found in nearly seven bottles of top-brand sports drinks at the time.

Dr.Luther C. Rollins III, Jeannine Rollins and their daughter – Jesslyn Rollins.Photo: Peyton Fulford

I didn’t know what he was up to until four cases of Biolyte – the equivalent of 5,184 bottles – were delivered to my parents’ house in July 2016. My dad secretly did it alone. At the time, I was working as a ticket clerk at the Laughing Skull Lounge comedy club in Atlanta. Dad told me to try a bottle when I woke up from a drunken night, and that’s exactly what I did. I went out with friends, drank too much and woke up the next morning feeling nauseous with a severe headache. At my father’s advice, I finished a bottle of Biolyte.

Less than 30 minutes later, my nausea and headaches began to subside. That’s when I knew we might be on to something great. Concerned that this formula might not work for others, we decided to test it out and get confirmation from others as well.

I loaded some into my Toyota Highlander and went to the local high school. I spoke to the sports coach and asked him to give it to the players on the football team. He gave Biolyte to 10 players who suffered from frequent cramps, a bottle each, and for the first time, 9 of them did not experience this condition while participating in the competition. That’s when I realized how much potential this product has. Since then, I have driven to sell Biolyte to teams throughout the Southeast.

A few months later, my brother-in-law – who works in the beverage industry – told me that, if I really wanted to grow the business, I needed to get a distributor. He introduced me to someone at Savannah Distributing. This person arranged for me to meet with Randy Waters, the head of cargo for Kroger Atlanta. I showed up with a cool bottle of Biolyte and three copies of my 10-page presentation.

During the meeting, I emphasized Biolyte’s ability to help the body recover. During the meeting, there were many opportunities for Randy Waters to try Biolyte, but he didn’t, so I thought I must have failed. However, at the end of the meeting, he said that he would bring the product to hundreds of Kroger stores in many different states. I thought I’d misheard and had to ask again, to get a confirmation: “Yes! I’ll put it in Kroger!”

The first year, when I drove and sold Biolyte everywhere by myself, we made $157,000 in sales. As we began to expand our production and sales operations, I found that we needed real hierarchy and governance. My father used to be the chief executive officer, but he was too busy to hold the role for a long time. I wanted to lead Biolyte, so for two years I tried to convince my parents of why I would be the right person for the role. They rejected me many times, but I finally won this position in 2019. Currently, our products are being sold in nearly 20,000 stores and supermarkets.

As for my mother? She recovered, and perhaps, our family has never been this strong. This is like a mission we’ve built together and I hope it continues to be.

Source: CafeF