Hint's Founder Was Inspired By A Coke Executive Who Told Her, 'Sweetie, Americans Like Sweet!'

Back in 2004 Kara Goldin was a stay-at-home mom with three kids and another on the way when she decided she wanted to lose weight, clear up her acne and wean her family off sugary drinks. She purged her fridge of soda and juice and dropped some pomegranate seeds, raspberries, lime and blueberries into a pitcher. The flavored water was a hit with her family and friends, who encouraged her to bottle it. Eleven years later she’s running Hint Water, a San Francisco company with $20 million in investment capital and 36 employees that’s slated to gross more than $50 million this year. Twenty thousand stores in the U.S. and Canada carry no-calorie Hint, as do the corporate offices of Fidelity, Google and Facebook. And her one-year-old direct-to-consumer website already accounts for a fast-growing 15% of her business. In this edited and condensed interview Goldin, 48, talks about how she built a company she believes is worth at least $250 million.