Canned mountain water wrapped in punk-rock branding that made hydration feel like an anti-establishment cultural movement rather than a commodity purchase.
Liquid Death packages still and sparkling mountain water, flavored sparkling water, and iced tea in 16.9 oz recyclable aluminum tallboy cans designed to look like beer. The product solves a surprisingly real problem: health drinks get boring, plastic-heavy marketing while alcohol gets all the creativity. Cans cost roughly $1-2 in stores like Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, 7-Eleven, and Amazon, with subscriptions available online. Unlike competitors such as Poland Spring or Perrier, the brand competes on identity and entertainment rather than taste claims. Each can's sustainability angle (infinitely recyclable aluminum, 5 cents donated per can to plastic cleanup) gives the rebellion substance. Limited collabs, merch, and stunts keep the brand constantly talked about.
Mike Cessario spent a decade as an advertising creative director, working on campaigns for Netflix and other brands, and noticed all the funniest marketing was for unhealthy products. In 2017 he Photoshopped a mock water can, shot a $1,500 fake commercial with a borrowed camera and his wife's actress friend, and put it on Facebook with about $5,000 of paid media over three months. It racked up 3 million views and 80,000 page followers before any product existed, pulling in inbound messages from 7-Eleven owners and distributors. That traction led to a $150,000 friends-and-family round and a real product hitting shelves in January 2019. Whole Foods became the first national retailer, with a load-in date of March 15, 2020, which coincided with the pandemic e-commerce boom. Sales exploded from $2.8 million in 2019 to $130 million by 2022, and retail-scanned sales hit $263 million in 2023 across 113,000 stores in the US and UK. A $67 million round in March 2024 valued the company at $1.4 billion, and Cessario now positions it as an entertainment company that monetizes via beverage.
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Kitchen & Drink
2022
Revenue 2022 / 2023 / 2024$4M / $19M / $48M
Graza, launched in January 2022 by Andrew Benin and Allen Dushi, sells single-origin Spanish olive oil in squeeze bottles labelled by job: Drizzle for finishing, Sizzle for cooking. Revenue grew from ~$4M in 2022 to ~$48M in 2024, with 18,500+ retail doors by 2025.
Kitchen & Drink
2020
Products sold4M+ (by March 2024)
Vietnamese-American sisters Vanessa and Kim Pham founded Omsom in May 2020 after quitting jobs in consulting and venture, launching chef-collaborated sauce starters mid-pandemic. They sold 4+ million products into 2,000+ stores including Target and Whole Foods within four years, with grocery revenue up 324% YoY in early 2024, and sold the company to DayDayCook in 2024.
Kitchen & Drink
2020
US market rank#1 reusable water bottle brand (Circana, 2024)
Owala was incubated inside Trove Brands (the BlenderBottle company) in Lehi, Utah and launched in March 2020 around a patent the team had nearly shelved. By 2024 it had become the #1 reusable water bottle brand in US retail tracking per Circana, was named a TIME Best Invention of 2023, and built 272M+ views on #Owala TikTok content.