Disrupting the giants: Inside the OLIPOP and Netic playbooks

Whether you’re entering a market already dominated by household-name brands or changing the way customers buy your product or service altogether, being a disruptor in an established sector isn’t easy. You need to find a niche that isn’t being served, understand customer needs and deliver a better solution.

That’s the formula that OLIPOP co-founder and CEO Ben Goodwin and Netic founder and CEO Melisa Tokmak each used in different ways and industries. In an interview with Inc. editor-in-chief Mike Hofman on a recent episode of Your Next Move, presented by Capital One Business and Inc., they explained how they approached their respective businesses and changed their industries.

• Where to look for disruption opportunities
• How to find the best customer insights
• The importance of building for the long term

When Goodwin had an idea for a new soda, he faced obstacles. Obviously, the sector, which was declining in popularity according to industry data, is dominated by brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. One adviser told him that he wouldn’t work with him if he pursued the idea. But Goodwin didn’t back down. Instead, he saw an opportunity for a more healthful soda option.

Tokmak took a similar approach from another angle. She saw that home services—industries like electrical work and heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing—had been largely overlooked in the race to make everything available in a click or two. After her own frustrating buying experience as a homeowner, she recognized that those essential businesses represented an enormous opportunity for innovation. “These industries are forgotten by frontier technologies,” she says. That’s where she saw the opportunity to innovate and disrupt this category of services.

A deep understanding of customers and their wants and needs is important to build the right product or service. Before launching Netic, Tokmak immersed herself in the home services industry by hiring contractors for her own home, then observing how their businesses operated, asking extensive questions and gathering firsthand feedback. Sometimes, she shadowed them. “I would show up to their work and be like, ‘Here, we have some doughnuts and I'm going to be here today. Really, just let me be here and see how you're operating this business, what's working, what's not working,’” she says. But that legwork gave her the deep understanding she needed to serve both homeowners and tradespeople. 

Goodwin says that his motivation has always been creating lasting improvements in human health rather than simply building a company to sell. “My life entrepreneurial mission is to elevate human health and consciousness at scale,” he says. “I want to take things that are scaled unhealthy, flip them on their heads [and] actually insert the health ingredients into them.” Instead of shaming consumers, he wants to “meet them where they are” and help change their habits. 

Tokmak applies a similar philosophy internally. She hires people who care deeply about solving real-world problems and refuses to lower hiring standards simply to keep up with rapid growth. Protecting the company's culture, she believes, ultimately strengthens its ability to serve customers over time.

For founders to become industry disruptors, an unfulfilled need is a good place to start looking for opportunities. Then, make discipline your competitive advantage: Do the work to understand your customers better than anyone else and have the patience to build a business designed to endure. Watch the latest Your Next Move to find out more strategies from Goodwin and Tokmak.