Deal Hound

Daina Trout founded Health-Ade Kombucha with her husband, Justin Trout, and best friend, Vanessa Dew, in 2012. During the next five years, the company released many flavors of its probiotic tea and opened its own brewing and bottling facility just south of Los Angeles. By 2021, Health-Ade was profitable and generating $200 million in annual revenue, but its investors were eager for a return. That is, until the company's steady growth led its first investor to rethink its exit strategy.

- Christine Lagorio-Chafkin

As CEO, I'd heard horror stories from founders about what happened when they sold their businesses-like they were fired, or strategic investors installed their own operations and killed the culture. But I had been giving my all to grow this company for 10 years, and was excited to have the experienced hands of a large company guide us. I did probably 30 meetings in 2019. We met at least four times with Coke, but they didn't make an offer they wanted to invest. It was a trying time. Investors were continuing to ap