Kara Goldin, Founder & Former CEO of Hint Water
Today, my guest is Kara Goldin, the Founder and Former CEO of Hint Water, the leading unsweetened flavored water. She led the company as CEO for 17 years and is still on the Board.
Kara has been named one of InStyle’s Badass 50, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Fortune’s Most Innovative Women in Food & Drink and EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California.
The Huffington Post listed her as one of six disruptors in business, alongside Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Kara has successfully navigated the world of large companies and startups in many industries including media, tech and consumer products.
Kara is an active speaker and writer and hosts the podcast The Kara Goldin Show where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs and other disruptors across various industries. Kara’s first book, Undaunted, was published by Harper Leadership in October 2020 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller.
In this candid conversation, Kara shared the real stories behind her accidental path to entrepreneurship, the chaotic launch of Hint Water, and the profound health impact of her brand.
1. The Cardboard City Camp. Kara revealed that her entrepreneurial spirit started early. At 12 years old, growing up in the blazing heat of Arizona, she convinced her brother to move his car out of the garage so she could host a summer camp. Using discarded toilet tissue boxes from Safeway to build a “city,” she charged $5 a day and successfully recruited 15 kids simply by standing on a busy street corner with a handmade sign.
2. Slicing Fruit and Solving a Problem. After leaving a successful career in tech to spend time with her family, Kara took a closer look at her children’s diets. Realizing they were drinking far too much sugary apple juice, and wanting to kick her own heavy Diet Coke habit, she started experimenting in her kitchen by simply slicing up real fruit and tossing it into water to make it taste better.
3. A Delivery Before Delivery. Without any beverage industry experience, Kara bravely pitched her homemade drink to a shelf-stocker at her local Whole Foods. In a chaotic twist, the day before her planned C-section for her fourth child, a massive delivery of her product blocked her garage. Needing a place to park before heading to the hospital, she and her husband rushed 10 cases to Whole Foods, only to find out the next day that the store had completely sold out and needed immediate replenishment.
4. From “Wawa” to a Life-Changing Hint. Originally, Kara wanted to name the company “Wawa,” but her intellectual property attorney husband warned her about the existing convenience store chain and told her to keep brainstorming. She quickly came up with “Hint,” a brand that eventually pioneered the entire unsweetened flavored water category. Today, she regularly hears touching stories from customers—including cancer patients going through chemotherapy who use it to mask a metallic taste, and people managing Type 2 diabetes—who rely on the drink to significantly improve their health and daily lives.
