We recently connected with Sierra Hooshiari and have shared our conversation below.

Sierra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

BrainPOP Drink is a fun fizzy fusion with only 30 calories and 6-8g of sugar per 12oz can. It has a botanical caffeine blend of green tea extract, green coffee bean, and guarana seed. The hydration component of l-creatine, minerals like magnesium and potassium, and nutrients like taurine, l-theanine and Vitamin D, create a heightened boost and smooth caffeine edge without the crash. The fruit purées add a fresh burst of delicious flavor. There are no artificial flavors, colors, sugars, or preservatives.

Our four flavors: Mojito Madness, Mango Colada, DragonBerry Warrior, and Coconut Delight make being healthy fun and easy. Our cans are aesthetically appealing and vibrant. They’ll even make your fridge look more glamorous! BrainPOP can support you during rough mornings or a midday slump. It can be used as a pre-workout or post-workout drink. It also makes a great cocktail or mock-tail mixer. There’s something in it for everyone.

Our target audience was initially professional, millennial women like me. I was inspired to develop BrainPOP when I felt like there wasn’t a product on the market I could truly relate to, one that focused on brain health, brain nutrition and the mind-body connection. However, once I shared BrainPOP Drink with my former coworkers on the pandemic response team at UCSF, many of these overworked healthcare workers loved the health benefits of sassy flavors of BrainPOP Drink. In particular, a few surgeons commented on how the smooth caffeine edge from the ‘clean caffeine’ blend, hydration, and mineral cocktail, and 60% daily value of Vitamin D and other nutrients created a gentle boost without the jitters or crash.

The surgeon community shows enthusiasm for BrainPOP Drink early on, particularly those who perform microsurgery or are caffeine sensitive. BrainPOP is on track to become the Physician & Healthcare Worker’s #1 Beverage of Choice.

My story: As a sophomore at Cornell, I went abroad for a semester to participate in a humanitarian program at a medical clinic. I was running errands on my day off one spring day, when an intoxicated, speeding driver hit me. I don’t remember the specific details of the event, but onlookers said it appeared as though I was trying to jump out of the way. My sandal got stuck in the hood of the car, and I landed on the windshield. I was in a coma and in critical condition. My parents took the next flight out, thinking they wouldn’t make it in time to see me alive again. The neurosurgeon who evaluated me said I was a ‘force of nature.’ And that’s probably an accurate description.

When I finally woke up out of the coma, the world was strange and different. I had suffered an epidural hematoma and a case of encephalitis. I couldn’t remember much of anything and felt like I was experiencing the world like a newborn baby—for the first time. I had even taken the class, “Intro to neurology and neuroscience’ the year before and remember wondering during my recovery the irony at how the textbook didn’t mention a brain injury like this.

About half a million people in the U.S. suffer from a TBI every year. The treatment options have come a long way since my incident. I also knew that the opportunity would come to share my story. I won a government grant during the Pandemic to launch BrainPOP Drink. The physicians and healthcare professionals I worked with on the Pandemic Response Team were my eager taste-testers and biggest fans. Today, the mission behind BrainPOP extends beyond my story. We want to inspire brain nutrition in our community and leave our nation a happier and healthier place—one sip at a time!

Sierra, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am most proud of the press i have received. We had our launch party last summer at Alice & Olivia’s flagship store in NYC, and later in the month I was featured on Donna Drake’s CBS show. I love being able to tell my story, the difficulties of living with post-concussion syndrome and autoimmune encephalitis, and the recovery. Since then, Bill O’Reilly has praised BrainPOP for its low sugar content and delicious flavors. Fox17 featured a live BrainPOP tasting this month, further iterating the burst of delicious flavor from the fruit purees and unique formulation.

We participated in a number of shows during New York Fashion Week, and the model coterie loved the low-calorie profile of BrainPOP, while enjoying a boost of clean caffeine before hitting the runway. Our ‘Drink To Think’ tagline imbues a message of positivity; we want our consumers to care about what they consume and their mental health.

Our TikTok channel, @BrainPOPRelax has nearly 1 million followers, with videos promoting relaxation and the imagination. Its creation was first inspired by people asking Sierra what being in a coma felt like. These videos resemble the ‘slice of heaven’ she experienced while in a coma.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We initially planned for BrainPOP to be in a glass bottle because the production run for glass bottles can happen in smaller quantities. The label was intended to appeal to the videogaming community, one of our early-adopter cohorts. It had a Comicon-inspired logo with an infused brain image. The colors were selected based on Color Theory. The grant committee who granted a portion of the seed capital to take BrainPOP to market gave a few specific perimeters. It wanted us to produce BrainPOP in a can, to make it accessible to the general US population. We also simplified our label to appeal to the general public, instead of one niche market segment. This undertaking was a ‘leap of faith.’ While can production is highly scalable in a short period of time, it is a lofty undertaking for one self-funded individual. The distribution for beverages is highly competitive, and the gatekeepers at the top show resistance to any new competition. This is particularly true for beverage in the can industry.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I formulated BrainPOP at Cornell Food Ventures and we completed the production run locally at the Brooklyn Cannery. It is an authentic New Yorker’s drink. There are always risks when working with a new vendor partner, and establishing rapport and exploring referrals is essential.

The Brooklyn Cannery made finding the right copacker seamless, even in last year’s 83-degree summer heat. We’d formulate the product and then wait for it to carbonate in the carbonation tank overnight. Filling the cans, wrapping them into shrink-sleeved cases, and palletizing them for shipment to our 3PL warehouse facility would happen the next day and take about four to six hours. The production run for each flavor takes a day and a half to complete, but the integrity of the team and support for product innovation can make all the difference.
The Brooklyn Cannery’s founder, Maciej Banwinski, is a trained architect turned contract manufacturing production facility and beverage brand owner. The Brooklyn Cannery is based right off 3rd Ave in the heart of Park Slope. It helps that The Brooklyn Cannery sports its own in-house drink, ‘The Brooklyn Cannery,’ because our formulation contains undergoes a process called tunnel pasteurization and its profile combination is technically difficult to execute. The flavor turned out sensational, and its shelf-life has proven to exceed expectations.

We’re in 20 gourmet grocery stores in the NYC metro area, and featured in trendy new nightclubs like the Myth downtown on 96 Greenwich St. We’re paving our way through NYC, and then the tri-state area, one sip at a time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.newagedrinks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brainpopdrink/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrainPOPSoda/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sierra-hooshiari-3abbb27/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Brainpopdrink/status/1108073976675344385
• Other: Tik Tok BrainPOPDrink

Image Credits
Founder Photo- Selfie Founder Photo jumping – Robert Hackman Product photo yellow background – Rutvik Katuri The Daily Method (product in fridge) Marguerite Imbert The Myth staff (nightlife photo) Photo Founder & Dad, Richard at Hello Goods (packing BrainPOP in warehouse) Joel J of Hello Goods Product photo black background – Rutvik Katuri