Episode 1 | Jesslyn Rollins

The Atlanta Story

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Jesslyn Rollins, CEO of Biolyte. Biolyte is one of the fastest, homegrown consumer brands in the city and state. What started out as a remedy for a family member’s illness has turned into a beverage consumed and purchased from QuickTrips to Krogers by thousands of people. Biolyte is an IV in a bottle that makes super hydration accessible and affordable. Consumers range from athletes, to people recovering from illness, and even hangovers. In today’s episode, Jesslyn shares how they got started, hurdles they faced to scale, and where the company is headed next.

The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures -- and we can’t wait to share some of the personalities behind the brand. Atlanta Ventures invests in entrepreneurs through community, content, and capital -- most notably through our Studio with companies like Greenzie and Intown Golf Club. We believe the best entrepreneurs learn from other great artists in different fields.

In this episode, we discuss…

1. What Biolyte is used for? (1:44)
2. How did Biolyte’s origin come about? (4:05)
3. What made Jesslyn decide to push through the doubt and commit to Biolyte? (7:05)
4. How Jesslyn tested that the market would like Biolyte in the early days? (9:22)
5. What is Biolyte’s pitch? (15:17)
6. How is the current product distributed? (16:12)
7. How did Biolyte spread between high schools, and how Jesslyn knew to target high school football programs? (17:22)
8. What was Biolyte’s big break? (21:11)
9. What did the Kroger rollout look like? (23:53)
10. How did Jesslyn increase retail accounts? (24:39)
11. What are the mechanics of scaling? (25:51)
12. How does the sausage get made in terms of mechanics? (26:34)
13. What is in the bottle? (27:44)
14. How much does Jesslyn and Biolyte lean on the medical side? (29:37)
15. Which go-to-market strategy gives the greatest ROI? (31:46)
16. What are Jesslyn’s big plans for Biolyte? (34:15)
17. Are there competitors/copycats that are seeing what you are doing? (35:36)
18. What are some of the high-level numbers of Biolyte? (37:05)
19. What are the roles that Biolyte is hiring for? (38:56)
20. What are Jesslyn’s 5–10-year Biolyte goals? (40:34)
21. Why Atlanta, and what has Atlanta done for Jesslyn? (41:48)

Resources discussed in this episode:

Biolyte

Biolyte on Amazon

How you can get involved:

Visit atlantaventures.com/studio if you’re interested in learning more about Atlanta Ventures and the Studio.

Where you can find us:

Website: www.atlstory.com

Twitter: @theatlantastory

Instagram: @theatlantastory

YouTube: Here

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