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Speaker 1: This is a Bloomberg Business Flash from Bloomberg World Handquarters.
Speaker 1: I'm Charlie Pelt. A mixed picture for stocks, the down
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Speaker 1: following a mix of corporate earnings reports. We've got the
Speaker 1: SMP five hundred index down five at one to drop
Speaker 1: of three tenths of one percent down. Industrials up three
Speaker 1: to eighteen thousand, five hundred thirty six, little change there,
Speaker 1: Nez stack down twenty two points to five thousand thirty three,
Speaker 1: A dropped there of four tenths of one percent, Gold
Speaker 1: up three seventy the third teen three, a gain of
Speaker 1: three tenths of one percent. And crude oil is down
Speaker 1: one point four percent, down sixty three cents of arrel
Speaker 1: West Texas Intermediate crude forty four sixty two. I'm Charlie Pellett.
Speaker 1: That's a Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to taking Stock
Speaker 1: with Kathleen Hay and Pim Box on Bloomberg Radio. Would
Speaker 1: you like to build a great business? Well, one of
Speaker 1: the things you might want to think about before you
Speaker 1: go on that trail is to read a new book
Speaker 1: written by Mark Rampola. He is the co founder and
Speaker 1: the managing partner of power Plant Ventures, but he may
Speaker 1: be more widely known as the founder and the former
Speaker 1: chief executive of Zico Coconut Water that was eventually sold
Speaker 1: to Coca Cola. Here to tell us more in studio
Speaker 1: is Mark Rampola. Mark, thanks very much for coming in
Speaker 1: and congratulations on the new book. Thanks. It's great to
Speaker 1: be here, all right. The title of the book is
Speaker 1: called High Hanging Fruit. Build something great by going where
Speaker 1: no one else will. You looked up at a certain
Speaker 1: point in your career, and not only did you see
Speaker 1: that you needed to fill a void in it, but
Speaker 1: you also saw something tangible and real which gave you
Speaker 1: an idea. Tell us the story. Sure phim So I
Speaker 1: was originally a Peace Corps volunteer in Central America. Soon
Speaker 1: after college, and some years later I was back again
Speaker 1: in Latin America running a multinational operations for international paper
Speaker 1: with my wife, married, with a couple of kids, and
Speaker 1: was just kind of bored and not too thrilled with
Speaker 1: where my career was going and what it looked like
Speaker 1: to be a corporate executive at a big corporation. So
Speaker 1: I was looked around for ideas, what could I start,
Speaker 1: what's unique? What could I contribute to the world, And somehow,
Speaker 1: another week came across coconut water. Well, when you say
Speaker 1: somehow you came across coconut water, you are actually consuming
Speaker 1: coconut water. Your family was consuming it where you lived
Speaker 1: in Latin America. That's right, that's right. Most of the
Speaker 1: locals all across Latin America, in fact parts of Asia
Speaker 1: and in Africa that are tropical, all drink coconut water.
Speaker 1: So we drank it like everyone else had it. At
Speaker 1: the beach. It was known as a safe source of
Speaker 1: clean water, high and a your lights. In fact, you know,
Speaker 1: the time that really hit hard for me was when
Speaker 1: my wife was pregnant with our second baby. She was
Speaker 1: having morning sickness. It's really the only thing she could
Speaker 1: hold down. Now, as far as the business plan, imagine
Speaker 1: that people would say to you, coconut water. Who would
Speaker 1: want to drink coconut water? There's no there's no market
Speaker 1: for coconut water in the United States. Did you get that? Along?
Speaker 1: My god? Everyone, I think, without a doubt, most people
Speaker 1: thought I was I was at least a little crazy,
Speaker 1: if not completely crazy. First of all, to try to
Speaker 1: launch any new beverage business in this in this day
Speaker 1: and age, even even fifteen years ago. It's incredibly capital
Speaker 1: intensive and very tough. But the idea that we're going
Speaker 1: to convince American consumers to drink coconut water, that nobody
Speaker 1: had a clue about building a whole new category. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a tough task. And yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of people thought I was crazy. All right, So we're
Speaker 1: gonna hold the crazy for just a moment because there
Speaker 1: might be another crazy part of this, which is doing
Speaker 1: good or contributing not just to the bottom line, but
Speaker 1: to something large or tell us about that. Yeah, well, look,
Speaker 1: this started out for me personally, um as well as
Speaker 1: my wife, both of us believing, hey, if we're going
Speaker 1: to dedicate the five, ten, fifteen years that it may
Speaker 1: and very often does take to get a new business
Speaker 1: off the ground. It better fulfill us more than just
Speaker 1: on the bottom line, right, It better be more than
Speaker 1: just about money, because we're going to dedicate time, talent, treasure,
Speaker 1: a lot of effort, a lot of stress, and a
Speaker 1: lot of risk to go after something. What does it
Speaker 1: really mean to us? So fortunately we got on the
Speaker 1: same page and in fact, you know, really start to
Speaker 1: set the bar higher. How are we going to build
Speaker 1: a business that not only makes money but makes a
Speaker 1: positive impact in the world. In this case, it was
Speaker 1: bringing a healthy beverage to market, it was making a
Speaker 1: positive impact in the communities that sourced it, and it
Speaker 1: was making a positive impact on all the people that
Speaker 1: were associated with our business. Part of the information that
Speaker 1: I got from High Hanging Fruit is that your program
Speaker 1: or your desire to create a business needs to be
Speaker 1: consistent with who you are and what you want for
Speaker 1: your personal life. Yeah. I think that's true, Phim and
Speaker 1: I do get into that in quite some detail in
Speaker 1: the book, and it worked for me. But what's also
Speaker 1: true is I've seen this happen again and again and
Speaker 1: again with entrepreneurs, and I think in today's obscenely competitive marketplace.
Speaker 1: That is actually a way to differentiate because when you
Speaker 1: think about investors and employees and partners and consumers, everybody
Speaker 1: wants to be part of something more than just a business.
Speaker 1: They want to be part of a mission to the
Speaker 1: to the extent that they know the founder or founders
Speaker 1: are really committed to this at their heart of hearts,
Speaker 1: I think it is more likely that a business is
Speaker 1: going to be successful, and if not, almost a requirement
Speaker 1: for success today. Tell us about what you're doing at
Speaker 1: power Plant Ventures, because I think that definitely connects with
Speaker 1: what you're just described. It does. It does. So we
Speaker 1: believe my partners and I and are investors believe that
Speaker 1: we have a two trillion dollar global food system that's
Speaker 1: fundamentally broken. It's not delivering health and wellness and nutrition
Speaker 1: and certainly not doing it in a sustainable way. So
Speaker 1: we think there's gonna be In fact, already are thousands
Speaker 1: of entrepreneurs that are trying to remake that system, and
Speaker 1: what we want to do is find fund them and
Speaker 1: help them scale and win. The reality is that big
Speaker 1: food and beverage companies are losing ten billion a year
Speaker 1: off their top line because consumers are looking for something
Speaker 1: healthy or something more sustainable, something that's good for them
Speaker 1: and good for the planet. And we believe that there's
Speaker 1: a huge opportunity that businesses entrepreneurs are gonna capitalize on. Now,
Speaker 1: if someone out there listening to you can check at
Speaker 1: least half of these boxes, they should somehow get in
Speaker 1: touch with you. Yeah, we're welcome, welcome to talk to them.
Speaker 1: Market power Plant VC dot com is the way to
Speaker 1: is the way to reach me. Um. Yeah, we're looking
Speaker 1: for those breakthrough entrepreneurs, those that both believe and are
Speaker 1: committed and have a passion for what they're doing, but
Speaker 1: are also smart, effective business people, and that combination is
Speaker 1: the sort of visionaries that are going to break through.
Speaker 1: You're still drinking coconut water day, every day, all right,
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for coming in and spending time. Mark
Speaker 1: Rampola is the co founder and managing partner of power
Speaker 1: Plant Ventures, and we're celebrating the release of his new
Speaker 1: book entitled High Hanging Fruit. Build something Great by going
Speaker 1: where no one else will. Thank you very much, Thank you.
Speaker 1: This is taking stock. I'm pim Fox taking a look
Speaker 1: at the SMP five right now, down about a quarter
Speaker 1: of a percent lower by about six points at six.
Speaker 1: Coming up on taking stock will be taking stock of
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice. They may be looking to block
Speaker 1: some major healthcare deals. This is Bloomberg coming up on
Speaker 1: taking stock. We're gonna take stock of online travel. We've
Speaker 1: got Steve Hafner. He is the chief executive and the
Speaker 1: co founder of Kayak. We're gonna tell you how they're
Speaker 1: using artificial intelligence to provide better travel services.