Spindrift: Bill Creelman
Bill Creelman graduated from college in 1996 with a business plan — to sell smoked fish from Nantucket. But over time, that idea morphed unpredictably into a brand that sold cocktail seasonings and supplies.
After selling that company to liquor giant Diageo, Bill wanted to stay in the beverage industry.
As a way of kicking his Diet Coke habit, he started making sparkling water with a fresh squeeze of lemon or grapefruit. That deceptively simple idea grew into Spindrift, a beverage that came with huge production challenges.
Today, the company has an annual revenue topping $100 million.
How You Built That: Chime
Gaurav Chawla loved home-made chai but hated how long it took to make. So, he quit his engineering job and started the five-year process to create Chime — an automatic chai brewer that uses tea and spices from India.