THE ORIGIN STORY OF GT'S LIVING FOODS

As the founder and CEO of GT’s Living Foods, GT Dave may be known as the “King of Kombucha,” but when he started his brand, he was just a 15- year-old working out of his parents’ kitchen. 

Growing up in a nutrition-conscious household, GT was embarrassed when his parents started brewing their own kombucha. 

“I cannot say it was love at first drink,” GT jokes. Their home brew slowly grew on him, however, and by the time Dave left high school, he had concocted his own formula.

With no formal training and no business plan, GT pitched his new brand to local health stores, carefully measuring each label and polishing the bottles by hand.

“The energy that you put into everything you do is a reflection of how people are going to interact with it,” GT Dave says.

Today, GT has revolutionized the beverage industry. As the sole owner of GT’s Living Foods, his booming business is now worth over $900 million and growing, something he attributes to his deep passion for the product. 

In this episode of How Brands Are Born presented by Cardone Ventures, see how GT Dave’s inspiring persistence proved to be more valuable than a formal education. 

KRISTEN ALDRIDGE: As the King of Kombucha, you started the world’s best-known brand all from your parents’ kitchen when you were just 15 years old. Today, you are the envy of the beverage industry as an upstart who single-handedly created a blockbuster new category. How important was wellness and holistic living growing up?

GT DAVE: Wellness and holistic living was my everything growing up. I was raised by two very spiritual, holistic parents who took me to India when I was a child to study the Eastern ways of living and the philosophies of Eastern culture. My parents really believe that food can be your medicine as well as your poison. They were always into bizarre food; chia, aloe vera, noni…fill in the blank, right? Growing up, that was something that was infused into my daily practices, especially going to school where you would open up your lunchbox and everyone would pull out their chicken sandwich and their carton of milk. I was pulling out tofu and a protein smoothie and all of that. Kombucha was one of the things that came into the household, and I was 13 years old at the time. I cannot say it was love at first drink. I was actually quite turned off. As a budding teenager, image is everything. Having my parents make this bizarre tasting, looking tea - that by the way conveniently was in the entryway of the household - when I would have friends come over, the first thing they would say is, “What’s that smell?” So naturally, I was quite upset. So I said to my parent’s, “Guys, this is embarrassing. Do we really need to be so overt with some of our veganism and healthy ways?” To be honest, I wanted nothing to do with kombucha. However, what I did notice is that my parents really did have an affinity for it.

KRISTEN ALDRIDGE: What would you say was the defining moment when you realized you could actually turn this into a business?

GT DAVE: It wasn’t lost on me why my parents felt that kombucha was special. But honestly it wasn’t until two years later, when my mother went to the doctor to get checked, and the doctor said, “Unfortunately there is a very large tumor the size of a golf ball in your right breast, and we believe that you’ve had it for about four years. Now the good news is, your tumor is mostly pre-cancerous, and it has not spread. We find that very unusual. What have you been doing in your diet?” And so my mother responded, “For the last two years, I’ve been drinking this kind of funky tasting tea,” and the doctor said, “Whatever it is, continue to do it because your situation is remarkable.” Now, what’s interesting is at the same time, like most teenagers, I was struggling to find myself, and so I struggled to fit in. Little by little, I started failing school and I was ditching all my classes. That was the first time I was reminded that I was on a very bad path. So I approached my father and I said, “Dad, I’d like to take my GED, I’d like to leave high school early, and I’d like to start city college so I can be there with people who want to be there.” He said, “You know what, son? I think that’s a great idea.” The summer before I started city college is when kombucha started to culminate in the household. I went to my parents and I said, “Mom, dad…this kombucha is so special, it helped mom, it touched our lives, I’m loving it…it needs to be out there in the world.” I thought that this was the chance in a lifetime. I knew I needed to pursue kombucha, and just go after it with a complete brave heart, and just see what happens. So I did.

KRISTEN ALDRIDGE: Here you are as a teenager with no business plan and really no formal training. But what you did have was this passion for an idea that really excited you, so how did you get your new company off the ground?

GT DAVE: What really helped was I was so young, and I think my mindset was certainly not that of an entrepreneur. I wasn’t thinking of risks, I wasn’t thinking of goals, I wasn’t thinking of things that I’d have to meet in order to be successful. It really was this personal passion that I had. So I called the local health food store, and I said, “Hi, I have a product that I want to sell your store. What do I need to present it?” They said, “Well, you need a label, and you need some kind of address, and that’s it.” I was like, “Really?!” So I designed my own label, I found a bottle, and I started bottling my own batch. I showed up at the health food store a couple weeks later and said, “My name is GT, I make the freshest, most potent kombucha available, and I’d like to sell it in your store.” And they said OK. But you know, when you’re a teenager delivering a food product to a store, and you’re making it out of your house, it was a daily fear that someone was going to find out that it was just me. With the package, I would measure the dimension from the bottom of the bottle to three quarters up, and then I would mark it. And that’s where I’d label it, so the labels looked like they were machine applied - an indication that something was sophisticated and coming from a professional place. I polished every bottle and put it on the shelf like they were jewelry, and I remember just standing there for the first thirty minutes, watching people come by, stop, look at it, or better yet, put it in their cart and buy it. That was magic to me. When you’re going through your professional journey, especially when you start very young and you don’t really have a framework or context, almost every day is like, “Wow, I can’t believe this is happening.” It really is just seeing what you love slowly amplify and be accepted. It’s incredible.

KRISTEN ALDRIDGE: Since then you’ve gone from home-brewed, hand-delivered bottles to a booming business and a nationwide phenomenon. How does it feel to be known as the King of Kombucha?

GT DAVE: It’s not something that I ever expected. I started off just being a kid and had no expectation of where this would go. So each day is really beyond my wildest dreams. Naturally, I do feel very blessed, and I feel honored to be able to present something like kombucha into the world. Everything that we make, no matter how many batches we have, we pour our heart and souls into them. I believe energy is everything - good and bad energy. I was raised that the energy you put into everything you do is a reflection of how people are going to interact with it. Yes, we’re a company. Yes, we make products. But it really is something that’s more spiritual and of a higher consciousness. Every day, I want to live my life and be in a way that I’m making a positive contribution and not live from the ego. And make sure that I can look back and say that I made a great product, I lived my life to the fullest, I helped people, I inspired people…so that really is my north star.