
The OLIPOP Strategy for Category Disruption
From On Brand with Nick Westergaard by Nick Westergaard
April 20, 2026 · 35 min
About this episode
Mark and David Lester discuss their journey in brand strategy and the innovative approach behind OLIPOP.
Mark Lester and David Lester are brothers who have turned a shared history of high-level brand strategy into a family legacy of innovation. David is the co-founder of OLIPOP, the prebiotic soda that has fundamentally changed the beverage landscape by blending gut-health science with the nostalgia of a classic cola. Mark, co-founder of the consultancy Squint, has spent his career at R/GA and We Are Pi shaping the strategic direction of global icons like Nike and Samsung. Together, they represent a unique bridge between the rigor of global brand building and the intuition required to launch a category-defining startup. What You’ll Learn in This Episode The hidden strategy of finding category value in plain sight How to break only one rule really hard to drive innovation Lessons from building a billion-dollar brand using global marketing rigor Why the discovery channel of the retail store still beats direct-to-consumer The unique dynamic of using brotherly advice to jump into the entrepreneurial unknown Episode Chapters (00:00) Intro (01:24) Growing up in Northern England with entrepreneurial roots (04:28) The Nashville hike that launched a business partnership (06:59) Concepts for…
People in this episode
Host: Nick Westergaard
Guests: Mark Lester, David Lester
Topics covered
- category disruption
- brand strategy
- innovation
- entrepreneurship
- retail discovery
Keywords
- OLIPOP
- prebiotic soda
- brand strategy
- innovation
- entrepreneurship
- retail
- D2C
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: OLIPOP, Squint, R/GA, We Are Pi, Nike, Samsung
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