Ten years ago, U.S. consumers might have thought you were a bit “nutty” if you told them that coconut water would be a multimillion-dollar beverage category one day. In fact, Vita Coco Co-founders Michael Kirban and Ira Liran didn’t even believe it at that time. When the entrepreneurs decided to start up All Market Inc., doing business as Vita Coco, they simply thought it would be a fun hobby that would earn them some extra money, Liran notes.
“We never had these grandiose expectations,” he says. “… We knew that it was an excellent product that had great potential, but I think our feet were grounded, and we just thought it would be like a little hobby [and] a way to make a little extra pocket change. We never imagined that it would become this, what it is today.”