How I Built This – Advice Line with Bill Creelman of Spindrift

Host: Guy Raz
Guest: Bill Creelman (Founder & Chair, Spindrift)
Date: November 27, 2025

Episode Overview

In this dynamic Advice Line episode, Guy Raz welcomes back Bill Creelman, founder and chair of Spindrift, the real-fruit seltzer company, to take live calls from entrepreneurs wrestling with business-building questions. Bill draws on his decades of experience in food and beverage—from smoked fish to cocktail mixers to nearly single-handedly reinventing the sparkling water category—to offer candid, actionable advice.

The episode’s main theme centers around authenticity, ingredient integrity, and making tough, sometimes risky, choices in business. Several early-stage founders call in with questions ranging from scaling production to hiring to refocusing in tough times. Throughout, Bill and Guy’s guidance returns to the twin pillars of staying true to your brand’s vision and simplifying operations to amplify what works.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Spindrift Origins, Philosophy, and Recent Milestones

• Spindrift’s Origin: Bill recaps his unconventional entry into beverages—moving from artisanal foods and cocktail mixers to experimenting with real fruit juice in seltzer.
  • “Trying to find seams from the consumer side, from the business side. And it’s been a circuitous journey, but one I’ve really enjoyed.” — Bill (04:15)
• Majority Stake Sold: Spindrift’s recent partial acquisition by Griffin private equity, with a $650-700 million valuation.
  • “We really think about it as a partnership... gearing up for our next stage of growth.” — Bill (04:41)
• Real Ingredients Vs. ‘Natural Flavors’:
  • Guy prompts Bill to revisit Spindrift’s defining challenge—insisting on real fruit juice instead of shelf-stable chemical or “natural” flavorings.
  • Bill reflects on why he stuck to this vision despite industry norms and business friction.
    • “That stubbornness led to all kinds of challenges... What ultimately emerged is really our key point of difference.” — Bill (05:50)
• Dropping the Better-Selling Product:
  • In Spindrift’s early days, the sugar-sweetened version outsold the plain seltzer, but Bill killed it to avoid confusing the brand and dilute its purpose.
    • “It’s hard enough to make one brand successful, but to have two brands... early stage brands succeed, mean something for the consumer, go on to gain scale and traction is really almost unheard of.” — Bill (07:10)
    • “About half our revenue... Kind of nuts, right? But you believe that, in the long run, of course that would pay off.” — Guy (08:03)

Caller 1: Josh Jankowicz – Donna’s Pickle Beer

Segment Start: 09:20

Business Overview

• Donna’s Pickle Beer blends fresh pickle brine with a light lager.
• Invented during the pandemic; production via co-packers; sold primarily in bars, 16–19 states, expanding rapidly.
• Question: Should they stick with fresh real brine (better, truer, but costlier and less consistent) or switch to scalable, cheaper “flavor house” natural extracts?

Advice & Insights

• Bill’s Take:
  • Affirms that Josh’s quandary mirrors Spindrift’s early dilemma.
  • “What is hard right now for you is going to be your point of difference later.” — Bill (16:09)
  • He urges resisting the urge to ‘shortcut’ for scalability and instead defend the long-term value of real ingredients.
  • “If you come up with a brine that’s uniquely your recipe, it’s going to make it much, much harder for someone to repeat it down the road.” (16:09)
• Guy’s Perspective:
  • Stresses the importance of unique branding; first-mover advantage will be challenged if big beer brands copy the concept, so a defensible, authentic recipe is crucial.
  • “He can’t build a company around one flavor ... he’s going to have to think about ... the next steps.” — Guy (17:39)
• Bill on Focus:
  • Suggests running as far as possible with a single product (“Corona had basically one SKU for years”), making it much easier logistically and for distributors.
  • “If you can build the company and distribution with one SKU, when you come out with your next one, you’ll already have a base.” — Bill (18:02)

Key Quote:

“What’s hard right now for you is going to be your point of difference later.”
— Bill Creelman, 16:09

Caller 2: Zach Will – Kona Brand (Tropical-Patterned Flannel Shirts)

Segment Start: 25:13

Business Overview

• New England-based apparel company making “flannel shirts with tropical aloha” (Hawaiian patterns on cozy flannel).
• Bootstrapped from a high school project; now $300K expected sales, mostly DTC, with a huge holiday bias; founder is solo and overwhelmed.
• Question: How to hire a part-time marketing manager (can’t afford full-time), and how to do it right after a previous candidate turnover.

Advice & Insights

• Bill’s Strategy:
  • Praises Zach’s resourcefulness and urges further bootstrapping—doing as much as possible himself, especially customer-facing work and sales.
  • Recommends automating/outsourcing back-office and fulfillment, not the creative and community-facing work.
  • “As much as you want to do certain things, the reality of keeping the lights on, paying the bills, often wins the day.” — Bill (53:17)
• Guy’s Recommendation:
  • Suggests reaching out to college alma mater for red-hot creative talent looking for a first gig, even short-term or remote.
  • Emphasizes importance of creating a “brand bible” or internal reference guide, making onboarding creative help easier and guaranteeing consistency.
    • “Write down what you do, write down what works... almost like you’re building a brand bible… so then when somebody does join you, even temporarily, they can refer to that.” — Guy (36:49)

Key Quote:

“As a founder, you want to be in front of the brand as much as you can.”
— Bill Creelman, 35:01

Caller 3: Jean Pierre Perrins – Soma Kombucha

Segment Start: 40:35

Business Overview

• Portland-based kombucha brewery with four business lines: bottled/draft wholesale, tap rooms (some fully automated), beverage R&D consulting, and contract manufacturing.
• Sales declining following COVID, high expenses, distributor challenges, and shifting shelf space; contract work and consulting now more reliable revenue streams.
• Question: With limited time and energy (he’s also a solo dad to a special needs child), which channel should he focus on for business “survival and sanity”?

Advice & Insights

• Bill’s Core Principle:
  • “Simplify to amplify”—distill down to what’s profitable, manageable, and sustainable before seeking growth or complexity.
  • “I really need to distill it down into its most simple form and then build it back up.” — Bill (47:13)
  • Recognizes the emotional challenge of letting go of original visions, but asserts that hard pivots and simplifications are typical on the path to resilience.
    • “I had 15 years of trying to figure it out before we really were able to focus.” — Bill (47:13)
  • Advises using profitable consulting/contract work as a financial footing, then consider re-engaging with brand-building once stable.
• Guy’s Suggestion:
  • Reframe the business’s core as “probiotics/wild fermentation,” not just kombucha.
  • Encourage leveraging 16 years of experience to consult for rising gut health/probiotic trends—might be a more rewarding/less operationally taxing path.

Key Quote:

“Simplify to amplify.”
— Bill Creelman, 47:13

Memorable Closing Reflections

• On Founders’ Biggest Mistake:
  • “Don’t try to do everything... I took, I think, a lot of time to get to where we are — 30 years, as you said... It’s probably one or two [problems] that are holding the business back.” — Bill Creelman (54:02)
• On Risk:
  • “I knew where the risk was, or at least I thought I did... there’s just risk embedded in between the coolers and going up against the big soda guys and trying to do something really different in terms of the ingredients.” — Bill Creelman (54:59)

Important Timestamps and Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:12 | Bill Creelman joins; Spindrift origin story | | 05:02 | Real ingredients vs. natural flavors dilemma | | 07:10 | Dropping sugar-sweetened Spindrift for brand clarity | | 09:20 | Caller 1: Josh from Donna’s Pickle Beer (authenticity vs. scale)| | 16:09 | Bill’s “what’s hard now becomes your advantage” advice | | 25:13 | Caller 2: Zach from Kona Brand (flannel/Aloha shirts, hiring) | | 36:49 | Guy: “Build a brand bible” | | 40:35 | Caller 3: Jean Pierre from Soma Kombucha (focus & survival) | | 47:13 | Bill’s “simplify to amplify” principle | | 54:02 | Bill’s advice to his younger self | | 54:59 | Bill reflects on uncertainty and risk |

Takeaways & Tone

Bill’s calm candor and experienced humility ground the advice throughout—informed by years of adversity, stubbornness for quality, and incremental, at times circular, progress. Both he and Guy encourage founders to focus, simplify, double down on what feels core and is hardest for others to imitate, and—above all—put their brand’s integrity at the center. The episode interweaves practical startup mechanics with broader insights on founder sanity, personal sacrifice, and the necessity, sometimes, of tough love as an act of care for the business’s future.

Notable Quotes Recap:

• “What is hard right now for you is going to be your point of difference later.” — Bill Creelman (16:09)
• “As a founder, you want to be in front of the brand as much as you can.” — Bill Creelman (35:01)
• “Simplify to amplify.” — Bill Creelman (47:13)
• “Don’t try to do everything.” — Bill Creelman (54:02)

For listeners short on time: Check out the foundational advice about ingredient authenticity at 16:09, the hiring and branding wisdom at 36:49, and the focus/“simplify to amplify” segment at 47:13 as highlights of entrepreneurial strategy and philosophy.