BrainPOP, a new functional, botanical-enhanced energy drink, is using the founder’s professional connections in health care to build out a better-for-you soda with nootropic ingredients.
Here’s the back story: When Sierra Hooshiari was studying as a second-year undergraduate student at Cornell University, she was hit by a drunk driver. After a lot of recovery, she returned to her studies and found it hard to focus and abandoned her goal of going to medical school. Yet, throughout the ensuing years she remained intrigued by the medical community and began to develop an idea – to make a healthy beverage option for healthcare professionals that would give a clean energy boost while also promoting focus.
Hooshiari began tinkering with the formulation and flavors and, during the pandemic, started testing it out with healthcare workers on the pandemic response team in the San Francisco area where she helped with the logistics of vaccine dissemination. With positive feedback from weary frontline workers, she decided to fully dive into the beverage industry by initially marketing her brand to physicians and medical professionals who need a healthier, energy drink alternative.
In February 2022, Hooshiari tapped into connections at Cornell to work with the university’s Food Venture Center to test her prototype product, test product safety and prepare it for commercial scale production. She received a $80,000 grant from the state of New Jersey and produced an initial run at prebiotic soda maker Brooklyn Cannery’s facilities.
Under the name New Age Drinks (the brand’s parent company), BrainPOP officially launched last summer during New York Fashion Week at a party hosted by Alice & Olivia. Though received well by the models and high fashion community, Hooshiari has found that the brand’s target consumers are doctors and healthcare workers looking for better-for-you energy drinks.
“The positioning with physicians and health care workers has been essential to forming the heartbeat and the mission – the purpose – behind the brand,” she told BevNET. “For instance, physician surgeons, who perform really complex surgeries, will drink Mountain Dew and Fanta in between their surgeries. There’s definitely a gap in the healthcare world for healthy drinks.”
BrainPOP is now selling in an under-utilized niche in medical clinics, surgery centers and hospital cafes in the metro New York/New Jersey area. While the brand might be aimed at medical professionals, a major obstacle to this channel strategy has been that many hospital vending machines and foodservice options are contracted to “juggernaut” large distributors that BrainPOP has not been able to break into yet, Hooshiari admits.
She still thinks that the long term vision is to be the preferred healthy energy drink or soda alternative of choice for health care professionals and physicians in the hospital setting, Hooshiari said.
For now, the brand has puffed out its distribution with over 500 locations in convenience stores like 7-Eleven as well as small specialty/natural grocery stores in New York and New Jersey. BrainPOP is sold in 12 oz. cans with four tropical-themed flavors to choose from: Dragonberry Warrior, Mango Colada, Mojito Madness, Coconut Delight. The cans retail for about $3 in-store or $19.60 for a six-pack on the brand’s website.
The functional soda brand uses a formulation of vitamins, minerals and amino acids like Taurine, Choline, L-Glutamine, Theanine, L-Creatine and Magnesium for hydration and focus. The caffeinated energy component comes from green tea extract, green coffee bean extract and guarana seed extract. The drinks use fruit purees for flavor and cane sugar as a sweetener.
Cognitive and brain health benefits are a trend that other beverage brands have leaned into. Brain Juice has positioned itself as a supplement that comes in 2.5 oz. shots and powders; LifeAid has innovated its FocusAid product with a zero-sugar variety and a powder stick. Texas-based brand NERD Focus has also tried to go after the clean energy category in sports with a number of partnerships.
BrainPOP’s initial success in the healthcare space is still part of the story but the brand is exploring other avenues as well. Hooshiari had an early meeting with executives at ZX Ventures, AB InBev’s venture capital investment group, to explore the brand’s potential in nightclubs and bars. It has been exploring its place on-premise in the nightlife scene as a mixer alternative to a soda, an energy drink, or even a mocktail.