Eat the Change, the Bethesda food and drink company from serial entrepreneur Seth Goldman, will undergo a significant rebranding to eliminate its food-based offerings in favor of its popular iced tea beverage line.
In a post on LinkedIn, Goldman said he will change the company's name to Just Ice Tea, the brand that reached more than $19 million in sales over the past 12 months. The company will stop making its Cosmic Carrots product, which follows the earlier discontinuation of its mushroom jerky snack, its first foray into the food industry.
"The business you launch is rarely the one you succeed with," Goldman said in the post. "That’s certainly been the case with Eat the Change."
Goldman, who wasn't available for an interview Monday, said in his post the decision to discontinue Cosmic Carrots came after retailers told him they weren’t seeing strong enough sales. He previously blamed a small market and low margins for the mushroom jerky's discontinuation.
During an interview in June, Goldman told me Just Ice Tea accounted for 98% of Eat the Change's revenue, a figure he said he hopes to continue to grow with its recently launched cans of iced tea. Just Ice Tea held the largest market share in the midwest/north central region over the course of a 24-week period that ended July 14, according to SPINS, a wellness-focused data technology and market research company.
Goldman said Eat the Change has sold over 18 million bottles since the tea line's launch in October 2022, which occurred shortly after the May 2022 announcement that The Coca-Cola Co. was discontinuing Honest Tea. Goldman founded Honest Tea and sold it to the Atlanta-based beverage giant in 2011.
"Running a start-up is a bit like letting water flow down a hill — you can’t always control where the water chooses to go," Goldman said. "If we had insisted on sticking with snacks and forgoing the tea opportunity, we would be out of business."
