Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast is your backstage pass to the minds of hospitality leaders, innovators, and operators who are redefining what it means to serve. Hosted by Zack Oates, founder of Ovation, each episode dives into real-world tactics and inspiring stories from restaurant pros who know how to create five-star guest experiences—both in-store and off-premise.
From fast casual to fine dining, catering to curbside, learn how to drive loyalty, empower your staff, and deliver hospitality that hits home. Whether you're a restaurant owner, operator, marketer, or tech partner, this podcast will leave you with practical insights and plenty of reasons to celebrate and Give an Ovation.
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Building Purpose-Driven Brands for a Sustainable Future with Seth Goldman
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In this episode of Give an Ovation, we welcome Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest Tea and Just Ice Tea, chairman of Beyond Meat, and co-founder of PLNT Burger. Seth’s journey from government and activism to launching purpose-driven brands showcases his commitment to health, sustainability, and creating positive social impact.
Zack and Seth discuss:
- How Seth transitioned from politics to entrepreneurship to drive lasting change
- The story behind Honest Tea, its evolution into Just Ice Tea, and the focus on transparency and quality
- Why PLNT Burger empowers customers to invest and participate in its growth
- The importance of offering inclusive menu options to delight diverse guests
- How purpose-driven brands can make a real impact on health and the planet
Tune in to hear how Seth’s vision and leadership continue to inspire and transform the food and beverage industry!
Thanks, Seth!
The Healthy Business Strategy
Speaker 1Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation , the restaurant guest experience podcast , where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience . This podcast is sponsored by Ovation , an operations and guest recovery platform for multi-unit restaurants that gives all the answers without annoying guests with all the questions . Learn more at OvationUpcom . And today we have what could only be described as just like the health dream with us today Seth Goldman . He's the co-founder and CEO of Just Ice Tea . The co-founder and board chair at Plant Burger . The chairman of the board at Beyond Meat . He's also a Harvard guy . He's a Yale guy . He's the co-founder of Honest Tea . I mean , he has just done . If it has to do with healthy things that you put in your body , I feel like Seth has the Midas touch and I'm so excited to chat with you today , seth , and learn more about your philosophy and the guest experience and some exciting things that are happening with your businesses right now . So welcome to the podcast .
Speaker 2Thank you , zach , and thank you for that very kind introduction .
Speaker 1I appreciate that . Well , it's easy when all you got to do is like read LinkedIn and it's like mind blowing . I know I've followed you for a while and so it's an honor to finally have you on the podcast . But I mean , you go to your history and there's this common thread of just things that are good for you , and so I'd love to understand where did that come from ? How this desire to live forever without taking the blood of your 18 year old son , like how has that the business ?
Speaker 2decisions you've made .
Speaker 2Well , I've always considered myself an activist and I actually , in college , had been a government major , so maybe I was thinking about going into politics .
Speaker 2And as I sort of did some work and I worked in the Senate for a few years , worked in some campaigns I came to appreciate that a lot of the changes we try to make through political means are challenging , meaning that sometimes they're short term , sometimes it's posturing not real change , and they can also get undone pretty quickly .
Speaker 2And so when I started to explore the private sector , I realized that the opportunity not necessarily the guarantee , but the opportunity to really make some important changes through how we consume , and I personally got most excited about the idea to protect the environment , to help people lead healthier lives and also to think about creating and extending economic opportunity to communities that don't have it . So that might sound like a political campaign platform , but for me that's a business platform that turns out you can create products people really come to , not just enjoy but really adore and embrace , and with that really makes them change happen . And whether it's looking at what we did with Honest Kids , getting that into McDonald's , or , of course , democratizing plant-based protein would be on meat there's some changes that we've been able to make in the diet that's really led to important changes in the health profile of what people consume and , obviously , their impact on the planet too .
Speaker 1Now , where did you grow up ? Where did you start to think about this healthy mentality ?
Speaker 2I grew up in Wellesley , massachusetts . My parents were both professors and definitely not health nuts . Sometimes you'll talk to somebody and they were the kid who drank . You know who ate lentils for lunch or whatever . That wasn't me , right ? My parent , our diet and our sort of food traditions were pretty average , right ? Nothing creative there . It wasn't until I really started to explore . I did run track in college and so was always thinking about what I put in my body as fuel and how to make it healthier fuel , and also the fact that I was thirsty all the time because I was running .
Speaker 2So I was dehydrating and thinking about how can we create , make some more creative solutions . And as I got further into it I came to appreciate how important organic is . And then I learned about the supply chain on tea and I learned that fair trade really makes an important difference in the communities we source from . And then , just getting more into the food world and , partially through having a family , got exposed to first the vegetarian diet and then a getting more into the food world and , partially through having a family , got exposed to first a vegetarian diet and then a vegan diet and really came to appreciate how those choices can really have a profound impact on my health and on what happens to the rest of the planet and to the other beings involved . So I guess , when was the last time you had meat ? Oh boy . Well , I've been vegetarian for 18 years , almost now 19 years . So there may be a time or two someone snuck some meat in .
Speaker 1but I haven't consciously eaten Consciously . That means that maybe when you're asleep , someone gave you a bite of Five Guys or something . But it's incredible to see , and I think that , with all of these different businesses that you've been a part of , I mean , there's a lot of success in there . What are some of the common attributes of the successful companies that you've been a part of ?
Speaker 2So , number one , they're all on purpose driven , meaning they all have a recognition that when we create this and do it right , we're going to have a positive impact on the person consuming the product and on the other stakeholders , whether that's the planet or the people producing it or , in the case of Beyond Meat , the animals not involved in the production of a product .
Speaker 2That's one key pillar , but the other one is transparency . We always want to be as much as we can make this accessible to people . So there's no smoke and mirrors , there's no gimmicks , it's just a straightforward product . They'll obviously , with tea , both the name Honest Tea and Just Ice Tea really speak to the simplicity of what we're offering . And then we do show that we go to the communities we source from , so people can understand , when they make a choice for just iced tea , what's happening to the community where we're buying the tea leaves from and how it impacts their livelihoods and , frankly , the future of their families and future of their community . Smaller challenger brands we have to be scrappy , we have to be resource efficient , we have to think about how to build these businesses without the big advertising budgets , and so one of the ways you do that is through building an authentic brand that resonates with consumers , that they feel is personality and a kind of essence that relates to them .
The Evolution of Plant-Based Brands
Speaker 1Now . Are there any plans on doing like an herbal iced tea ?
Speaker 2Oh , yeah , yeah , we have quite a few herbal varieties . That just iced tea . So we have a berry hibiscus yes , so we've had that . We have another . We have some other herbal varieties we'll be bringing out later this year as well . So , yeah , oh , fantastic yeah .
Speaker 1I've always felt like that's a huge gap in the market . I don't drink black tea or green tea , but I used to and miss the flavor of just the iced tea . But there's not a lot of teas that don't have black or green tea in them .
Speaker 2There's some beautiful drinks that you can bring out there . I will say that historically , the herbals don't sell as well as the caffeinated ones , but we still love them and we have some fun ones we'll be bringing out this year .
Speaker 1That's awesome . Now , okay , looking at Honest Tea . I mean , obviously that's probably one of the biggest CPG brands that has come in the food and bev industry in the last 30 years , 40 years , and everyone knows Honest Tea . But being a co-founder of that , running that for 22 years almost , I'm assuming now you're fully out right .
Speaker 2Well , not everyone's out , because Honesty got discontinued by Coca-Cola . Oh , that's right . We built the brand . We sold it to Coke in 2011 . I stayed on through 2019 . But in 2022 , I got an unsolicited call from Coca-Cola . They were kind enough to give me the courtesy to tell me they were going to have to discontinue Ice-T . They had basically lost track of the brand during the pandemic , meaning the supply chain broke down . It was sort of not on shelves . Our team pivoted very quickly and we launched Just Iced Tea , which has now been out in the market for about two years and has grown extremely quickly . And so we're all in on Just Iced Tea and what we've seen now is that it's growing far more quickly . We're only in our second year . We just passed our second year . It's larger than Honest Tea was in its 10th year .
Speaker 1Oh , wow . And we still have so much more growth to happen , because we were still in a third of the stores that Honesty was in with . It was probably not what you were hoping for , but when you kind of lost some of that control when you sold it , was that like a relief or was that a burden for you ?
Speaker 2Well . So we sold in 2011 , but I stayed on through 2019 . So I really was still continuing to steward the brand and make sure that it was being built the right way and it's not a total loss . So Honest Kids is still out and actually is doing extremely well , so you know ?
Speaker 1Okay , because that's what I was going to say , because I just took my kids to McDonald's and that's what they get there . Yeah , so , honest , kids is thriving , all right , I wasn't going to correct you when you said they discontinued it . Oh no , the tea is gone . Yeah , no , maybe I'm crazy . All right , honest .
Speaker 2Kids is doing great and Honest Kids is achieving what we had hoped , which was to really expand the availability and adoption of organic drinks , right ? So , as you mentioned , going to McDonald's and getting Honest Kids is something that did not happen 15 years ago . That didn't exist there , and people don't go to McDonald's in general to look for organic drinks , and so just through that , I've actually seen Honest Kids really become sort of I think it's probably the most widely adopted organic product out there Wow , meaning that for millions of Americans , obviously anyone who gets it in a Happy Meal it's the first organic drink they'll be consuming . So for us that's a really exciting step .
Speaker 2And the other part about Honest Kids that's so neat is it's also a much lower calorie drink . It's a 35 calorie per carton . It replaced an 80 calorie juice drink that was there before , and so if you just take that 45 calorie differential sold , they sell over 200 million units a year at McDonald's . That's removing over a billion empty calories from the American diet every year . That's removing over a billion empty calories from the American diet every year . So it's really neat to see that kind of impact still go on . As I mentioned , politics , you never know exactly what's going to stick , but this is one that seems to really be resonating with the customer , and that's a result of having a real impact .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean , as a parent going to McDonald's , you don't always think , okay , like I'm going to make all these healthy choices , let's go to McDonald's . But you do feel a little bit better when you know that it's not going to be this just like sugar bomb that they get . And when it comes to like the meat there and things at McDonald's , they do buy high quality food . So I think that that's one thing that , as I look at kind of what the honest kids it's awesome to see that kind of impact that you're able to have , and I know one of the things that we wanted to talk about was the ability for people to get involved in some of the things that you're doing , like , for example , I know Plant Burger is a brand that I've been a fan of for a long time . It took me a few months to learn how to say the name , because I always wanted to say Planet Burger .
Speaker 2That's okay . We answer to that too . It's fun , yeah , yeah , it's been really fun to build Plant Burger . We have 13 restaurants now and it is it's still early stage , but what we've just done is launched a start engine campaign that lets our customers and fans and other followers invest and build a business with us and obviously ideally be rewarded when we reach the potential we think this has . It's a different world today than it was 20 years ago . You want to start a business . You definitely had to find high net worth investors and bring money and often sign over parts of the major parts of the company . But what's neat today with these crowdfunding campaigns is you can have people invest a small amount of money , but they still get to be part of the action , they still get to feel a sense of ownership and they still have to really build the next generation of future looking companies . So the StartEngine campaign is exciting for us and we've seen a really nice response .
Speaker 1Yeah , I was one of the people that was able to participate in that . Thank you .
Speaker 1That's right . Yeah , I appreciate that . It's awesome and I love that to be able to put some money behind brands that I believe in . I love that there's , historically , some of these restaurants that are vegan friendly restaurants . They have not done super well right , and they've struggled . And I look at Plant Burger and it's like I get a little bit of the backend view because I get to see what unfiltered feedback is coming in from the customers and the great thing is that people like me , who I meet every single day , I love it Like it's a great product . It's delicious . Thank you , it's a really cool-looking brand , like there's a lot of really great things about Plant Burger that I love .
Speaker 2And it's being well-run . I mean , that's one of the challenges . As you know , a lot of restaurants , not just plant-based restaurants just don't make it , and so to see every restaurant of the 13 , all of them are profitable , to see the businesses that sell profitable , is really rare when you're only at sort of the scale we are . So that's exciting too .
Speaker 1And then- Especially in New York , where the leases are like wild .
Speaker 2The other piece is that it allows people to do it in a lower risk way . I remember when I was launching Honesty and my oldest son was just starting elementary school and one of the parents said , hey , I'd love to invest some of my kids' college money in Honesty . And I'm thinking , oh my gosh . First of all , like I'm going to be seeing this guy for 13 years his college , like if they lose his kids' college money , his kids aren't going to college . That felt like a big responsibility .
Speaker 2And what's nice about a start engine campaign is you can put even a few hundred or a few thousand dollars and it is . You know , every dollar you put in means something and it certainly means a lot to us . But it's not like someone has to bet their kid's college money on this and what the postscript on that , with honesty , was that actually got to speak at his oldest son's high school graduation and by that time he had gotten his money . I said I'm glad to say we're going to be able to pay for it and your parents will be able to pay for college .
Speaker 1Okay , so he did invest his kids' college funds ? He did invest . Yeah , oh , he did Okay .
Speaker 2It worked out , but it was still a little nerve-wracking for me .
Speaker 1That's funny . I had a family member who invested in Ovation and it's one of to pretend like it's gone , right , it's give it to me as a gift and then maybe one day you'll get something back from it . Right ?
Speaker 2A lot of pressure , a lot of pressure , but it is rewarding when you can deliver on it and I think , like I said , my first impulse is to resist it , but then the next impulse is to recognize this person wants to be part of that opportunity and it creates , I would say , some positive pressure . We really do take a serious obligation when we take people's money and we need to certainly be as responsible as we can with
The Mission of Tony's Chocolony
Speaker 2it .
Speaker 1Now , with all these things going on , Seth , I know that you've got some . I'm sure you've got a lot of exciting things happening and , by the way , I totally forgot to mention the fact that you're also involved in Tony's Chocolony .
Speaker 2Yes , yep , a wonderful company involved in Tony's Chocolony .
Speaker 1Yes Yep , Wonderful company , which is a great company . Actually , I'm one of these guys where I eat candy every single day . What I do is I have a box of candy in my closet and then I'm allowed to whatever I can fit in one handful .
Speaker 2I can bring to bed and like .
Speaker 1That's the only way that I'm able to portion control myself . So how does chocolate fit into all of this ?
Speaker 2Well , again , the purpose-driven company .
Speaker 2So Tony's has this commitment to eradicating exploitation in the cocoa supply chain and in the case of cocoa , it's really a concern around child labor , and they have set up what I really believe is the most rigorous inspection and enforcement system to help their supply chain move away from child labor .
Speaker 2Now the challenging part of this is there is child labor in the supply chain . Tony's acknowledges it . There's a lot less in there , there's far more . The prevalence of child labor in their supply chain with their cooperatives is about 3% , and when you go be outside of Tony's it can be as high as 50% . So it's really a challenge and you know what ? I give them credit . They said look , we're not going to pretend it doesn't exist , we're not going to try to take the sales , we're going to engage in the ground in the countries where it does exist and really try to address it . And so that's hard work , but it's one of the reasons that brand is so beloved . It's also one of the reasons that brand is growing so quickly . So that's a fun role , and my job as chair of the mission guardians is to help make sure the company lives up to the obligations it's taken on around that labor .
Speaker 1That's powerful , that they even have a whole mission guardians , that their mission is so important to them that they've created a group to oversee , to make sure that they're adhering to their mission .
Speaker 2Yeah , because and it's not that their board doesn't care about that , but the board ultimately is accountable to the shareholders and the mission guardians are accountable only to the mission .
Speaker 1Oh .
Speaker 2And so that is a . It's a different , a new role . That's one I've really enjoyed and I got to last year , went to Cote d'Ivoire , to Iv .
Speaker 1That is amazing . That's super cool . What other cool things are going on ? What other things should we know about ? With your menu , I feel like this is like your life , is like the Cheesecake Factory menu of like all these cool things going on .
Speaker 2I think we see it at Beyond Meat as well , I think you know . One thing I would say I would challenge and encourage all restaurant operators to think about is how to make your offerings available to everybody . And so as a vegan now part of a vegan family , I can say that it's always both surprising and disappointing how many restaurants just don't even think about the need to appeal to a wide audience . And I'm not talking about just to please vegans , because even with plant burger , we always say this isn't a restaurant just for vegan . That's too small a business model . But you always want to be as inclusive as you can . So how do you make sure as many people as possible can come ?
Speaker 2And one of the themes I know you always focus on , zach , is how do you create that delight with the customer ? How do you create excitement ? And for me it's to show that we're thinking about you and to provide these different options . And just as an example , last night my wife and I went to a wonderful pizza restaurant . Everything there could be you had a vegan choice . And the alternative to that is when you go to a restaurant and there's no vegan options , and what do you have that's vegan . Well , go to a restaurant and there's no vegan options and what do you have that's vegan ?
Speaker 2Well , we have pasta . That's not very exciting , that's not very creative , and so just taking that extra step especially I'm in California this week , where not that there are more vegans out here , but there are more people who are flexitarian , there's some people who just want to have those plant-based options and just challenging the restaurants to make sure they can provide food to everybody . I hope and encourage the restaurants to make sure they can provide food to everybody . I hope and encourage the restaurants to think , evolving that direction .
Speaker 1I love that and , by the way , that's why I wore this shirt today , because I have yeah , I love that , I have shirts that have a lot of cooked food on them . This one is my shirt that has all the chickens are alive , which is why I wore this shirt today for you , Seth . Thank you One of the things I want to know is you know so many people in this industry . Who is someone that deserves an ovation ? Who's someone that we should be following ?
Speaker 2Well , I would say a company like Beyond Meat , ethan Brown CEO there is one who's been working super hard , and that whole sector got attacked by the meat industry . And what I've been impressed by with Ethan and the team is how they've just stuck to their mission . They've continued to challenge themselves on seeing beyond meat evolve the portfolio of products . So you now have , where there had been attacks around some of the oil , they switched over to avocado oil as a source of fat in the burgers . But they've also really stuck to their mission . They haven't been , I'd say , intimidated or dissuaded from doing what they're doing , and that's hard when a public company like that comes under that kind of pressure . So I'm whether it's of the matter this week is to help and provide encouragement and support to that business . And then , of course , I'm also out here selling tea , so I'm never traveling without multiple agendas in mind .
Speaker 1Well , I love that . I mean , this has been such a cool conversation and I'm really excited about it . Where do people go to find and follow you ?
Speaker 2Yeah , on LinkedIn is where I'm most active and it's just Seth Goldman there . I obviously Just Ice Tea has a very busy Instagram and TikTok activity , but I don't have my own sort of separate personality , it's just on LinkedIn .
Speaker 1Okay , awesome , we'll make sure to put this in the notes , but the startenginecom forward slash offering forward slash plant burger , p-l-n-t hyphen burger , or you just Google start engine plant burger and this goes , I believe , until time's running out on this one . So I know there's an end date in mind . I believe it's in end of Q1 or in March or something like that . Right , that sounds right , yeah , okay . So go check that out , go be a part of the vision and the mission and join Seth and turn in a chicken safe again , right ? So for making healthy cool again . Seth , today's ovation goes to you . Appreciate you coming on , give an Ovation . So fun to hang out with you .
Speaker 2Thank you , zach , great to be with you .
Speaker 1Thanks for joining us today . If you liked this episode , leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen . We're all about feedback here . Again , this episode was sponsored by Ovation , a two-question , sms-based actionable guest feedback platform built for multi-unit restaurants . If you'd like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience , visit us at OvationUpcom .