#219 - Managing People at Work with Seth Goldman of JUST Ice Tea

The Startup CPG Podcast

Startup CPG

Startup, Food, Business, Beverage, Cpg, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Daniel Scharff welcomes Seth Goldman, co-founder of JUST Ice Tea, co-founder of Eat the Change, and the visionary entrepreneur behind Honest Tea and PLNT Burger.

Seth discusses how the new venture has rapidly become one of the fastest-growing iced tea brands in the United States, powered by a mission-driven approach that balances purpose, sustainability, and growth.

Throughout the conversation, Seth reflects on the evolution of his leadership philosophy—emphasizing transparency, empowerment, and accountability—as well as the importance of treating employees as whole people and maintaining authenticity in business. He also offers insights on building efficient teams, setting achievable goals, and scaling responsibly while preserving company culture.

This episode provides invaluable lessons for entrepreneurs and leaders striving to create businesses that do good while doing well.

Tune in now!

Listen in as they share about:

Seth’s Entrepreneurial Journey
Launch and Growth of JUST Ice Tea
Leadership Philosophy: “Being Nice and Effective”
Setting and Managing OKRs (Objectives & Key Results)
Managing Different Work Styles
Embracing the Whole Person at Work
Communication & Structure
Building Lean and Sustainable Culture
Advice for Founders & Young Professionals

Episode Links:
Website: https://justicetea.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-goldman-234bb7124/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

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Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics

Transcript

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0:00.0	Three things. The first one is this empowerment. So meaning you have to be empowered. You have to be able to take action to affect those goals, right? If you're, and no one wants to be an automaton or just a cog in a machine.
0:21.6	So you have to be empowered to make decisions and take actions that shape those goals.
0:26.5	You have to have the information,
0:28.8	the transparency to understand whether you're hitting them or not.
0:31.3	So if you're doing things every day,
0:33.3	but you don't see how your work manifests,
0:36.0	then you're not really empowered.
0:40.5	Welcome to the Startup CPG podcast.
0:42.5	You're going to love today's episode.
0:44.2	You know how when you read some of those billionaire biographies like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs?
0:49.3	It's very inspiring.
0:50.7	They've done incredible things.
0:52.0	But also, although they come off as brilliant, they also come off as kind of ruthless when it comes to managing their teams, just cutthroat,
0:59.0	getting so much out of people. It's kind of crazy. So you as an aspiring Titan of
1:03.8	industry with your dream could think that's the only path. I should be that way. But actually,
1:08.0	there's another way. And I wanted to explore that because Seth Goldman,
1:11.5	he co-founded honest tea. He's now on this crazy rise with just iced tea, having surpassed 30
1:17.2	million in sales. He's chair of the board for Beyond Meat. He is known as a hugely successful
1:22.3	company builder, but he's also a genuinely nice guy and everybody who knows him, holds him in such
1:27.3	high esteem.
1:27.8	So I wanted to explore this topic with him and talk about that balance about being liked, but also very effective and, you know, really showing up and being transparent with people.
1:37.1	So on today's podcast, we get into just that.
	...

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