![]() ![]() But honestly it wasn’t until two years later, when my mother went to the doctor to get checked, and the doctor said, “Unfortunately there is a very large tumor the size of a golf ball in your right breast, and we believe that you’ve had it for about four years. GT DAVE: It wasn’t lost on me why my parents felt that kombucha was special. KRISTEN ALDRIDGE: What would you say was the defining moment when you realized you could actually turn this into a business? ![]() However, what I did notice is that my parents really did have an affinity for it. ![]() Do we really need to be so overt with some of our veganism and healthy ways?” To be honest, I wanted nothing to do with kombucha. So I said to my parent’s, “Guys, this is embarrassing. Having my parents make this bizarre tasting, looking tea - that by the way conveniently was in the entryway of the household - when I would have friends come over, the first thing they would say is, “What’s that smell?” So naturally, I was quite upset. As a budding teenager, image is everything. Kombucha was one of the things that came into the household, and I was 13 years old at the time. I was pulling out tofu and a protein smoothie and all of that. They were always into bizarre food chia, aloe vera, noni…fill in the blank, right? Growing up, that was something that was infused into my daily practices, especially going to school where you would open up your lunchbox and everyone would pull out their chicken sandwich and their carton of milk. My parents really believe that food can be your medicine as well as your poison. I was raised by two very spiritual, holistic parents who took me to India when I was a child to study the Eastern ways of living and the philosophies of Eastern culture. GT DAVE: Wellness and holistic living was my everything growing up. How important was wellness and holistic living growing up? Today, you are the envy of the beverage industry as an upstart who single-handedly created a blockbuster new category. KRISTEN ALDRIDGE: As the King of Kombucha, you started the world’s best-known brand all from your parents’ kitchen when you were just 15 years old. In this episode of How Brands Are Born presented by Cardone Ventures, see how GT Dave’s inspiring persistence proved to be more valuable than a formal education. As the sole owner of GT’s Living Foods, his booming business is now worth over $900 million and growing, something he attributes to his deep passion for the product. Today, GT has revolutionized the beverage industry. “The energy that you put into everything you do is a reflection of how people are going to interact with it,” GT Dave says. With no formal training and no business plan, GT pitched his new brand to local health stores, carefully measuring each label and polishing the bottles by hand. Their home brew slowly grew on him, however, and by the time Dave left high school, he had concocted his own formula. “I cannot say it was love at first drink,” GT jokes. Growing up in a nutrition-conscious household, GT was embarrassed when his parents started brewing their own kombucha. As the founder and CEO of GT’s Living Foods, GT Dave may be known as the “King of Kombucha,” but when he started his brand, he was just a 15- year-old working out of his parents’ kitchen.
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