Real fruit, functional mushrooms, and a yes on the spot

Back in April, Hippie Energy launched with a simple bet: real fruit juice, functional mushrooms, and low caffeine instead of another caffeine spike. No one knew yet if it would work but they were confident in the whitespace that needed to be filled.

Since then it has landed on shelves at Total Wine and at Mother's Market, where Sai & Sasha sat down with their refrigerated buyer and got a yes on the spot. It spent a weekend at Angel Stadium as the only energy drink vendor at a Spartan Race, and earlier this year it was the only energy drink in the vendor village at the CrossFit Games, selected by the CrossFit trainers rather than bought as a sponsorship. Both of those came about organically, through conversations and past activations, not a pitch deck. Costco roadshow is in the works for 2027.

It has been a lot of standing at booths, hearing what people actually want out of the energy category, and taking that seriously as the brand grows. Sasha Sheaffer, Sai Svoboda, and Taylor Eileen Sewell have put in that work all year, and it shows.

In Sai's own words on working with our team:

“What I have valued most about LvL Up is the access. The community has been consistently engaged, but the real difference is getting information that is critical at this stage, whether that comes from a group mastermind with people who know the category or a one on one mentorship session. Those are conversations and connections that are usually much harder for early stage founders to reach.”

Building an early-stage CPG brand and want this kind of support in your corner? Our 10-week Spring 2027 accelerator is now accepting applications.