Kara Goldin – Don’t Put Industry Leaders on a Pedestal

BIO: Kara Goldin is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., best known for its award-winning Hint water, the leading unsweetened flavored water. STORY: When Kara started her beverage business, she had zero experience in the industry. So she figured hiring people with impressive experience in the big beverage companies would help her business. Instead, they didn’t understand her vision, and thus there was no return on her vast investment. LEARNING: When hiring, don’t be blinded by executives in big companies; they may not have the experience needed to run a startup.   “Trust your gut, fire fast, and hire slow.”Kara Goldin  Guest profilehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/karagoldin/ (Kara Goldin) is the Founder and CEO of https://www.drinkhint.com/ (Hint, Inc)., best known for its award-winning Hint water, the leading unsweetened flavored water. She has received numerous accolades, including being named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Northern California and one of InStyle’s 2019 Badass 50. Previously, Kara was VP of Shopping Partnerships at America Online. She hosts the podcast https://karagoldin.com/podcast/ (The Kara Goldin Show). Her first book, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400220289/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1400220289&linkCode=as2&tag=karagoldin0e-20&linkId=ab4a4bb5772ae5154fb5288b1aaa9db0 (Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters), was released October 2020 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller. Kara lives in the Bay Area with her family. Worst investment everWhen Kara started her beverage company, Hint, she came from a tech background and had never worked in the beverage industry. She didn’t know anything about the industry other than the fact that she drank beverages. Before that, she had never dreamt of being an entrepreneur. When Kara launched her product on the shelf at Whole Foods, she decided to get industry experts to help get her off the right start. She did everything she could to find executives from Coke, Pepsi, and other big