Turning fruity water into a $30-million success story

Struggling to wean herself off soft drinks, Kara Goldin inadvertently discovered her own bottled water business.

"I was drinking a ton of Diet Coke, vitamin waters, a lot of things that I thought were actually hydrating me, but were not," said Goldin, the 43-year-old founder and CEO of Hint (www.drinkhint.com), whose business started innocently with her adding fruits such as lemons, limes and raspberries to "boring" bottled water.

What began at her kitchen table six years ago as a way to get healthier has morphed into a serious business with 26 employees and millions in revenues.

"This year our retail sales will be about $30 million and next year, barring a huge capital infusion, it would be $50 million," said Theo Goldin - Kara's husband - and parent company Hint Inc's chief operating officer.

He noted that Hint doubled its sales from 2009 to 2010, mostly through same-store sales increases.

Image: Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of flavored-water startup Hint Inc. and her husband and COO, Theo Goldin (Left), at their company's office in San Francisco, California on March 30, 2011.

Text: Reuters

Reuters Images