AG1 (formerly known as Athletic Greens) hit $600 million in revenue last year. As you drink in that healthy number, consider the unlikely career path of the company’s CEO, Kat Cole. Kat began her working life as a hostess at Hooters and worked her way up to VP of the company by age 26. She moved on to become president of Cinnabon, where she tripled the business’s EBITDA in two years, and eventually moved on to AG1.
Kat recounted her career journey on How Success Happens, giving an absolute killer masterclass on spotting opportunities, saying yes when it’s scary, and building brands that resonate with millions.
We’ve broken down Kat’s insights to help give your success a shot of energy in three, two, one!
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Three Key Insights
1. Saying No to Opportunities Is the Biggest Risk of All
Kat didn’t have a grand plan when she started working as a hostess at Hooters at age 15. She was raised by a single mom and needed money—for college, for an apartment, for gas. So she worked every job she could: hostess, waitress, bartender, even cook when the kitchen staff quit. “I accidentally learned how to run a restaurant because I was being opportunistic,” she told me. That relentless work ethic led to an unexpected phone call when she was 19: Would she join a traveling training team to open Hooters franchises around the world? First stop: Sydney, Australia. She didn’t have a passport. She’d never been on a plane. But she said yes.
When I asked her if she was naturally comfortable with risk, she flipped the script: “Given where I came from, making those decisions to do something unexpected or previously unknown, it felt like more of a risk to say no. If I wait until it’s perfect, I am going to be stuck.” She saw every unexpected opportunity as a chance to learn something new, gain confidence, and stack the odds in her favor. “Learning is my currency,” she said. “If I can learn, if I can do something new and different, I will feel alive.”
Takeaway: Don’t wait for the perfect moment or the perfect skill set—say yes to opportunities that scare you, because discomfort is where growth happens.
2. Strategic Brand Moves Require Courage (and Backup Plans)
In 2021, when Kat joined AG1 as President and COO, the company was called Athletic Greens. It had served them well—they were the market maker. But the name was creating limitations. “Are we only for athletes? Are we only greens?” Kat explained. The product is actually a comprehensive daily drink—a drinkable multivitamin plus greens, superfoods, phytonutrients, and pre- and probiotics. It simplifies the multiple products many people are already taking. But the name didn’t reflect that.
So they changed it. Not just the product name—the entire company name, the website (athleticgreens.com), search optimization, geo-tagging — everything. “The founder had said, ‘I wish I had changed it 10 years ago,’” Kat recalled. “But every time the topic came up, ‘Oh, we’re heading into another high season. Now’s not the time.’” It was never going to be”the right time,” Kat realized, so they made the call: the best time to change was yesterday, the next best time is today. They developed bridge strategies, backup plans, and thresholds for what would constitute failure. “It was a bit of a ‘burn the boats’ decision,” she said. The rebrand worked—and the naming architecture gave them room for future innovation, like AGZ, their sleep product.
Takeaway: If you know something needs to change, waiting for a “perfect time” means you’ll wait forever—make the move with thoughtful preparation and contingency plans.
3. Find Your Customers by Being Real About What You Stand For
AG1 isn’t cheap, and Kat knows it. She says it is important to be crystal clear about who your company serves—and who it doesn’t. “It can’t be everyone,” she said. On one end, there are people who don’t believe in supplements at all. “That’s not a battle I’m going to fight,” she explained. On the other end, there are biohackers taking a hundred separate pills with a team of physicians. AG1 isn’t necessarily for them either. It’s for the giant group in the middle—people who know they need nutritional support, who want quality and proof, and who value simplifying their supplement stack.
“How do I know it works? How do I know it is what it says it is?” Those are the questions Kat says their customers ask. AG1 answers with third-party certifications, clinical research, human trials, and peer-reviewed studies. “Quality is an easy word to type,” Kat said, “but it is not an easy nor inexpensive thing to prove.” By focusing on the people who value that proof and being transparent about their process, AG1 has built a fiercely loyal customer base—growing from $160 million in revenue in 2021 to a projected $600 million in 2024.
Takeaway: Know exactly who you’re serving and what they value, then deliver proof—not just promises—and your people will find you.
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Two Great Ways to Learn More
- Follow Kat Cole on Instagram/X at @KatCole and learn more about the science behind AG1 at drinkag1.com/science.
- Learn how saying ‘Yes’ to every opportunity helped this founder’s startup make $1 million.
One Question to Ponder
What’s one opportunity you’ve been turning down or postponing because you’re waiting to feel “ready”—and what would happen if you said yes to it this week?
Send your answer to howsuccesshappens@entrepreneur.com. We’ll read the best responses on a future episode of the show!
ABOUT HOW SUCCESS HAPPENS
Each episode of How Success Happens shares the inspiring, entertaining, and unexpected journeys that influential leaders in business, the arts, and sports traveled on their way to becoming household names. It’s a reminder that behind every big-time career, there is a person who persisted in the face of self-doubt, failure, and anything else that got thrown in their way.
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AG1 (formerly known as Athletic Greens) hit $600 million in revenue last year. As you drink in that healthy number, consider the unlikely career path of the company’s CEO, Kat Cole. Kat began her working life as a hostess at Hooters and worked her way up to VP of the company by age 26. She moved on to become president of Cinnabon, where she tripled the business’s EBITDA in two years, and eventually moved on to AG1.
Kat recounted her career journey on How Success Happens, giving an absolute killer masterclass on spotting opportunities, saying yes when it’s scary, and building brands that resonate with millions.
We’ve broken down Kat’s insights to help give your success a shot of energy in three, two, one!
