Liquid Death

Once Upon a Farm

Liquid Death

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) — Liquid Death sells canned water and flavored beverages through retail stores, Amazon, and DTC. Revenue comes from wholesale to retailers (7-Eleven, Whole Foods, Target, Walmart) and direct online sales.

The aluminum can format commands a premium over plastic water bottles — a single tallboy typically retails for $1.89 to $2.49, significantly more than a bottle of Dasani. The brand licensing and merchandise arm (selling branded t-shirts, hats, and absurd limited-edition products) adds high-margin revenue.

Advertising partnerships and brand collaborations provide additional income. The company has a subscription model called the "Country Club" for DTC recurring orders.

Once Upon a Farm

Premium refrigerated baby and toddler food sold through retail grocery stores and DTC. Once Upon a Farm products sit in the refrigerated section (not the shelf-stable baby food aisle), which signals freshness to parents and commands a price premium.

Squeeze pouches retail for $2.49 to $3.99 each — roughly 2x the price of shelf-stable competitors like Gerber. Revenue comes primarily from retail distribution (Whole Foods, Target, Kroger, Walmart, Costco) with a smaller DTC subscription business.

The cold-pressed HPP process is the key differentiator: it kills pathogens without heat, preserving nutrients, color, and flavor that heat processing destroys.

Liquid Death

Mike Cessario was a creative director who had worked at Netflix and various ad agencies. He noticed something at concerts and punk shows: everyone was drinking water out of plastic bottles, but nobody wanted to be seen doing it because water bottles looked lame next to a can of beer.

The branding insight was almost stupidly simple — put water in a tallboy can with aggressive heavy metal aesthetics, give it the most ridiculous name possible, and market it like an energy drink. He made a Facebook ad in 2018 for a product that didn't exist yet.

The ad went viral with 3 million views. He used the viral proof to raise seed funding and actually make the product.

The first cans shipped in 2019. By 2022, Liquid Death was in 60,000 retail locations and valued at over a billion dollars.

All from water in a can.

Once Upon a Farm

Cassandra Curtis was a food scientist who had developed cold-pressed juice products and saw no reason why the same technology couldn't be applied to baby food. Traditional baby food is heat-processed and shelf-stable, which extends shelf life but destroys nutrients and flavor.

Curtis started Once Upon a Farm in 2015 to make refrigerated, cold-pressed baby food using HPP (high-pressure processing) — the same technique used for premium juices. In 2017, the company recruited John Foraker, former CEO of Annie's Homegrown (which sold to General Mills for $820 million), as CEO, and Jennifer Garner as co-founder and chief brand officer.

Garner wasn't a celebrity endorser — she was involved in product development and became the public face of the brand. Foraker brought CPG scaling expertise from Annie's, and the combination of food science, a proven CPG operator, and a genuinely famous parent created a company that knew how to make the product, how to scale it, and how to sell it.

Liquid Death

Content-first marketing that acts like an entertainment company, not a beverage company. Liquid Death's social media posts, videos, and stunts generate millions of organic views — they've had a witch hex their water, made a real music album from hate comments, and partnered with adult film star Cherie DeVille for a commercial.

Retail distribution expansion from specialty stores to mass market (Walmart, Target, 7-Eleven). The aluminum can itself is a growth strategy — sustainability-minded consumers prefer cans over plastic, giving Liquid Death a values-based selling point beyond the comedy.

Celebrity investors (Tony Hawk, Steve Aoki, Wiz Khalifa) provided credibility and reach. Festival and live event sponsorships position the brand where its core demographic gathers.

The brand's absurdity is the moat — nobody else can copy the tone without looking like they're trying.

Once Upon a Farm

Retail distribution expansion — going from Whole Foods and natural grocery stores into mass market retailers like Target, Walmart, and Costco, where the volume lives. Jennifer Garner's involvement drives massive earned media — every interview she does mentions the brand.

John Foraker's CPG playbook from Annie's Homegrown provided a proven framework for scaling a premium organic brand into mainstream retail. Refrigerated placement is both a challenge and a moat — once you secure refrigerated shelf space, it's harder for competitors to follow because refrigerated supply chains are expensive to build.

Category expansion from baby food into toddler snacks and kids' meals increases the customer lifetime value. Subscription DTC business creates recurring revenue and direct customer relationships.

Liquid Death

It's still water. The product itself has zero differentiation from any other mountain spring water — the entire value is brand and marketing.

If the comedy stops being funny or the brand loses cultural relevance, there's nothing proprietary underneath. CPG margins are thin and retail shelf space is brutally competitive.

Scaling a premium water brand into mass market means competing on price with Coca-Cola (Dasani) and PepsiCo (Aquafina) who have unlimited distribution muscle. The $1.4 billion valuation requires the company to grow into a full beverage platform, not just a water brand — hence the expansion into iced tea and flavored water.

And there's a real question about whether the ironic marketing can sustain long-term or whether it's a cycle that peaks and fades.

Once Upon a Farm

Refrigerated supply chain is significantly more expensive and complex than shelf-stable — cold chain logistics, shorter shelf life, and refrigerated shelf space that grocery stores allocate sparingly. Price premium limits the addressable market — not every parent can or will pay $3.50 for a baby food pouch when Gerber costs $1.29.

Competing against Gerber (Nestle) and Beech-Nut who have decades of brand recognition and retailer relationships. The refrigerated baby food category is still small relative to shelf-stable, so Once Upon a Farm is both building the category and competing within it.

Scaling production while maintaining the cold-pressed HPP process requires specialized manufacturing. And the customer ages out — babies become toddlers become kids who want chicken nuggets, so the company has to keep expanding the product line to retain families.

Liquid Death

Mountain Water — still water sourced from the Austrian Alps, sold in 16.9 oz and 19.2 oz tallboy cans. Sparkling Water — same Alpine source, carbonated.

Flavored sparkling water in flavors like Severed Lime, Berry It Alive, and Mango Chainsaw — names that sound like horror movies. Iced tea line expanding beyond water into flavored beverages.

The Country Club subscription for recurring DTC delivery. Merchandise and limited-edition collaborations — from branded caskets to a $50,000 enema kit that sold out.

Every product name and packaging decision is designed to be the opposite of what a water brand would normally do.

Once Upon a Farm

Baby food pouches — cold-pressed fruit and vegetable blends for babies 5+ months, sold refrigerated. Toddler snack pouches — more complex blends with oats, chia seeds, and superfoods for older kids.

Dairy-free smoothie pouches for kids. Refrigerated oat bars for toddlers.

Meals for toddlers in refrigerated cups. All products are USDA Organic, non-GMO, with no added sugar and no preservatives.

The ingredient lists read like something a human would actually make — "organic mangoes, organic bananas, organic coconut cream" — not the chemistry experiment on the back of a Gerber pouch.

Liquid Death

Investors include Science Inc., Velvet Sea Ventures, Live Nation Entertainment, Conviction Partners, and celebrity investors including Tony Hawk, Steve Aoki, and Wiz Khalifa. Series D in 2022 valued the company at $700 million; by 2023, valuation reached $1.4 billion.

Once Upon a Farm

Investors include CAVU Consumer Partners, Beechwood Capital, S2G Ventures, and Jennifer Garner as co-founder. Total funding exceeds $100 million across multiple rounds.