Global business news twenty four hours a day at Bloomberg dot com, the Radio plus Mobile Act and on your radio. This is a Bloomberg Business Flash from Bloomberg World Handquarters. I'm Charlie Pelt. A mixed picture for stocks, the down turning higher. This update brought to you by Sage Summit, the world's largest gathering of small and medium businesses, featuring Sir Richard Branson, July twenty to twenty eight in Chicago. Register with promo code business at Stage Summit dot com
for just ninety nine dollars. Stocks slipping from a record following a mix of corporate earnings reports. We've got the SMP five hundred index down five at one to drop of three tenths of one percent down. Industrials up three to eighteen thousand, five hundred thirty six, little change there, Nez stack down twenty two points to five thousand thirty three, A dropped there of four tenths of one percent, Gold up three seventy the third teen three, a gain of
three tenths of one percent. And crude oil is down one point four percent, down sixty three cents of arrel West Texas Intermediate crude forty four sixty two. I'm Charlie Pellett. That's a Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to taking Stock with Kathleen Hay and Pim Box on Bloomberg Radio. Would you like to build a great business? Well, one of the things you might want to think about before you go on that trail is to read a new book
written by Mark Rampola. He is the co founder and the managing partner of power Plant Ventures, but he may be more widely known as the founder and the former chief executive of Zico Coconut Water that was eventually sold to Coca Cola. Here to tell us more in studio is Mark Rampola. Mark, thanks very much for coming in and congratulations on the new book. Thanks. It's great to be here, all right. The title of the book is called High Hanging Fruit. Build something great by going where
no one else will. You looked up at a certain point in your career, and not only did you see that you needed to fill a void in it, but you also saw something tangible and real which gave you an idea. Tell us the story. Sure phim So I
was originally a Peace Corps volunteer in Central America. Soon after college, and some years later I was back again in Latin America running a multinational operations for international paper with my wife, married, with a couple of kids, and was just kind of bored and not too thrilled with where my career was going and what it looked like to be a corporate executive at a big corporation. So I was looked around for ideas, what could I start,
what's unique? What could I contribute to the world, And somehow, another week came across coconut water. Well, when you say somehow you came across coconut water, you are actually consuming coconut water. Your family was consuming it where you lived in Latin America. That's right, that's right. Most of the locals all across Latin America, in fact parts of Asia and in Africa that are tropical, all drink coconut water. So we drank it like everyone else had it. At
the beach. It was known as a safe source of clean water, high and a your lights. In fact, you know, the time that really hit hard for me was when my wife was pregnant with our second baby. She was having morning sickness. It's really the only thing she could hold down. Now, as far as the business plan, imagine that people would say to you, coconut water. Who would want to drink coconut water? There's no there's no market for coconut water in the United States. Did you get that? Along?
My god? Everyone, I think, without a doubt, most people thought I was I was at least a little crazy, if not completely crazy. First of all, to try to launch any new beverage business in this in this day and age, even even fifteen years ago. It's incredibly capital intensive and very tough. But the idea that we're going to convince American consumers to drink coconut water, that nobody had a clue about building a whole new category. It's it's it's it's a tough task. And yeah, a lot
of people thought I was crazy. All right, So we're gonna hold the crazy for just a moment because there might be another crazy part of this, which is doing good or contributing not just to the bottom line, but to something large or tell us about that. Yeah, well, look, this started out for me personally, um as well as my wife, both of us believing, hey, if we're going to dedicate the five, ten, fifteen years that it may and very often does take to get a new business
off the ground. It better fulfill us more than just on the bottom line, right, It better be more than just about money, because we're going to dedicate time, talent, treasure, a lot of effort, a lot of stress, and a lot of risk to go after something. What does it really mean to us? So fortunately we got on the same page and in fact, you know, really start to set the bar higher. How are we going to build a business that not only makes money but makes a
positive impact in the world. In this case, it was bringing a healthy beverage to market, it was making a positive impact in the communities that sourced it, and it was making a positive impact on all the people that were associated with our business. Part of the information that I got from High Hanging Fruit is that your program or your desire to create a business needs to be consistent with who you are and what you want for
your personal life. Yeah. I think that's true, Phim and I do get into that in quite some detail in the book, and it worked for me. But what's also true is I've seen this happen again and again and again with entrepreneurs, and I think in today's obscenely competitive marketplace. That is actually a way to differentiate because when you think about investors and employees and partners and consumers, everybody wants to be part of something more than just a business.
They want to be part of a mission to the to the extent that they know the founder or founders are really committed to this at their heart of hearts, I think it is more likely that a business is going to be successful, and if not, almost a requirement for success today. Tell us about what you're doing at power Plant Ventures, because I think that definitely connects with
what you're just described. It does. It does. So we believe my partners and I and are investors believe that we have a two trillion dollar global food system that's fundamentally broken. It's not delivering health and wellness and nutrition and certainly not doing it in a sustainable way. So we think there's gonna be In fact, already are thousands of entrepreneurs that are trying to remake that system, and what we want to do is find fund them and
help them scale and win. The reality is that big food and beverage companies are losing ten billion a year off their top line because consumers are looking for something healthy or something more sustainable, something that's good for them and good for the planet. And we believe that there's a huge opportunity that businesses entrepreneurs are gonna capitalize on. Now, if someone out there listening to you can check at least half of these boxes, they should somehow get in
touch with you. Yeah, we're welcome, welcome to talk to them. Market power Plant VC dot com is the way to is the way to reach me. Um. Yeah, we're looking for those breakthrough entrepreneurs, those that both believe and are committed and have a passion for what they're doing, but are also smart, effective business people, and that combination is the sort of visionaries that are going to break through. You're still drinking coconut water day, every day, all right,
Thanks very much for coming in and spending time. Mark Rampola is the co founder and managing partner of power Plant Ventures, and we're celebrating the release of his new book entitled High Hanging Fruit. Build something Great by going where no one else will. Thank you very much, Thank you. This is taking stock. I'm pim Fox taking a look at the SMP five right now, down about a quarter of a percent lower by about six points at six. Coming up on taking stock will be taking stock of
the Department of Justice. They may be looking to block some major healthcare deals. This is Bloomberg coming up on taking stock. We're gonna take stock of online travel. We've got Steve Hafner. He is the chief executive and the co founder of Kayak. We're gonna tell you how they're using artificial intelligence to provide better travel services.