When energy drinks took over the beverage aisle, founders responded the predictable way: They built more energy drinks.

Stronger. Faster. Higher caffeine counts.

Olivia Ferdi saw a different kind of opportunity.

“In the US, sleep and stress are in the top three health concerns — above weight loss and gut health,” she says. But the drinks industry was obsessed with stimulation and performance.

So instead of chasing the energy boom, Ferdi and her cofounder built TRIP — a calming beverage brand designed for “calm in the everyday chaos.”

Today TRIP is valued at roughly $300 million, sold in more than 50,000 stores worldwide, backed by celebrity investors like Joe Jonas and Alessandra Ambrosio, and widely credited with helping shape the modern calming-drink category.

They didn’t compete inside the hot category. They defined another category entirely.

Your Life Is Market Research

Here’s how it all started.

Seven weeks before their wedding, Ferdi’s husband (now co-founder) Daniel Khoury had a knee accident that required surgery. “Everyone was like, cancel the wedding, it’s not going to happen,” she recalls. Desperate to help him recover, they started experimenting with natural adaptogens and functional ingredients.

The results were transformational. “Seven weeks after surgery, not only was he walking me down the aisle, but dancing all weekend long,” she says. “Our friends and family were blown away.”

It also got the couple wondering: What are these natural ingredients? This was 2018, long before the current wellness boom. They’d never heard of things like ashwagandha and lion’s mane.

As she researched the market, she noticed the white space left behind by the energy drink boom. “I don’t want actually to be hyped up all the time,” Ferdi realized. “We don’t often think about how growth in one area reveals an opportunity in another.”

It’s a great reminder to founders: Your personal frustrations and discoveries aren’t just anecdotes — they’re potential market intelligence. Ferdi’s experience revealed a gap between the proven benefits of functional ingredients and consumer accessibility.

“I think centering yourself as a customer first is an incredibly powerful way of starting to understand a customer need, an addressable market, and a potential gap in a category,” she says.

Define Your White Space Precisely

When you identify white space in a market, you’re also discovering a whole new set of problems. Instead of trying to outmaneuver your competitors, you must make an entirely new argument to consumers — proving why people need your solution to a problem that nobody else was talking about.

That’s something Ferdi and Khoury thought about a lot. They wanted to position TRIP broadly enough to build a big business, but specific enough to be unique and own a new perspective.

“Not one person’s chaos is the same,” Ferdi explains. “Whether it’s a nurse clocking in for a night shift or a school teacher with screaming kids, that is a daily reality.”

The brand often uses the phrase “calm in the everyday chaos,” which illustrates the fine line it wants to walk. Notice the language:

• “Calm” differentiates from energy/stimulation
• “Everyday” makes it accessible, not just for yoga enthusiasts or wellness experts
• “Chaos” acknowledges that everyone’s stress is different and valid

This positioning also allowed TRIP to avoid the “hydration for everybody” trap that kills many beverage brands — where you try to be something to everyone, but appear generic for nobody.

Instead, TRIP was able to target multiple types of consumers without diluting the brand promise.

“Whether it’s a school mum of three doing the drop off, a father woken up by their child, restless nights, busy work days, we were like, ‘I can’t think of anyone, not only friends and family, but anyone that wouldn’t benefit from something like this,'” Ferdi says.

Use Strategic Partnerships

A unique positioning also helps TRIP secure unique partnerships — most notably with the popular meditation app Calm.

The partnership began casually: Ferdi met Calm’s founder at an event, and both were fans of each other’s products. They got talking about the potential to work together, began with a small digital campaign in the UK, and expanded into retail shelves. TRIP has now released a few flavors with Calm’s logo on the front of the can, and a QR code drives users to a special deal for a Calm membership.

“My main thing is, you never know what can happen,” she says. “When you find the right partner that tells a story about your brand, think big.”

For entrepreneurs seeking to carve out their own space, Ferdi has two major pieces of advice:

First, she says, look closely at the market — because major trends will often tell you about the hidden major gaps in fulfilling consumers’ needs.

And second: Think of your own experiences as a consumer. What problems weren’t solved for you? What gaps did you experience in the market?

The answers to those questions could create the next $300 million (and up) brand.