AG1’s green with envy over the gummy-ification of wellness

Don’t get AG1 CEO Kat Cole started on the science of gummies. “You can’t put AG1, as it is, in a gummy,” she tells me when we speak in mid-May. Launched in 2010, AG1 (previously Athletic Greens) is best known for its all-in-one nutritional supplement, a drink-your-greens powder with hints of vanilla and pineapple. AG1 became a defining brand of the early wellness era as it helped bring supplements, now an industry worth $70 billion, into the mainstream. AG1 packed nutrition into a single scoop of powder, poured millions of dollars into research, and leaned on a prominent roster of science-y wellness influencers to promote the product. At the brand’s peak growth, everyone from Olympian Allyson Felix to NYU professor Scott Galloway to podcasting neuroscientist Andrew Huberman (also an investor in AG1) was flacking for the company. The business formula worked, as those podcast listeners converted into subscribers with a daily AG1 habit. At this point, some people have subscribed to AG1’s monthly powder shipments for more than a decade. The company reported $600 million in 2024 sales. (Below, I’ll tell you what Cole has to say about its most recent financial performance.) Lately, though, the world around AG1 has shifted. Wellness is entering a new, “treat yourself” era, with candy-like gummy supplements exploding on social media and flying off store shelves. Olly, Goli, Lemme, Arrae, BelliWelli, Troomy, Create: The list of brands goes on. Grüns, known for its bear-shaped “superfoods greens gummies,” launched in 2023, quickly rocketed to success, and sold to Unilever in April for a reported $1.2 billion. Gummies may be all the rage, but AG1 has held fast to its foundation. Cole, who joined the company in 2021 as president and COO and took the helm at the wellness pioneer in 2024, says AG1’s philosophy is to “follow the science.”And she’s adamant that path does not lead to gummies.Which sets up an innovator’s dilemma, as the industry stalwart faces the upstarts behi