Congrats, You Sold Your Company. Now the Real Communication Work Begins

Wonderbelly just got acquired by P&G. This is a massive milestone for the founders and a meaningful opportunity for the CPG giant that now owns their future. I’m genuinely rooting for Wonderbelly to thrive inside the machine, and for P&G to be the kind of steward that turns a quirky, beloved upstart into a multi‑billion‑dollar powerhouse.

Before I go any further, let me be clear about what I am and what I’m not.

I don’t know the Wonderbelly founders.

I don’t know the inner workings of P&G.

I’ve never worked inside their system.

And I’m not the founder of a CPG brand — just the founder of Storyline Advisors, a communications consultancy.

But I have lived through the first four years when a founder‑led brand gets absorbed into a global conglomerate. I was the Director of PR and Digital Media for Honest Tea shortly after The Coca‑Cola Company acquired it, and what I learned in those early days is exactly the kind of perspective I wish someone had handed me on day one.

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The Honeymoon Is Real — And It’s Glorious

When Coke bought Honest Tea in 2011, the early wins were undeniable.

·      Distribution exploded.

·      We started sourcing millions more pounds of organic and fair-trade certified ingredients.

·      Doors opened that we never could’ve opened on our own.

 It felt like we had finally made it.

But here’s the part founders rarely see coming:

Your budget doesn’t necessarily go up.

Your cost of doing business does.

Everything becomes:

·       slower

·       more expensive

·       more scrutinized

·       more political

Not because anyone is wrong.

Because the system is built to protect itself.

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Big Companies Don’t Kill Scrappiness. The System Does.

Honest Tea was built on an idea, the blood and sweat of two brilliant founders and a team of positive-go-getters who didn’t take “no” for an answer.  

They had a great-tasting product, instinct, hustle, and a little bit of rule‑bending.

Nothing illegal — just the kind of scrappiness that makes a startup a startup.

But inside Coca‑Cola, scrappiness looks like risk.

Suddenly:

·       lawyers review every word and even the most innocent of them becomes a lawsuit threat

·       public affairs urge caution and ask that all interviews be conducted through written Q&A, not phone or in-person conversations

·       brand managers push for mass‑market formulas

·       agencies must meet corporate insurance requirements and that’s not cheap

·       creativity gets replaced by process

And while we had very supportive partners (too many to name), even they couldn’t let certain things through.

 Coke wasn’t the villain.

 The people weren’t the problem.

 The system was simply designed for scale, not scrappiness or soul.

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Here’s the Part No One Talks About: Internal Comms Becomes Your Full‑Time Job

When you’re a small brand, internal comms is basically shouting across the office or texting the entire sales team. Everyone knows the founder. Everyone knows the story. Everyone believes. You’re a family, not a matrix. 

But once you’re inside a giant, the game changes quickly. 

Suddenly you’re working with:

·       people who didn’t choose to work for your brand

·       people who rotate every 18–24 months

·       people juggling multiple brands at once

·       people who see your product as a line item, not a mission

And here’s the plot twist no founder sees coming: This is where brands die.

Not in the market — inside the building.

Because now you’re navigating:

·       internal friction

·       risk‑averse partners

·       lawyers reviewing social posts like they’re nuclear codes

·       brand managers who want to “optimize” the formula

·       agency requirements that kill scrappiness

·       processes designed to protect the company, not your magic

None of this is malicious.

None of it is personal.

It’s just what happens when scrappy meets scale.

And this is what Wonderbelly’s founders are walking into.

The machine will give them reach, resources, and distribution.

But it will not give them belief.

They have to build that themselves.

Inside P&G, internal comms becomes more important than external.

Your job isn’t to get consumers excited — it’s to get your own people excited.

Because if the people inside the building don’t carry the flame, no amount of PR, distribution, or advertising will save you.

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The Bottom Line

Selling your company is a dream.

Keeping your brand alive afterward is the real work.

Wonderbelly’s founders have a rare opportunity — and a narrow window.

If they become evangelists inside P&G, the brand has a shot at becoming a billion‑dollar success story.

If they don’t, the machine will do what machines do.

And the magic that made the brand special will fade — quietly, slowly, and then all at once.