Startups & Venture · August 2026
Guy Raz had asked how Nixie flavours its sparkling water without the chemical extraction most 'natural flavour' brands rely on. Dawes explained the organic process — no hexane, no gas extraction — and then undercut her own selling point in the same breath. She has spent her career in organic food, starting with Late July snacks.
Transcript
But if you look at like the number one selling products, there really wasn't like sparkling water, sodas. I mean, that whole section was not.
All right. Let me ask you about this because you want to make an organic sparkling water beverage. And we had Spindrift on the show years ago. And so I know that's a different kind of product because they are using fruit juice and they have some kind of proprietary process that enables them to make it shelf stable. Many of the, you know, the sparkling water brands use something called like natural flavorings, which is tricky because in some cases you need to use chemicals to extract the flavor from fruits. You were going to use a different process, right? You were going to use different ways to flavor the beverage.
Well, we're just using organic flavors. So basically you're taking organic ingredients and extracting them through organically approved methods. And then, you know, you add them to the filtered water. And you basically just can't use the chemicals that you would use in a natural flavor. Like you can't use like hexane and those type of like gas type chemicals to get the flavors out. And so, you know, I think what's nice about organic flavors is that you know, you basically know what's not in it. But I mean, one of the things that I've learned about being in the organic food business over these years is that I'm very passionate about it and I care a lot about organic. But, you know, I don't think the average consumer cares nearly as much as I do about organic flavors and their sparkling water.
Yeah. Before I forget, so you start this brand called Nixie and Nixie. Just briefly tell me the name, the story behind the name.
Sure. So I started Nixie Beverage Company. So Nixie is another name for my nickname, which is Nikki. And also it's the, you know, the Norse sort of mermaid mythical creature, which, you know, alludes to, you know, my connection to water and the cape and the fact that we are water-based products. Right.
Right. And did you, in terms of like starting this business and funding it and figuring out how structure it, I imagine, because you learned so many lessons from your previous two companies, what was going to be different? Were you going to self-finance this? Were you going to have completely different terms for investors? What were some of the things that, because of your previous experience, how did you approach this brand differently?