How UVA Darden Alum Brian Goldberg Built a Career on Taking Smart Risks

SkinnyPop Popcorn. C4 Energy.  Waterloo Sparkling Water.

If you’ve heard of these brands, you’ve seen the impact of Brian Goldberg (MBA ’02), a University of Virginia Darden School of Business graduate whose career has spanned building, investing and advising some of the most recognizable names in consumer-packaged goods.

“I spent my 20s in a more traditional big-company track,” Goldberg said. “But as I was approaching my 30’s I wanted to pursue a more entrepreneurial career path.”

That reset took him from corporate finance to the fast-paced world of consumer startups, a leap that began with Sweet Leaf Tea, led to SkinnyPop Popcorn, and eventually inspired the creation of two ventures shaping the next generation of consumer brands: a venture studio called Redbud Brands and a PE fund called Asto Consumer Partners, both based in Austin, TX.

From the Corporate Track to the Startup World

Goldberg’s early career followed a conventional path. After earning his undergraduate degree from Tulane University in 1995 and spending a year in graduate school at the University of Georgia, he joined Ernst & Young for four years based in Atlanta, Zurich and Paris.

He then enrolled at Darden to open new doors. After earning his MBA, Goldberg joined Pfizer, then New Capital Partners, an investment firm where he discovered a defining opportunity.

“I was looking at investing in a startup beverage company based in Austin called Sweet Leaf Tea,” he said. “I ended up moving into that company as CFO/COO to partner with the founder and we built that company over about a five-year period and sold that business to Nestlé in 2011.”

Leaving behind a stable career for the Sweet Leaf Tea opportunity was a risk. “I took an 80% pay cut and did for the equity upside,” Goldberg said. “I bet on myself and bet on the company. And a few years later, we had a great exit to Nestlé.”

From SkinnyPop to Hershey

After Sweet Leaf Tea, Goldberg continued to expand in the consumer space. He served on the advisory board for Deep Eddy Vodka and High Brew Coffee and soon took on one of his most high-profile ventures: SkinnyPop Popcorn.

“When we acquired it in 2014 in partnership with private equity firm TA Associates, it only had four employees,” he said. “My partner and I had to really dive in. It was a real business, but it didn’t have the basics — phones or stuff like that. Within one year, we took the company public.”

A few years later, Amplify Snack Brands, SkinnyPop’s parent company, was sold to Hershey for $1.6 billion in 2018, one of the bigger exits of Goldberg’s career.

Following the public company experience, he wanted to get back into the emerging brand space, so he invested in and joined the BOD of a start-up called Waterloo Sparkling Water, which had a sizable exit to private equity in 2020.

Building Redbud and Asto Consumer

In 2020, Goldberg launched Redbud Brands, a venture studio and holding company focused on creating and scaling early-stage consumer businesses.

“We can also acquire brands or partner and do joint ventures with other large corporates, celebrities, influencers, etc.”

That same year, he began building an institutional investment strategy to back later-stage brands, now known as Asto Consumer Partners, a $350 million private equity fund.  Asto is focused on the F&B, Wellness, and Beauty sectors.  He invested in brands such as C4 Energy (which had a large exit to Keurig Dr. Pepper in 2022), Kitsch, Torani, BeatBox, Physician’s Choice, and Clean Skin Club.

Lessons From Darden

Goldberg said his time at Darden reshaped how he viewed leadership.

“I came in as an accounting major, so I was already very analytical and finance-focused,” he said.

“What I didn’t fully appreciate until Darden was the importance of the soft skills and organizational behavior. We thought finance and quantitative stuff were what made people stand out in their careers. But in reality, it’s the relationships and how you manage and work with people.”

Those lessons still guide how he leads. “I’ve always had an open-door policy — come talk to me about anything,” he said. “I’m very approachable.”

Taking the Leap

For current Darden students and recent graduates, Goldberg’s advice is simple: take smart risks.

“I’m a big believer in taking more risk than you’re maybe comfortable with while you’re young,” he said. “If things didn’t work out I left the traditional corporate track to join a start-up iced tea company, I knew I could always go back. But those big leaps are where you can learn and grow the most.”