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Kat Cole

Chief Executive Officer, AG1

Search every verified Kat Cole interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Kat Cole, CEO of AG1, discussed the company's recent product expansion and market strategy in an October 2026 appearance. She stated that AG1 launched AG1 Pro, a version with creatine and HMB for gut and muscle support, which she described as a "sellout success" that the company cannot keep in stock. Cole attributed this demand to momentum from GLP-1 use and the longevity movement, noting that people of various ages are gravitating toward advanced foundational formulas. She also commented on the evolving supplement market, saying that while barriers to entry have lowered, AG1's 16-year history and peer-reviewed clinical trials differentiate it as the industry shifts from influencer-driven marketing to agentic search. In an August 2026 podcast interview, Cole reflected on her leadership philosophy and career, including her rise from restaurant hostess to executive and her work turning around Cinnabon after the Great Recession and steering businesses through COVID. She emphasized the importance of confronting reality directly, using data to communicate performance issues, and taking action over excessive deliberation. Cole also elaborated on AG1's company values, particularly "one spectacular life," which she said prioritizes health, family, learning, and humility rather than leisure, and is tied to the company's focus on high performance and growth.

Recent appearances

  • From College Dropout to CEO of AG1 | Kat Cole

    October 23, 2026 · 📺 Ken Rideout

    Kat Cole grew up in Jacksonville in a family where the men drank, the money was tight and almost nobody kept a job. When she was nine her mom left her father, worked multiple jobs and fed three girls on a $10 a week food budget for three years. Kat’s answer when her mom said they were leaving: what took you so long. She was selling jeans in a mall at 15 to help the family, started at Hooters as a hostess in high school, and by 20 the company had moved her into the corporate office to run training and openings around the world. Vice president at 26. At 32 Roark Capital handed her Cinnabon, 400…

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  • Some Math Problems, Scott Morton Breaks His Silence, Arsenal-2, Porsche Mission S

    October 07, 2026 · 📺 TBPN

    00:06:15 𝕏 Timeline Reactions 00:10:55 Some Math Problems 00:25:12 SpaceX's $40B NVIDIA Chip Deal 00:35:59 Porsche Mission S 00:52:27 Walter Russell Mead, a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute, discusses the decline of mid-20th-century democratic capitalism and society’s transition into an uncertain technological era. He explores AI’s economic and geopolitical effects, human adaptability, the balance between state power and individual liberty, and declining trust in experts while expressing optimism about technology’s potential to improve life. 01:32:01 Kat Cole, CEO of AG1, discusses…

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  • Kat Cole: Growth, Disruption, and the Habits of Extraordinary Leaders

    August 25, 2026 · 📺 FranklinCovey

    How do you lead through constant disruption without losing sight of people, purpose, or performance? In this episode, Kat Cole—CEO of AG1, former president of Cinnabon, and longtime operator and investor—joins Jennifer Colosimo to share the pivotal moments that shaped her philosophy of leadership. Kat reflects on rising from restaurant hostess to executive, turning Cinnabon around after the Great Recession, and steering franchise and hospitality businesses through COVID when revenue evaporated overnight. She explains why “being clear-eyed” about what’s broken, focusing on what truly matters, a…

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  • How AG1 Tripled Revenue under CEO Kat Cole: Former Hooters Girl & Cinnabon President on Health Drink

    May 22, 2026 · 📺 Max Branstetter

    AG1 (formerly Athletic Greens) is everywhere these days. How did AG1 CEO Kat Cole help triple their revenue? Hear the former Hooters Girl & Cinnabon President share the "secret recipe" of the top daily health drink. Kat Cole, the CEO of AG1, joins Episode 359 of the Wild Business Growth podcast to share her journey from Hooters Girl and President of Cinnabon to tripling the revenue of AG1 (formerly Athletic Greens), the top daily health drink. Hear why Cinnabon smells so good, the unique way Kat became CEO of AG1, what’s led to the growth and tripling revenue of AG1, AG1's marketing strategy,…

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  • The Serious Business of Play with Burning Man and AG1 CEOs

    May 19, 2026 · 📺 Summit

    At a time when institutions and leaders are being tested like never before, what if the keys to resilience and reinvention aren't rigid plans, but imagination, joy and the willingness to play? AG1 CEO and unstoppable builder Kat Cole sits down for a conversation with Marian Goodell, CEO of Burning Man, to explore how improvisation, creative risk-taking and deep purpose fuel adaptive leadership. Together, they’ll dive into what it means to scale a movement or product without losing its soul, how to stay resilient amid shifting political and cultural pressures and why cultivating joy isn’t a dis…

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  • AG1 CEO Kat Cole on turning customer feedback into growth

    April 09, 2026 · 📺 Yahoo Finance

    AG1 CEO, Kat Cole, sits down with Host, Elizabeth Gore, to explore how every job, no matter how small, can prepare you to build and lead a company. Cole shares lessons from her rise through roles at Hooters and beyond, emphasizing the power of staying close to customers, focusing on one great product, and learning from mistakes. The conversation also dives into leadership, decision-making, health habits, and practical strategies entrepreneurs can use to grow both their businesses and themselves. == Yahoo Finance provides free stock ticker data, up-to-date news, portfolio management resource…

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  • S1E1: Kat Cole (CEO, AG1) on Compounding Leadership and Building Enduring Consumer Brands

    March 17, 2026 · 📺 Maveron

    How do you scale a consumer brand without losing the trust that made it work in the first place? In this episode of Maverick Mindset, Natalie Dillon sits down with Kat Cole, CEO of AG1, to talk leadership, operational discipline, and what it really takes to build something that lasts. Kat’s path didn’t follow a traditional script — from opening restaurant franchises as a teenager to leading global brands through restructures, recessions, and rapid growth. They dig into AG1’s evolution from a single-product subscription to a multi-channel brand, including national retail expansion. Kat shar…

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  • The Secret Behind AG1’s Success | CEO Kat Cole Explains

    March 15, 2026 · 📺 Ryan Hawk

    The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk www.LearningLeader.com My Guest: Kat Cole is the CEO of AG1. She shares the attributes of leaders who have sustained excellence over an extended period of time. Courage. Confidence. Curiosity. Humility. AG1 has grown from a $150m company to doing more than half a billion since Kat has been there. Chapters: 00:00 – The AG1 Story: From Startup to $500M+ Business 00:23 – “Sometimes the CEO Should Just Shut Up” 00:43 – The Two Leadership Questions Kat Uses to Decide When to Step Aside 01:00 – Returning to The Learning Leader Show (11 Years Later) 01:06 – Wh…

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  • 328. The AG1 Growth Strategy with Kat Cole, CEO of AG1

    March 02, 2026 · 📺 Fitt Insider

    Today, I'm joined by Kat Cole, CEO of AG1. Evolving from a $160M single-SKU brand to $500M+ revenue, AG1’s in hypergrowth mode — adding flavors and sleep aid AGZ, entering Costco, and investing $30M in clinical research. In this episode, we discuss building foundational capabilities before scaling complexity. We also cover: • Handling criticism and competition • Insights from early operational mishaps • Strategies for retail expansion and packaging redesign Subscribe to the podcast → insider.fitt.co/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter → insider.fitt.co/subscribe Follow us on LinkedIn…

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  • AG1’s CEO Kat Cole on Why Product Beats Marketing Every Time

    February 26, 2026 · 📺 Operators Podcast

    Matt Bertulli, CEO of Pela Case and Lomi, and Mike Beckham, CEO of Simple Modern, sit down with Kat Cole, CEO of AG1, to trace one of the most unconventional executive careers in consumer. From hostess at Hooters at 17 to vice president by 26, to leading a multi-billion dollar restaurant empire through the pandemic, Kat's path defies every traditional playbook. The conversation covers how crisis sharpens leadership into an arrow, why Kat’s “Hotshot Rule” has been a weekly practice for nearly two decades, and how AG1 quietly spent two years shoring up operations and clinical science before unl…

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  • Kat Cole Keynote Speaker (Official Trailer)

    February 18, 2026 · 📺 SpeakerVideos

    Kat Cole is CEO at AG1, a global health company focused on foundational nutrition. In her role, she is responsible for leading AG1’s next phase of growth, global expansion, and innovation. Cole is a seasoned business leader and sought-after advisor with more than 20 years of operational, brand, and executive leadership experience. Prior to AG1, she was President and COO at Focus Brands, where she oversaw the company’s nine presidents and businesses generating billions in sales around the world. In addition to her role at AG1, she serves on the boards of Slice and Milk Bar. She has been a Young…

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  • From Hooters to Building a Health Empire: Rewriting the Wellness Playbook with Kat Cole

    January 26, 2026 · 📺 ADWEEK

    Recorded on the sidelines of Brandweek, this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK features Ryan Joe in conversation with AG1 CEO Kat Cole. Kat shares her journey from a Hooters hostess to leading a global wellness brand, unpacking how resilience and intuition shape bold leadership decisions. She explains AG1’s evolution from a single-product DTC business to a multi-product, multi-channel brand, including its first global “Good Morning Moon” campaign created in-house with Rick Rubin. Cole also reveals why AG1 redirected marketing spend into $20M of clinical research, upgraded its core formula, and posi…

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“The answer is yes. There's definitely continued lowered barriers to entry to make a thing, market a thing, stand up a site. But for us being 16 years in and actually having more peer-reviewed and published human clinical trials and a lot more documented research over the years on both our ingredients and our finished formula. What's interesting is we're moving from just the marketing era where the hype, the fear, the”

“We have continued the march to meet customers where they are, launching additional products, new versions of AG1. We launched AG1 Pro with creatine and HMB for gut and muscle support. It's been a sellout success. We can't keep it in stock. I think that is a real indication of the momentum coming from GLP-1s and people wanting more gut and muscle support, but also the longevity movement. Women, men, all ages from youn”

“An unbelievable commitment to quality. You don't get this much repeat purchase. Think about it. People are writing a check, metaphorically speaking, right? it's hitting their bank account every month or if they're on our three-month plan every 3 months. Either way, you are being reminded. You don't set it and forget it, right? You are being reminded that you are paying for this thing and it is showing up physically a”

“Well, a nonprofit is still a business. And our relationship with money has evolved. And just like our culture and our intention out in the world has evolved, so has our relationship with money. It's easy to assume that as an event, if you look at through the lens of being an event, that oh well, we need to raise money selling tickets. But we've all watched the cost of everything go up. We've watched the cost of festi”

“The business is a nonprofit. We've been a nonprofit since I think 2011 we got the nonprofit status. We have 18 board members. We have 145 regular year-round employees. We have about a thousand temporary employees that are just seasonal for Black Rock City and about 10,000 participants engaged directly in making Black Rock City happen, but I like to say that Burning Man has 70,000 volunteers. So I hate using those fig”

“When I first joined, again, we were growing at multiples, not percent, which is a big operating strain when you're in the hundreds of millions and you're growing at, you know, 2x, two to 3x. And it's a subscription, mostly subscription business. Most people drink this close to daily, and as a result, having it delivered where you want, when you want, is a more convenient and better value for something that's that hig”

The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →