The Moment series features interviews with extremely successful people who discuss what inspired them to take the risk and disclose the pivotal moment that altered the course of their lives and careers.

Michael Kirban laboriously started his company from scratch and did so for five years of his life. Then, one of the most well-known brands in the world and his biggest rival reached an agreement.

We’re dead, holy shit, he remembers thinking.

Kirban, forty-eight, is the executive chairman and co-founder of The Vita Coco Company, which began selling its brand-name coconut water in 2004. According to Kirban, the company was leading the then-emerging coconut water category and generating at least $15 million in revenue annually after just five years of operation.

The Coca-Cola Company hinted that it would stop that momentum quickly. The massive beverage company purchased a 20% share in Zico, a coconut water company that debuted concurrently with Vita Coco, in 2009. 2013 saw the complete acquisition of Zico by Coca-Cola.

Already, Vita Coco and Zico’s rivalry was intense and almost vulgar. Kirban and co-founder Ira Liran were faced with a decision: fight one of the biggest companies in the world on our own or find our own big-money partner?

They chose the second option.

As of Thursday afternoon, Vita Coco’s market capitalization was $1.6 billion, making it a formidable entity in its own right. According to the company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, it holds almost half of the market for coconut water in the United States.

Zico, meanwhile, found it difficult to stand out under the enormous Coca-Cola brand. In 2021, its founder Mark Rampolla repurchased it for an undisclosed amount.

Here, Kirban talks about the strategy he devised to defeat a giant, how to make your own luck, and why, looking back, he wouldn’t change a thing.

Have you ever considered the possible outcomes for Vita Coco in the absence of those agreements?

Obviously, any success story depends a great deal on timing and luck. I genuinely think that.

But, I would add: It’s also crucial to create those opportunities and moments. Those turning points are not accidental.

I try to identify the next major turning point every six months. Which major growth pillar will come next? What will be this company’s next big breakthrough? And that’s what I aim to accomplish.