How This Natural, Sugar-Free Soda Is Making Major Inroads With ConsumersCoke and Pepsi, look out. Zevia has its eye on you.

It all changed for Paddy Spence during a trip to Whole Foods in March 2010. That's when the food-industry veteran, who had given up sugar cold turkey a decade earlier, discovered Zevia. The zero-calorie soda was sweetened with stevia, a plant-based natural sweetener he and his wife used instead of sugar.

六个月拉ter Spence, who had worked at food company Kashi and founded natural-foods research firm SPINS, purchased a lot more than a six-pack: He brought together a group of investors and executives to buy the then-3-year-old company for an undisclosed sum.