Beverage Entrepreneur Mike Repole ’91SVC, ’11HON, Shares Insights with St. John’s Business Students

Mike Repole ’91SVC, ’11HON, a successful serial entrepreneur and a leading supporter of St. John’s University Red Storm Athletics, shared professional insights and life lessons with students in The Peter J. Tobin College of Business on February 24 in a two-hour discussion that drew upon his background as a St. John’s undergraduate and, later, as a beverage entrepreneur.        

Mr. Repole, known best as the cofounder of the vitaminwater and smartwater and BODYARMOR sports drink, advised St. John’s students to seek career opportunities that cultivate “learning over earning” and reinforced the importance of self-assessment and personal growth, advocating for a balance between professional and personal responsibilities.

“Go out there and get real-life experience,” Mr. Repole told St. John’s students, several aspiring to entrepreneurial careers like Mr. Repole’s. “Work for a small company. Even if it goes bankrupt, you will have learned something.”

“What you do with that learning is more important than what you are going to do with the money you might have made,” Mr. Repole continued. 

The son of a waiter and a seamstress, Mr. Repole grew up in Middle Village, NY, near St. John’s Queens, NY, campus. He attended local Catholic schools and studied Sport Management at St. John’s.

Admittedly not a great student, but gifted in salesmanship, Mr. Repole worked in sales for a small company, Mistic Beverage, Inc. after graduating from St. John’s. He later joined Crystal Geyser Water Company as Vice President of Sales. In 1999, Mr. Repole and his partner, Darius Bikoff, founded Energy Brands, commonly known as Glacéau, which produced Smartwater and Vitaminwater. The founders were credited with launching the enhanced water beverage space. In 2007, the founders sold the company to The Coca-Cola Company for more than $4 billion.

In 2011, Mr. Repole decided to get back into the beverage industry and created the better-for-you sports drink, BODYARMOR. In 2014, Kobe Bryant made a major investment in the company.

Mr. Repole was determined not to let Mr. Bryant’s investment in BODYARMOR fail.

“We were having dinner, and I told Kobe that this had a one percent chance of succeeding,” Mr. Repole recalled. “He looked at me and said, ‘One percent? I was born in the United States, moved to Italy at a young age, and then came back here. I went to private school in Philadelphia and got drafted into the NBA [National Basketball Association] when I was 17. My parents had to sign my contract because I was not 18. I got married at 20, and I have five NBA titles, Most Valuable Player awards, and two Olympic gold medals. That one percent is the best odds I have ever had in my life.”

In 2021, The Coca-Cola Company purchased BODYARMOR for $8 Billion.

Mr. Repole, who served as the University’s undergraduate Commencement speaker in 2011, attributes his success to relationship building as much as any business savviness. He also remains steadfastly religious, reminding students throughout his discussion of the role faith and family played in his personal and professional accomplishments.

For those insights, students filled a second-floor presentation room at Tobin. Students listened to Mr. Repole’s talk and then questioned him about his enterprising spirit, love of St. John’s, and more. 

“I have always been someone who considered himself an entrepreneur,” said Panagiotis Papastefanou, a junior Interdisciplinary Business student from the Bronx, NY, and President of the Entrepreneurship Alliance at St. John’s. “This was an opportunity to gain valuable insights and information from a self-made billionaire who can help you avoid unnecessary or mistaken steps.” 

“His ability to connect with each and every one of us while still speaking to a large group was incredible,” added Isabella Patterson, a junior Marketing major from San Diego, CA. “His experience working with Kobe—and the two of them defying the odds no matter what people said—is a great story. To have experienced that level of success and how it happened is really incredible." 

Married with one daughter and living in south Florida, Mr. Repole regularly attends Red Storm Men’s Basketball games in New York City. As he was introduced by Vice President and Director of Athletics Ed Kull ’05MBA, a former colleague at Glacéau, word came that the Red Storm had improved to seventh in the latest Associated Press college basketball rankings. 

“Well done, guys,” Mr. Repole said.

Mr. Repole then concluded his discussion by wishing the students well and urging them to live a life of challenges. “Do you want a boring life or a great life?” Mr. Repole asked. “Challenge yourself to make it a great life, where you get to decide what great is.”

Mr. Repole later toured the Venture and Innovation Center (VIC) that provides students, faculty, and administrators with the resources, support, and inspiration that they need to turn their groundbreaking business ideas into reality. After listening to business pitches from a select group of students, he offered feedback and encouragement to the budding entrepreneurs.