When Jesslyn Rollins came home to 5,000 bottles of BioLyte in her garage that she, with no marketing experience, had to sell, she had no idea what to do. Nine years later, she is the CEO of the business she built from the ground up, and BioLyte is in the top ten of sports drinks in the country. This is the story Rollins told shortly after walking on stage on October 7th, 2025, at the 6th annual Women’s Global Leadership Conference, but not before finding a place to display the little blue bottle of BioLyte she carried onto the stage. As Rollins put it, her dad and sister Sarah “had secretly been working on an IV in a bottle. A medical strength hydration drink that combines the science of an IV bag with the convenience of a sports drink.” And then, it was Jesslyn’s job to make it a business. “He needed to figure out the who, what, when, where, why, and how to get the BioLyte out of the garage and into the hands of the people who needed it the most.”
BioLyte wasn’t only a passing interest for Jesslyn’s family; the challenge of getting proper hydration and nutrients is one that had haunted their family for years. Jeannine, Jesslyn’s mom and an Agnes Scott alumna, struggled with cancer for much of her daughter’s young adulthood. But Janine Rollins was not only the inspiration to start the business; she also gave her daughters the gumption to execute it.
Jeannine, like many cancer patients, struggled to keep up her everyday life while undergoing chemotherapy. She was in and out of the hospital getting fluids through an IV to replenish her hydration and electrolytes, and it interfered ability to maintain a sense of normalcy during treatment.
“The gold standard was an IV bag because it matches the fluids in our bodies, but there hadn’t been a product that someone can take home with them,” that is, until Jesslyn’s family invented BioLyte.
When pondering how to market this newly developed health solution, Jesslyn considered how she could get it to the people who needed it the most. “Even though I didn’t see BioLyte as a sports drink, that was the aisle in the grocery store I wanted to be in. Sports drinks had captured the at-home hydration market, but they were undeserving of the people who needed hydration relief on and off the court.”
When the mother of a young football player, a chemo patient needing relief, or even a college student looking for a hangover cure needs a product, there’s only one place they look. As they walked into the grocery store sports drink aisle, Jesslyn wanted them to see that little blue bottle as more than just another colorful option on the shelf.
“I had to walk this tightrope of medical and lifestyle to let people know we had the strength of an IV bag with the heart of a better-for-you sports drink.”
Despite being a beloved refreshing beverage for a wide array of people, at its heart, BioLyte is made for medical patients, and that is why Jesslyn made it a priority to make it accessible to those who need it the most.
“ [BioLyte is] the only sports drink that’s received approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, certifying BioLyte as medical equipment to help patients along their healthcare journey for free. Our belief was that no one who needs or wants medical strength hydration should be priced out of it, so we took steps to make this a reality.”
There were many factors that led to the success of BioLyte. One thing Jesslyn mentioned in an interview after her speech is the importance of having peers and colleagues who have different strengths.
“Surrounding yourself with people that are not like you is so incredibly critical, especially when building a business, because we are all beautiful and, and, but we’re all very imperfect, we bring skills and weaknesses to the table.” In Jesslyn’s case, this came naturally. While her dad and sister are doctors, Jesslyn herself has a background in the creative arts, having majored in theater in college. She brought up her theater background several times, saying, “There is no way I would have made it nearly as far without my theater major. You talk about walking into a stage, walking into a room, where nobody cares what you’re doing? That’s theater, baby. The soft skills my undergraduate degree taught me were impeccable for my business.”
Recalling a funny anecdote about her comedy theater background, Jesslyn Rollins left the room with a call to action: “My key takeaway for the people in this room: when someone tells you that you’re not something, go and find a stage that was uniquely built for you. I might not be funny, but I sure as heck can sell some BioLyte. Lyte it up”