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On this episode of Driving Performance, the boys crack open a few cans of SUNBOY with founder Yair Tygiel—and what unfolds is the wild, winding story of how a single coconut in New York City turned into the world’s first spiked coconut water.
Yair grew up in the Bay Area, the son of Stanford professors, surrounded by ideas, experimentation, and a front-row seat to early-stage entrepreneurship. At UC Santa Cruz, he fully embraced the hippie, free-spirited energy of campus life. And because adventure was always part of his DNA, he once hitchhiked from Santa Cruz to Honduras for six months during college—just to see what might happen.
When he moved to New York after graduation and tried his first coconut in Chinatown, something clicked. Looking for a creative outlet beyond his day job, he bought a stack of coconuts in Chinatown, set up a small stand in Prospect Park, and started making coconut cocktails. People stopped and bought.
When he told a friend - Luke McKenna who became his cofounder - the two decided to build a 500-lb bamboo tiki bike that could hold 200 coconuts, rode it onto the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset, and—thanks to a group of friends who brought drums— threw a one-hour party suspended over the East River. It was chaotic, memorable, and undeniably fun. And they knew they wanted to keep going.
Soon, photos of their coconut adventures spread online, catching the attention of major brands. CoCo & Co. was born, leading to corporate collaborations with Bacardi, AmEx, and music festivals around the country. They upgraded from Chinatown coconuts to working with a supplier in Thailand—buying 20,000 at a time.
Then COVID hit. The festivals stopped. The brand deals vanished. And they were left with thousands of coconuts and a choice.
Walk away—or reinvent.
They chose reinvention. Yair refused to leave the coconut world behind, and after two years of experimenting and formulating, SUNBOY emerged: a lightly effervescent, 5% ABV coconut-water cocktail made with Thai coconut water, designed for all-day play without the bloat.
They found their foundational NYC distribution partners in 2023. What started as one passion-fruit flavor has now grown into seven, available nationwide at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and more.
In this episode, Yair shares the full journey—plus the real, behind-the-scenes lessons on navigating the three-tier alcohol system, managing state-by-state regulations, working with distributors, expanding into Southern California, and building a beverage brand from pure experimentation.
It’s a story that starts with curiosity, pivots on resilience, and ends with a cold can of Sunboy. Tune in.
