Paige Say
Paige Cey is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Benny. The Vancouver-based brand makes naturopathic-inspired energy drinks for caffeine-conscious consumers. She runs it with co-founder Julie Letizia. That was the break. The pair are 2025 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards finalists. She recently appeared on the How I Built This podcast to discuss building the fast-growing Canadian beverage brand.
Paige Say's Bio
Paige Cey took the HIBT Podcast hot seat recently, the kind of unscripted conversation that skips the polished, rehearsed founder origin story for the messy, unvarnished reality of scaling a consumer packaged goods brand from scratch. She’s the co-founder and co-CEO of Benny, the Vancouver-based energy drink line built explicitly for caffeine-conscious consumers who want an energy boost without the jitters, sugar crashes, or synthetic filler that plagues most mainstream options. The brand is rooted in naturopathic principles, a deliberate choice that set it apart from the start in a category long dominated by legacy players leaning into extreme stimulant marketing and hustle culture tropes.
Cey runs Benny alongside co-founder Julie Letizia, a partnership that’s carried the brand to recognition as one of Canada’s fastest growing beverage companies in recent years. In 2025, she was named a finalist for the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards, a public nod to the work she and. Letizia have put into redefining what an energy product can be for people who don’t want to sacrifice wellness for function..
During her HIBT appearance, she pushed back on the pervasive myth that founder life is inherently isolating: she credits a tight circle of fellow founder friends for keeping her social bucket full, a small, specific perk of the grind that rarely makes it into headline profiles. A core part of Benny’s identity has always been community, not just transactional customer loyalty but a shared ethos around mindful energy use that extends beyond the can. Cey and Letizia have navigated the unique challenges of being women leading a beverage brand in a space that’s historically been slow to take female-founded products seriously, no grand speeches about disruption or industry takeover, just consistent product iteration and direct, unscripted connection with their customer base. The brand’s steady growth didn’t happen by accident: it came from filling a gap most big players ignored, the widespread demand for energy that works with your body instead of against it.
