#735 – The 9 Figure NeuroGum Story

NeuroGum’s journey from a college dorm room experiment to a 9-figure brand is one of the most compelling success stories in modern eCommerce. Founded by neuroscience student Kent Yoshimura at UC San Diego, NeuroGum was born out of a personal need for clean energy and sustained focus without the crash of traditional energy drinks. By combining natural caffeine with L-theanine in a convenient gum format, the brand introduced a new category: functional energy gum designed for mental clarity, productivity, and performance.

After launching on Indiegogo in 2015 and gaining traction through early biohacking communities, NeuroGum rapidly expanded onto Amazon, where data-driven keyword strategies and smart positioning helped accelerate growth. The brand later gained national attention through Shark Tank and organic mentions from Joe Rogan, further solidifying its authority in the nootropics and energy supplement space. Today, NeuroGum not only dominates Amazon in its category but also outsells 5-Hour Energy at CVS, proving that innovative product development combined with strong eCommerce execution can disrupt even the most established markets.

NeuroGum’s rise highlights key lessons for entrepreneurs: solve a real problem, leverage community validation, use marketplace data to guide expansion, and build a brand that prioritizes both performance and authenticity. What started as a dorm room biohacking experiment has evolved into a nationally recognized energy brand redefining how consumers think about focus, productivity, and functional supplementation.

In this episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Kent talk about:

• 00:00 – NeuroGum Introduction & Brand Overview
• 05:26 – Discovering Nootropics & Product Idea
• 10:29 – Indiegogo Launch & Early Viral Success
• 12:36 – Scaling NeuroGum on Amazon
• 12:39 – Shark Tank Experience
• 18:09 – CVS Retail Breakthrough & Polar Vortex Crisis
• 19:11 – Post-Shark Tank Lawsuit Battle
• 20:56 – Joe Rogan’s Organic Endorsements
• 22:47 – TikTok Shop Growth Strategy
• 27:30 – Celebrity Investors & Partnerships
• 29:02 – Using Helium 10 for Amazon Growth
• 31:28 – Entrepreneur Mindset & Motivation
• 34:34 – The Future Vision for NeuroGum

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

You’ve seen this brand maybe on Shark Tank or maybe you’ve heard Joe Rogan talk about them all the time on his show. They even outsell 5-hour energy drink in CVS stores nationwide. Who am I talking about? NeuroGum. Today we talk to the founder of this iconic brand about how he went from mixing powders in his college dorm room to now a 9-figure company. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.

Bradley Sutton:

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host Bradley Sutton and this is the show that’s a completely BS-free organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world.  So, we’re here in Miami. I’m very honored. Special guest I’ve been a fan of for years and so this is my first time meeting him. Kent, welcome to the show. So awesome. Like I remember finding out when you guys use Helium 10. I don’t even know how I figured it out really. I think I was just looking through our database or maybe somebody in your team, maybe Jonathan, like had posted something somewhere about Helium 10. I was like, oh my god, NeuroGum, which I can’t live without, uses Helium 10.

That is so cool and I think I told you recently a story of how I remember Mina back in the day in like e-commerce house parties and stuff that we used to have and networking events. He would always put out these like mints and gums like on the tables there and be hyping it up and just now I’m realizing that was NeuroGum that he was putting way back then.

Kent:

That’s a good friend.

Bradley Sutton:

I love it. A lot of, you know, I’m a fan. A lot of you guys are fans out there of the brand and of Kent too, but maybe some of you that you’re hearing about it for the first time. So let’s go all the way back to the beginning. Where were you born and raised?

Kent:

I was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, but was raised in Los Angeles, California.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, so moved out here when you’re young?

Kent:

Moved out here when I was three months old.

Bradley Sutton:

Wow.

Kent:

So, I was literally in Japan only because my dad was on a business trip and my mom didn’t want to be by herself in America. So I was like, all right, and then my dad actually left on a business trip the day I was born. So he wasn’t even there.

Bradley Sutton:

Oh, my goodness.

Kent:

No, it was good. You know, like I think the healthcare system is maybe a little bit more comfortable there.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah. Okay.

Kent:

I was born in a nice hospital out there.

Bradley Sutton:

Nice. Growing up in California, did you ever have an idea about what you wanted to be when you grew up?

Kent:

Man. So I saw myself as wanting to be an artist, even when I was younger, and that was a big part of my life, you know, prior to NeuroGum. But then I got into martial arts. I thought I wanted to be a professional fighter. So that’s like a whole nother, just, I’m so glad I didn’t go down that path. And I’m, it’s, you know, your parents are right about some things when they’re younger. And one of the things they definitely didn’t want me to do was getting punched in the head for a living. So yeah,

Bradley Sutton:

So, that was before people knew about the whole CT, whatever the football players get.

Kent:

But you know, it was like romanticized, right? Like you’re talking about like the Bruce Lee’s of the world, especially when I was growing up. And I think I romanticized martial arts so much that I was trying to look for a career in it.  And, you know, in some ways, subconsciously did shape me into developing NeuroGum. Coming here.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah. Yeah. We’re definitely going to find out about that. Now, before you started that, I think it was, it was during your college years. Where did you end up going to college?

Kent:

UC San Diego.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah. San Diego in the house. He was questioning, like, why I’m a Dodgers fan when I’m from San Diego.

But hey, it just, sometimes it happens.

Kent:

A little identity crisis.

Bradley Sutton:

It’s all right. Now, what was your major there?

Kent:

Neuroscience.

Bradley Sutton:

Neuroscience. Okay. So, like when you start a major, usually you have something in mind, like about a career path. You study engineering. Hey, I want to be a civil engineer. Where did you think you were going to take that?

Kent:

Well, so, so it was cognitive science with the emphasis on neuroscience. So it was very specific. You know, to me, I was really fascinated. And some of the early classes I took at UC San Diego were around abnormal psychology. It was around neural networks, which are obviously very popular now because of AI. But during that time, it was more of assessment on how conditionally your brain works to make decisions and how you can use systems to make decisions. And those things were just, it was the thing that I got fascinated in immediately when I was taking my general ed courses at UC San Diego. And I felt like I could have done a career in the sciences of some sort, but going less so into like the surgical, like a Neuros, less the doctor side, and more so the abnormal psychology. How can I look at the impact of the brain across the entire body, physiology, and how we are in fact controlled by, you know, this thing that is stuck in our skulls. And diving more into that, that stuff’s just fascinating. And it still fascinates me.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the word biohacking and stuff like that didn’t even exist. I don’t think much, you know, 20, you know, 10, 20 or 20 years ago, maybe. And it’s now, it’s like, it’s amazing to see what, what people are doing now. It was during these years at UCSD is where you first came up with the idea for Neurogram, right?

Kent:

It was, yeah. My sophomore year around that time, when I was getting deeper into clinical research, understanding the world of nootropics and biohacking, becoming one of the early, I guess, adopters of that biohacking, you know, phenomenon that now is, is really big. But you’re talking about like 15 years ago at this point now, the notion of supplementation to have cognitive benefits, we’re only limited to purely energy.

So how do you take, you know, just a solely caffeine or how do you take the combination of like a taurine or some things in no explode, we’re talking about like pre-workouts to just jack you up. But obviously there’s many detrimental effects that come out of taking things like that. So, you know, leveraging what I was learning in school, albeit it was only a few short years, I wanted to figure out what combination of supplements could have worked for me.

And then I discovered nootropics.

Bradley Sutton:

And it wasn’t in, we’re not talking about, you’re already making mints and gums in your dorm room there. What form was your, I picture this like, like a secret lab in his dorm with a medic, uh, you know, scientist experiment.

Kent:

We call it like the Scarface dad, you know, the fact that there wasn’t enough deep clinical research behind any of those ingredients though, that were like justifiable for long-term use led me down the path of, okay, what’s a much more convenient approachable, uh, you know, supplement stack that could be, that could be used.

Bradley Sutton:

What was the motivation? Was it just for fun? Like, you know, this is a hobby to experiment with, with biohacking and, or was there other motivations there?

Kent:

Yeah. I mean, my days were spent training every single day. You know, I was still pushing to become a professional fighter. I was, uh, fighting in Thailand since, you know, I was in high school and, uh, Pattaya stadium. I was training, I say Yutong, um, training, you know, four, five, six hours a day. At times I was traveling to Japan, training with the Judo Olympic team out there, uh, with Imperial guards out there as well. Like Judo was a really big part of my life during that time. And I still want, I’m Asian, you know, I still want to do all in school. Uh, and when I was looking for supplements that would balance this life, I wanted to live with physical training while maintaining, you know, some higher level of mental capacity.

There was nothing in the marketplace that allowed me to do that, which led me down the path of again, nootropics.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome. Awesome. Now, at what point, if you can remember, was there ever a click in your head is, you know, like, obviously you’re doing it for yourself originally, just, you know, for your own goals. Um, but were you like, hey, this could potentially be a career, or this could be something that actually makes money or that I can commercialize.

Kent:

It’s funny because I didn’t realize that until, you know, my co-founder had gone in a really bad snowboarding accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. And he was an athlete also. He was a captain of this cross country and track team, incredibly fast runner, obviously because of that, uh, took his team to nationals, but his sophomore year, he got in a snowboarding accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

And these supplements that I was mixing happened to help him a lot in getting back into the rhythm of life, finishing school on time. And there’s a moment in all of that. And then I started getting the supplements and using my friends as guinea pigs, but there’s a moment in time where I realized like, wow, if this is so effective for me and it’s so effective for the people close to me, it must be useful for people beyond this small circle that has tried this stuff. And, you know, with, with anything entrepreneurship oriented, I think that’s a catalyst to be like, okay, I need to spread the gospel of what I created because I think it will help more people.

Bradley Sutton:

And then, so what was your first journey into e-commerce? Was it on Amazon? Did you start a website or just start like local network Craigslist or what did you do?

Kent:

I learned how to use Wix.com, which was actually pretty easy at the time also. But, uh, well, I learned HTML first.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay.

Kent:

And I tried to code a website with HTML and CSS and made the worst website of all time. So that was one. Um, and then I went into Wix.com and eventually landed on WordPress. And then now we use Shopify, which is the best. It like beats, it just like took, I think it literally took all those other companies out. But, um, our first foray into selling anywhere, I guess, was on Indiegogo, which was like a Kickstarter.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah.

Kent:

It was a crowdfunding, uh, site.

Bradley Sutton:

And, um, wait, wait, you’re about, are we talking about now?

Kent:

This is 2015.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay.

Kent:

So, and then, you know, we started our business like officially in 2013, but we weren’t really doing anything. That was when we were just like doing R and D and setting stuff up. But, um, yeah, 2015 launched on Indiegogo. At that time, I was already one of the biggest contributors on Reddit, our nootropics. And I posted about the fact that we invented this gum that has these ingredients that help you stay energized and focused with your favorite nootropic sack of natural caffeine and L-theanine. And it just blew up.

And in like literally in three days, we like doubled our goal and a Time Magazine wrote about us. Dr. Oz called me while I was at like a dinner and, uh, or his producer called me and it was like, we want you on the show. And it just, it was basically just, it conditioned us to be like, okay, this is, this is something real.

You know, it was, uh, that that was like a true catalyst to understand that if people are willing to buy this thing, then there’s a capacity to scale it.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, before you got on Shark Tank, which was another, you know, step in your, your, your journey there, what had you accomplished? Like, was it on, were you already on Amazon? Was it only the website? And like, what kind of sales were you doing at that point?

Kent:

Yeah. I mean, like, so the first few years, um, you know, everything was operating out of my apartment, right? Uh, the, the first shipment of three pallets of gum was just sitting in my living room. Our, you know, our one employee was my roommate who’s now our COO. Um, and then Ryan would bring snacks from, he used to work at Hulu. So he would bring snacks from Hulu to feed us. Like it was really bootstrapped, but, and that was like the first, I guess, two, three years of the business. We were selling on our website very quickly. We went to sell on Amazon knowing that that was a massive, uh, it’s the biggest selling platform right online that allowed us to reach a bigger audience, uh, in a much more accessible way.

And then our next foray into after that was going to be, okay, how did we get on retail and other platforms?

Bradley Sutton:

Nice, nice. What year was Shark Tank?

Kent:

Shark Tank was 2020. So we filmed in 2019. It aired in 2020.

Bradley Sutton:

And was the goal like trying to potentially, um, you know, just get more funding because it was hard to, to, you know, capital and things like that or what?

Kent:

Yeah. I mean, we were definitely trying to get a deal, you know, understanding that with that Indiegogo moment at the very beginning was a catalyst into one stage of the business. And then, uh, you know, we have little things like we have these PR wins.

Uh, we went on like a show with T-Pain, we have podcast mentions. Those, that was like another stepping stone. And then Shark Tank was obviously another big boost, but in creating a brand new category, because this idea of like energy gum and functional gum and mints, like it doesn’t exist now, you know, and we’re obviously the leader in it, but to educate people on this entirely new category took so much PR took so much attention that needed to be put into that category itself that, um, we realized Shark Tank could be a good, uh, another good milestone slash stepping stone to educate consumers.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. At what point did you guys discover Helium 10? And do you remember what was it You? was it somebody else?

Kent:

Definitely me. If you grew up in the 2015 to the 2020s of e-commerce, you either used Jungle Scout and you used Helium 10.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah.

Kent:

And if you didn’t, you’re falling behind, you know, because Amazon didn’t share. I mean, there’s like black hat ways to do things obviously, but like Amazon’s not sharing anything with you.

Bradley Sutton:

People now, hey, you Amazon sellers nowadays, do you not know how spoiled you are with some of this stuff that Amazon gives? Back in those days, they were tight-lipped completely.

Kent:

They were tight-lipped back in those days. Like the only way you could get access to information was through platforms like Helium 10. So, I think we’ve been like a diamond customer for like eight years or something now.

Bradley Sutton:

I love it. Now, right before this offline, you were telling me about a funny story, you know, you found, you discovered some keywords with Helium 10, but you actually applied this to like something not even to do with Amazon that ended up being a huge revenue booster. Can you talk about that in a PG or PG-13 way here?

Kent:

So, you know, we would expect people to find us through caffeine and gum and, you know, whatever, even like on the more fringe side, I guess you could, you know, look at nootropics, which maybe not that many people know what the word means, but sexual enhancement happened to be a very popular keyword for us that we wouldn’t have known about without Helium 10.

Bradley Sutton:

And then what did that mean for you?

Kent:

It allowed us to, yeah, I mean, it allowed us to dictate like how some of our consumers were potentially using our product or what ecosystem that would have been using our product we could target and be a little bit more nuanced in the way we market to certain people.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah. If Helium 10 were to go away, what would your team miss the most? Like what’s the part they’ll be like, what are we going to do now? Like which aspect would you think?

Kent:

Gosh, I mean, I’d be annoyed because I won’t be able to do the reverse ASIN research and all that stuff, all the black box things, you know. Like, I mean, even with Cerebro, if we’re doing even brute, I was telling you this, like even brute labor wouldn’t accomplish what a platform like Helium 10 can do.

Bradley Sutton:

What’s the biggest year of sales for you? Like every year are you, you know, like was 2025 your biggest? And approximately how much are we talking about across everything? Really rough.

Kent:

Yeah, pretty big, you know, like more or less nine figures.

Bradley Sutton:

No, very nice, very nice. Now, what aspect of that is like in-store versus, is Amazon your biggest online channel? Are we talking 50-50 brick and mortar versus online?

Kent:

Yeah, Amazon is probably about 35 to 40 percent of our business. So it’s, I mean, it’s the majority of our business in that sense, right? Retail this year is going to be an ever-expanding force. Again, I keep using the word dictated by, but it, you know, our decisions that we make in retail are truly dictated by what our learnings are on our website and Amazon. And then obviously we have our website, which is more of a brand platform than anything now, but it is the communication point, it is the data points, all those things that Amazon necessarily can’t share, but we are able to apply to our marketing.

Bradley Sutton:

Amazon being your biggest online channel, what’s your second biggest online channel?

Kent:

Our website, then TikTok, then retail. But I mean, this year it’s going to be probably Amazon, retail, TikTok, our website.

Bradley Sutton:

You’re a very successful brand. It hasn’t always been wonderful, I bet. What was one of the biggest disasters that you’ve had to deal with or catastrophes or like something unplanned for you, like, oh my goodness, what are we going to do? And then how did you, how do you overcome whatever happened?

Kent:

I have so many of those, by the way.

Bradley Sutton:

Everybody does, everybody does.

Kent:

So one, we got our first order in from CVS, our first chance at retail, you know, a big PO, it’s a team’s high-fiving each other. A historic polar vortex swings through the Midwest. All trucks are stopped. Our inventory is like literally frozen at the distribution center as CVS is calling us, yelling at us, asking where their product is. They’re like, we gave you a chance. We found one truck literally that was willing to drive through the snowstorm somehow. And that guy delivered to CVS just in the nick of time. And then now we’re one of CVS’s best-selling products.

Bradley Sutton:

Love it. Love it.

Kent:

So that’s one. And then, you know, there’s the one that pops up on TikTok from time to time, and there’s a really nice like redemption story that’s going to air in February. I don’t know when this is posting, but maybe they’ll see it. But after Shark Tank aired, we got sued by a very, very wealthy person that owned another company with the same name as us, although they operate in totally different categories. And so, it was a frivolous lawsuit through and through. But this person was worth $300 million from a divorce. And she was like, I’m going to spend all my money to take you guys down. She just absolutely hated us.

Bradley Sutton:

Was her name Karen? Oh, sorry.

Kent:

Ryan. So when we went on Shark Tank, Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of Kind Bar, was like, I love you guys. If you need anything, I’m not going to invest now because I don’t take supplements, but you guys could hit me up at any point and I’d help you.

So we literally, a month later, Ryan slid into his DMs and he was like, Daniel, I know you said we could reach out to you if you need anything. We would love your help right now. Daniel came in, literally went to this lady and was like, look, I’m worth 10 times more than what you’re worth. And if you’re going to fight these guys, you’re effectively going to be fighting me because I’m going to back their lawsuit. And she backed away and the business is still running.

Bradley Sutton:

Your net worth is your net worth.

Kent:

That’s right.

Bradley Sutton:

Absolutely. All right. Flip side, the most amazing things that happened to you, I would assume the Joe Rogan thing. So talk a little bit about that since we didn’t get into that. And was there another something that was just like a surprise that just amazing that worked out great for you guys?

Kent:

Gosh, I mean, of all the bad things that, you know, the thing is, I’m like a fairly optimistic, positive person. So there’s not even like too many, even that time I was like in the hospital taking experimental drugs. I don’t even look at that as hard times or bad times. You know, I just see it as a chapter in our company’s history. Yeah. I mean, Joe Rogan talking about it, I was like, how do you…

Bradley Sutton:

Completely organically.

Kent:

Completely organically. I mean, that’s like, like a dream for any company to wish for, you know, and he’s done it like 40 plus times now.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah.

Kent:

Like he absolutely just like loves our product, like actually organically.

Bradley Sutton:

Did you ever find out how he discovered it? Just from a store or online?

Kent:

So one of our friends, John Beer, one of the coolest guys in the world, sent him a bunch of product. And then like a year passed and we didn’t think, you know, he ever received it or anything. But lo and behold, one day, right after Shark Tank, Joe Rogan starts talking about it. As my phone starts blowing up and…

Bradley Sutton:

So it’s not just random guys, like you put, I mean, even those kinds of random things might happen. There is still a reason why that happened. If they had never done that, that situation might…

Kent:

Yeah, exactly. Like we’re still like effectively seeding and making sure, like, you know, constantly making sure your product shows up in front of people. So that was like an incredible moment. You know, even like early on when my Reddit, our Neutropics postings leading into Indiegogo getting funded as quickly as it did. Then Dr. Oz’s team reaching out to me and then us winning LA Tech Fair to like continue our funding. It’s like…

And then T-Pain’s team reaching out to us. So like we did a TV show with T-Pain. And then like even more recently, you know, Steve Aoki FaceTimed Dave Grutman, who’s they say the king of Miami. He owns Live Night Club and Komodo and Poppy Steak. He’s best friends with Kim Kardashian. He seeded it out to all of his friends. Kim Kardashian posted about us. Ivanka Trump posted about us. Like, it’s crazy that when you do take those opportunities to one, you know, not obviously I’m going to say we have a great product, but if you have a great product, you know, and you put it in front of people like they’ll talk about it. And that network is your it continues to expand.

Bradley Sutton:

On TikTok, what’s your team strategy? Like, are you trying to make a profit on that channel as well? Or are you mainly using TikTok to, hey, let’s break even. But knowing that is really giving a boost to our website. It’s giving a boost to our Amazon. It’s getting our name out there. How do you guys tackle that?

Kent:

So a lot of people talk about this halo effect from TikTok. And yeah, there’s an undeniable halo effect when you start putting your name everywhere. But to us at the size of company we’re at, the impact of the halo is actually not as significant as a lot of people think it is.

We try to run TikTok profitably. I think all good businesses, similar to what Warren Buffett says, have to run profitably to be a good business and sustainably. And for us, the big goal for TikTok is even as a discount platform, are there capabilities of leveraging the social commerce aspect of TikTok to provide profitable brand building systems that amplify everything else in the business?

And that to break down that convoluted string of words, how do we focus more on brand on that platform than bottle funnel tactics? Because the bottom of funnel tactics are not driving the halo as much anymore.

Bradley Sutton:

What percentage of your sales on TikTok shop is generated by creators as opposed to your own content? Just roughly, would you say it’s a big chunk? Is it 50-50? It’s like your stuff goes viral?

Kent:

I mean, that’s so hard to say. It’s so hard to say. I mean, obviously the creators and the affiliate ecosystem, we’ve been nothing without them, which is why we treat them so well.

We incentivize them well. But at the same time, when you’re talking about the creator is incentivized to make a sale to make money, but they are not necessarily incentivized to push the brand principles and your brand values out. So you have to mix your own content, which is the owner of your brand values and couple it with the effective bottom of funnel techniques that our affiliates use, because that together is what amplifies into other channels.

Bradley Sutton:

What makes a good creator for you? How do you search? Of course, a lot of people are hitting you up and say, hey, I love free samples.

And you guys probably search maybe using Helium 10 or other features to try and find out what are you looking for? What makes somebody a good potential? Because whatever you say is similar to every brand, of course, is different. But I’m sure there’s some general principles you can talk about.

Kent:

Every category has these like celebrity creators, more or less. And these creators typically tend to follow the tactics that the biggest players within your space already do. So if there’s a creator that’s, you know, making content that’s, you know, if we’re selling this snake plan and everything is around detoxifying the room because it sucks up pollution better, all the creators will typically tend to follow what that creator pushes.

And if you could identify who those major influencers, quote unquote, are even in the affiliate space, you have a leg up on everyone else to be able to acquire more creators. You know, the way we use our Discord, the way we use our communication platforms and how we talk to our creators is all around what are the talking points that are effectively working to drive either conversions or impressions?

Kent:

And how are you slightly modifying it across your entire creator network to find that next hook, that next talking point that could help expand beyond that? Because you just, what a lot of people do is like they feed talking points to their creators and everyone’s talking about the exact same thing. And after a certain point that just completely decays, you know, you should be constantly spanning the edges of what your affiliates are communicating and finding what’s working, what’s not. So you could keep discovering the next new thing.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, at what point did you guys start going after celebrities as far as endorsements? You know, I said, you know, Steve Aoki and others, again, you know, with the thought in mind that, hey, there’s brands out there who might be in your position that you were maybe three, four years ago, but they’re looking ahead. Like when should a brand start looking at going to that next level of almost like an influencer creator? Like when does it make sense?

Kent:

That’s a hard question to answer only because if you don’t do it in a genuine way, it’s going to come across as you just slapping a celebrity onto your brand, which a lot of people are catching onto. I think consumers are a lot more intelligent now. For us, Steve Aoki made sense because when we first started the business, he literally was taking NeuroGum in a plastic bag.

Bradley Sutton:

He all did some shady stuff back in the day. Powders in the room from Russia and plastic bags.

Kent:

Yeah, exactly. But you know, he believed in us enough to take this sketchy, you know, this sketchy tablet for a bag. And then a few years later, he reached out and was like, I need more of that NeuroGum. Where is it? And then he ended up investing in us. So, he had a genuine interest. He was an actual user of the product. He exemplified our brand values perfectly. And him being a part of our brand allowed us to get other celebrity partners like we’re in Miami, like Dave Grutman, you know, to hop on board. Andrew Schultz, Mitchell Hooper, and so on and so forth. But I think, again, if you don’t come back to your brand values and understand what celebrity really exemplifies what your brand is supposed to represent, then you’re just slapping someone onto a bag with the hopes of winning eyeballs or impressions.

Bradley Sutton:

That makes sense. Now, you’ve been in marketing before. So, I’m going to make you, for the next two minutes, you’re a Helium 10 marketer. If you were to, you know, talk to a brand out there who’s, you know, maybe seven figure brand, they’re pretty successful already. Shopify, Amazon. And they’re like, hey, I’m doing pretty good now.

I’ve never used Helium 10. Like, do I need Helium 10? Like why would I need to use Helium 10 to get even better when I’m already crushing it?

Kent:

So I think there’s two categories of people that hit the seven-figure mark and can never break into the eight-figure mark. It’s actually a lot of entrepreneurs. And, you know, I could talk about the nuances of the keyword research and like what product categories and everything you can go into. But I think the value of Helium 10, yes, there’s like this expansive capacity, but there’s also this brand defensibility capacity that it has that a lot of people don’t necessarily, I don’t think they take advantage enough of it. If you’re winning a keyword or a category or whatever it is, how are you truly owning it and then finding expansion points so that your brand strengthens rather than you becoming someone that’s just launching a bunch of new products and becoming another Amazon seller. And if you use Helium 10 in the right way, like what categories are running, what keywords are really, are the consumers attracted to and what keywords that the consumers are attracted to is your base consumer, right? Like you get deeper and deeper. That allows you to not just strengthen the LTV of your base, but also incrementally find this new audience that will be as strong as your base audience. Because with new customers, like especially in e-commerce, you could acquire them with a high CAG, but they’ll come and go. But a true consumer like our LTV is, you know, in the hundreds, like a true consumer that stays on, those are the people that are truly building exponential value in your business.

Bradley Sutton:

You have a few hours a week, guys. I think we need to put them on payroll a little bit here. I’m sure we have some room. We’d love to have you on the team. Now, you have reached a stage of your business that many entrepreneurs can only dream of. And what keeps you motivated, even though you’ve achieved so much? Like how do you wake up and say, hey, I need to go harder instead of just, you know what, it’s time for me to just kick back in the Maldives and just, you know, rake in profits here.

Kent:

Dude, if business is endless, building a brand is endless. You know, like similar to what I just said, that core consumer group that we could constantly expand, it’s all about the brand building. Where are we targeting them? What fun things can we even do? That’s where I think entrepreneurship is truly one of like the best things anyone could get into. Because I think I was saying earlier, but, you know, growing up, I mean, I did art. I paint murals and like art was a really big part of my career at one point. But the ultimate creation that you could possibly do that’s never finished is building a business because there’s always something more that you can build on.

Bradley Sutton:

I like it. Now, you’re obviously very fit and healthy. And that’s something I talk about, too.

I had a heart attack a few years ago at an early age. I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was dead for 15 minutes. And it was obviously an ordeal. And I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs out there, sometimes they get into, you know, just so into their business. Because, you know, like you, you can see the passion that he has for his business. You guys have that, too. But sometimes we neglect our mental and physical health. So you mentioned a couple of things, hobbies, you know, be it art.

But how do you attack that aspect of things where you can like make time for mind and body? And what are the things that you do to make sure you do that?

Kent:

The superficial answer is Nero as a product is a representation of mind and body. So unless I’m looking the part as the CEO of someone that represents that, I’m doing a bad job. And I’m probably not the best representation of the brand.

So that’s very, again, like when I say superficial, more as like how people perceive us, I have to represent that, right?

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah.

Kent:

I also do think, so I was very, I was working all the time. I was never sleeping. Like if you talk to people who knew me in my early days at Neuro, like they would say I was like a ball of stress. You know, it was very unhealthy. The second I started finding that balance and understanding that busy-ness does not equal work sometimes, you know, it’s very easy to stay busy, but it’s even what’s difficult is finding true impact in that work that you do in any set of time. And when I started taking care of my body, when I started finding balance between the limited hours I have to work and the limited hours I have to maintain my physical prowess, that’s when everything started doing better. And hopefully people realize that before it’s too late.

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah. Good thing I did too. All right. What’s the future hold for you and your brand?

Kent:

Neuro is, man, there’s so many things, but in my heart of hearts, we’re already outselling five-hour energy at CVS, right? In unit velocity and revenue.

Bradley Sutton:

Wow.

Kent:

And on Amazon also. But why can’t we overtake how people think about consuming, you know, supplements and energy as a whole? Like these are massive, total addressable markets. But if we could transform the way in a much more accessible, simple, functional, and effective way that people can really look at their health and have it in their pocket and improve their energy levels or their sleep or their stress levels, I think Neuro has a long way to go to be able to be like a mainstay and, you know a true mainstay in peoples lives.

Bradley Sutton:

I love it. I love it. It’s kind of like day one still, even though he already hit that nine figure mark, but just shows the potential here. So guys, I hope you enjoy this episode and are inspired. And don’t forget, just go to your CVS, Amazon, NeuroGum is everywhere. I need another one. Hey, Kevin, in the background here, can I grab one really quick?

We’ll do a little Joe Rogan moment here.

Kent:

There you go.

Bradley Sutton:

Thank you very much. Well, you heard about those sites. No, we’re not going to put that in the episode. But guys, NeuroGum um, make sure to get it. I do not like coffee myself. And if, you know, before this was around, I don’t know what I was doing because I work crazy hours sometimes too. So this is great. So, make sure to get some NeuroGum, support Ken and his amazing team. Thank you so much.

Kent:

Thanks, man.

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