Story
Soldier-YouTuber bootstrapped a supplement brand from $20K to 8 figures
Nick Bare started Bare Performance Nutrition in college in 2012 knowing nothing about business, joined the Army, completed Ranger School, and used social media to scale the brand. He went from $20,000 in first-year revenue to a track for 8 figures.
“Started it in 2012, I was studying nutrition. I started Bear Performance Nutrition, which is a sports nutrition dietary supplement company, knowing absolutely nothing about business and thinking that I knew it all.”
Fact
Build the product first, then manufacture demand
Most creators build an audience and then ask how to monetize it. Nick Bare did the reverse: he launched the supplement company in 2012, realized he had supply and no demand, then started building social media in 2014 specifically to create demand for what he already sold.
“Well, I created the company first, so I created my supply first and then I realized, okay, well, I have no demand for the supply. How do I create demand? So 2014 is when I started building social media platforms out.”
Story
Three flat years at $20K before the supplement brand took off
Nick assumed sending free pre-workout to fitness YouTubers would drive sales, but launch day brought essentially zero. The company did $20K in revenue in years one, two, and three with no growth before it eventually scaled to 8 figures.
“So year 1 was $20,000 in revenue after just offering like 50% off discounts all the time to start, because I had bills to pay. Year 2 was $20,000 in revenue. Year 3 was $20,000 in revenue. So there's no growth first 3 years”
Number
Supplement contribution margin: ~60% after COGS and shipping
Nick Bare says his supplement products run roughly 60% profit margins after cost of goods and shipping, before payroll and marketing overhead.
$60
Gross/contribution margin on supplements after COGS and shipping · percent
“Yeah, we can have roughly 60% profit margins.”
Story
Growing 750% created a cash-flow trap: sell out in a week, wait 11
After growing 750% in 2017, Nick had to pay for inventory upfront with 12-week lead times. He'd sell out in 5-7 days then wait 11 weeks for restock, constantly out of stock and starved for cash despite being profitable.
“I would get that inventory in, I would sell out of it in 5 to 7 days, and then it would be 11 weeks until I had more inventory. So we were constantly out of inventory, we were pissing off all of our customers. Cash flow was like, I was pulling my hair out at night”
Story
Growing 750% created a cash-flow trap: sell out in a week, wait 11
After growing 750% in 2017, Nick had to pay for inventory upfront with 12-week lead times. He'd sell out in 5-7 days then wait 11 weeks for restock, constantly out of stock and starved for cash despite being profitable.
“I would get that inventory in, I would sell out of it in 5 to 7 days, and then it would be 11 weeks until I had more inventory. So we were constantly out of inventory, we were pissing off all of our customers. Cash flow was like, I was pulling my hair out at night”
Number
An upsell experiment became the best seller: 8,000 units/month of greens
Nick added Strong Greens to his sports-nutrition line expecting it to be just an upsell. It quickly became the brand's best seller, moving 8,000 units a month, as the health/wellness side of the business outgrew the original sports-nutrition core.
$8K
Strong Greens units sold per month · units/month
“Well, it quickly became our best seller and we'll sell through 8,000 units a month of Strong Greens.”