#310 - $100M+ Businesses in Controversial Industries: John Coogan, Co-Founder of Soylent and Lucy

DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

John Coogan is the Founder at Lucy, an innovative company in the nicotine industry, offering safer alternatives to smoking.

In this episode, we discuss strategies for scaling production, taking products to market, generating buzz, navigating regulation, nailing retail distribution, and leveraging digital content to grow brands. And that's not all – we'll also get a glimpse into John's personal journey as a creator - where he's built a YouTube channel with almost 400,000 subscribers - as he covers startups in documentary style breakdowns.

Episode brought to you by More Staffing
Join 15k founders and marketers & get our pod highlights delivered directly to your inbox with the DTC Pod Newsletter!
On this episode of DTC pod we cover:
1. Starting a Company through Kickstarter
2. Product Development and Business Struggles
3. Growth and Market Response
4. Manufacturing and Distribution
5. Regulatory Hurdles and Nicotine Product Innovation
6. Marketing and Brand Building
7. John's Professional Journey
8. Tackling Nicotine Addiction
9. Insights from Market Trends and Consumer Demand
10. Founding Soylent and Pivoting Business Direction
Timestamps
00:00 Started a startup, joined Y combinator, flopped.
08:03 Silicon Valley programmer pivots to protein shakes.
10:15 Soylent named after dystopian Sci-Fi movie reference.
14:29 Brought in advisor, introduced to copacker. Fatal error.
18:12 Struggle to meet deadline amid viral attention.
20:37 Positive profile led to successful product launch.
22:16 Barely any time, huge oh, shit moments.
27:35 CPG genre, product, problem-solving, Shopify, retail, omnichannel
31:23 Nicotine industry transitioning from unregulated to regulated.
35:12 Nicorette product unchanged for decades, now on Amazon.
36:31 DTC Pod joins HubSpot podcast network.
39:05 FDA assesses product safety for public health.
44:32 Swedish Match, Zyn, acquired by Philip Morris.
46:38 Customer data, targeting key regions, sales strategy.
50:09 Meeting creators, learning needs, gaining credibility.
Shownotes powered by Castmagic
Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.

Additional episodes you might like:

• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth

• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content

• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views

• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands

• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook

• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands

-----
Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?
Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you.

Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?
Check out our newsletter here and our

Projects the DTC Pod team is working on:
DTCetc - all our favorite brands on the internet
Olivea - the extra virgin olive oil & hydroxytyrosol supplement
Castmagic - AI Workspace for Content

Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!

DTCPod Instagram
DTCPod Twitter
DTCPod TikTok

---

John Coogan - Founder at Lucy
Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Castmagic
Ramon Berrios - Co-Founder of Castmagic