Epic Gardening's $100+ Million YouTube Playbook with Kevin Espiritu, Founder and CEO

The Peel with Turner Novak

Kevin Espiritu is the founder and CEO of Epic Gardening, which is, by multiple measures, one of the largest brands in gardening on the planet.What started in 2013 as a blog has since evolved into a gardening empire spanning YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, 4,500 gardening stores, and three gardening books.

Epic raised a $17.5m Series A from The Chernin Group in 2021, and according to external sources did $27 million in revenue in 2022.

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Timestamps:

• (00:00) Intro
• (04:03) Sponsor: Attio
• (05:09) A deep dive on the history of YouTube
• (12:04) The YouTube algorithm and meta game
• (40:17) Using Reddit to drive initial blog traffic
• (46:56) How creator-led businesses have negative CAC
• (47:12) Why creator businesses must be very small or very large
• (49:38) How YouTube is changing today
• (50:00) Acquiring a gardening blog for $1k from an Indian VC
• (52:43) His process for doing acquisitions
• (53:38) Launching his first product
• (57:54) His biggest mistakes launching new products
• (58:30) Buying his own warehouse
• (59:04) Non-intuitive ways a product can influence your cost structure
• (1:03:00) Kevin’s approach to hiring
• (1:04:40) Why he raised a Series A as a YouTube creator
• (1:05:27) How to approach investing in AI
• (1:19:53) Why Kevin wrote three books
• (1:23:26) Why more people will grow food at home
• (1:25:20) How he approaches celebrity partnerships

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Referenced:

• Epic Homesteading: Your Guide to Self-Sufficiency on a Modern, High-Tech, Backyard Homestead https://www.amazon.com/Epic-Homesteading-Self-Sufficiency-High-Tech-Homestead/dp/0760383766
• MrBeast https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast
• MrBeast's Feastables https://feastables.com/
• Logan Paul x KSI PRIME https://drinkprime.com/
• MatPat of @GameTheory https://www.youtube.com/channelUCo_IB5145EVNcf8hw1Kku7w
• Michelle Phan https://www.youtube.com/user/michellephan
• Ipsy: https://www.ipsy.com/ by Michelle Phan
• Matthew Beem https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR_J_SntqJh5eXw66d5hJxA
• The Chernin Group https://tcg.co/

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Where to find Kevin / Epic Gardening

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevinEspiritu

YouTube 1: https://www.youtube.com/user/kevinmespiritu

YouTube 2: https://www.youtube.com/@epicgardening

Where to find Turner:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/