Codie founded a media company that teaches people to think critically and cashflow unconventionally with boring businesses called Contrarian Thinking.
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Guest Author: Codie Sanchez
This company spends $2M/mo on podcasts.
If you’ve listened to a podcast recently, you might know who I’m talking about:
- Valued at $1.2B
- $150M+ in revenue
- Revolutionizing the $7T wellness market
Here’s their story:
Founder Chris Ashenden had an interest in sports & nutrition from Bruce Lee films.
He started a sports supplement biz after college. Which failed. The failure pushed him to work odd jobs from selling cars to policing.
But nothing really stuck. Until…
Self-help books pulled him back into entrepreneurship.
But in ’08, real estate losses put him $5M in debt. Chris was stressed, depressed, drinking heavily, and constantly sick.
Tests showed he couldn’t absorb nutrients, and he was prescribed a $100/day, 50-pill/day regimen…
He thought, “No way THIS could be the best solution.”
So he won funding to develop an all-in-one, easy-to-consume nutritional supplement.
The result? 8 different multivitamins & probiotics combined into a single powder.
Here’s the biz’s first major green flag:
Chris was his own first customer. He URGENTLY needed a solution to his failing health – so he built one himself.
This implicitly validated demand. Plus, being your own customer means you’ve got a never-ending source of feedback: yourself.
But health products need a LOT of credibility. So, to attract initial customers, Chris got endorsements from health influencers.
Their sway convinced early adopter audiences. This worked well enough. Until the business’s major inflection point:
In 2010, Tim Ferriss co-signed Athletic Greens in The 4-Hour Body. Sales EXPLODED as biohackers signed on.
This vein of success guided their marketing – if you’re a regular listener of Tim Ferris or Huberman Lab, you’ll know…
They’ve invested HEAVILY in podcast ads. A stat that blew my mind: Athletic Greens spent $2,227,000 in June advertising on 592 separate podcasts.
Another defining detail for AG? They launched with a single SKU. And have iterated ONLY that single SKU over the years (today, it’s known as AG1).
It’s super rare for a company to get this big with just one product. But it’s allowed for an unparalleled level of focus.
Today, AG1 is used by huge names like Cindy Crawford, Joe Rogan, and Steve Aoki. (And Codie Sanchez)
- They’ve hit $160M+ in revenue
- Raised $125M in funding
- Valued at $1.2B.
Is the hype deserved? I say yes – I love this biz & product.
If you like founding stories like this, follow me
@Codie_Sanchez for more. And feel free to re-post here.
Check out the original tweet here.
