Entrepreneurial intuition came in handy for Robert Oliver fresh out of college in 2014. The 23-year-old Washington state native, popularly known as CEO Genius, never intended for his personal tale to be anchored in one of the nine -for- five jobs; but instead, he chose to be guided by e-commerce guru Jeff Bezos’ “regret minimization framework” that later turned him into a multimillionaire in just five years.
The framework is essentially a heuristic model that encourages someone to project themselves when they are 80 years old and make decisions to reduce lifetime regret as much as possible. That made Oliver’s starting point in his AmazonAMZN-powered supplement company, The Genius Brand, less intimidating.
“It’s always scary to take risks, but I think it’s scarier to wake up one day and realize that life has passed you by,” he said.
In the early 2010s, when DTC was just starting to mature and selling consumer products via social media was still a novelty, Oliver found himself in the sweet spot of building a sustainable business through Amazon, where the cost of acquisition of the client was only one third. of DTC, and trading non-traditional supplements that are not usually available at GNC, The Vitamin ShoppeVSI and retailers was much easier.
Starting with a caffeine-free pre-workout powder, The Genius Brand has expanded into the general wellness category over the years with products such as nootropic-enhanced brain supplements, growing its annual revenue from $1.5 million to $30 million. dollars, just before it was bought. from a Georgia-based private equity firm for eight figures.
Unlike traditional CPGs that must constantly raise capital and buy shelf space before generating positive cash flow, Genius became profitable in its second month of operation on Amazon. That’s because, according to Oliver, there are more than 80,000 Prime users looking for pre-workout supplements per month, and successfully converting 20% of them would be enough for a scalable business.
However, running businesses on Amazon can be costly as the platform typically charges sellers based on the item sold, a referral fee (6-15% of the sale price), monthly inventory storage, and variable fulfillment closing fees. . The secret sauce to delivering good margins is using the power of the algorithm, or in Oliver’s own term, “a series of micro-experiments of a strange obsession.”
“You have to be really into the algorithm,” he emphasized. “Amazon actually tells you what maximizes their dollar spent per customer visit — it all comes down to conversions, reviews, how you craft your headlines, all these little details,” which remain applicable to Newer businesses can now build more vivid stories through Amazon brand pages.
Then came the turning point. When the 28-year-old left The Genius Brand in 2019, Oliver encountered more than just the amount of wealth he’d never had in his entire life: a career dilemma that later spurred him into powering a platform online training that helps economically feasible. brands span Amazon, and separately, a performance-driven coffee company, Top Shelf Grind.
This time, however, instead of building it on Amazon alone, Oliver aims his new brand at mass retailers, including WalmartWMT, in the future, and eventually transforms Top Shelf Grind into a $100 million brand.
“My thesis is an improved form of coffee consumption,” Oliver told me, capitalizing on what he believes is a major trend in CPG — the increasingly blurred lines between supplements and food. “It’s basically an energy-packed instant coffee boosted by nootropic blends.”
On the packaging, the embossed gold banner reading “Break The Simulation” is boldly displayed, suggesting that the product is not at all aimed at the average shopper. “A lot of our customers are type A,” Oliver said.
Already generating $355,000 in sales in January 2023 alone, Top Shelf Grind will position itself as a “coffee-plus” brand with a number of unique products in the pipeline, he continued, in addition to a mushroom-infused ground coffee, a Creamer inspired by the workout formula and a weight loss coffee in her wallet. These items together are expected to put Top Shelf Grind on track to reach $5 million by the end of the year.
It may still be years before Top Shelf Grind hits its $100 million sales goal, but the sheer success of the connection Oliver builds between himself and his audience through those fast-paced, yet captivating Instagram videos about food, wellness and its real realization. life is already enabling the brand to thrive.
After all, “I’m not that different from most people my age, and I try not to think about managing my public image,” Oliver said. “I just found the right path, the right time, and I’m ready to go for it.”
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