#1 Grüns: $500M Gummy Bears

Backstory

Chad Janis tried accounting, pivoted to finance, and hated his stint in investment banking at Lazard before moving to private equity to invest in consumer brands like Chubbies and Solo Stove until he got the entrepreneurial itch. First a flight aggregator he shut down after hitting ~$100k ARR, an influencer marketing tech platform he sold, and now Grüns.

Chad scratched his own itch with Grüns after realizing he hated drinking messy, chalky green powders every morning, so he set out to reinvent daily greens as tasty, portable gummies he’d actually look forward to taking.

In summer 2022, Chad decided to turn greens into gummies. He spent a year on R&D, funded initial production out of pocket, and ran hundreds of blind taste tests to perfect the formula while getting his MBA at Stanford.

Grüns first made its products available for sale in August 2023. Just 22 months later, Grüns is now doing 9 figures in ARR went from a Shopify launch to nationwide retail, now selling in 4,000+ stores (Walmart, Target, Sprouts) with nearly 100 employees and a $500M valuation.

Road to the Money

Grüns has a fascinating distribution timeline that can only be described as meteoric. While Grüns started DTC, retail has become a massive driver of revenue, likely now accounting for half or more of their 9 figure ARR.

August 2023 — DTC Launch

• Launches Grüns online through their Shopify store.

• Price point: $59.99–$65.99 for a 28-day supply.

• Leverages:

  • Facebook & Google ads.

  • Creator seeding → authentic UGC rather than forced sponsorships.

  • Messaging centered on taste and portability.

August 2023 — Pre-Seed Funding

• Raises $1.8M pre-seed, backed by:

  • Brooklinen co-founder Rich Fulop.

  • Chubbies co-founder Kyle Hency.

• Connections from Chad’s investment banking days fuel initial funding momentum.

December 2023 — First Retail Entry (Sprouts)

• Launches with Sprouts Markets nationwide.

• Starts with low-sugar and no-sugar gummies.

• Rapid SKU expansion:

  • 2 months later → Sprouts adds Grüns Cubs (kids’ gummies).

  • 2 months after that → Sprouts adds Nütrops (nootropic gummies).

• Strategy:

  • Retailers love that Grüns attracts “net new consumers” not already buying supplements.

Feb 2024 — Target Launch

• Launches in 1,600+ Target stores nationwide.

• Continues DTC growth alongside retail.

• Adds new products to broaden reach and appeal to different consumers.

Feb 2024 — Seed Funding

• Raises $6M seed round, fueling:

  • Inventory scaling.

  • Retail readiness.

  • Creative and marketing testing.

April 2024 — Walmart Launch

• Launches in 1,900 Walmart stores.

• Now in ~5,000 retail doors total.

• Adds VP of retail to accelerate brick-and-mortar rollout.

April 2025 — Series A / Growth Round

• Closes $35M round at a $500M valuation, led by Headline.

• Confirms nine-figure ARR and shipping 4 million gummies per day.

2024–2025 — Marketing & Growth Moves

• Expands into:

  • YouTube ads

  • Podcasts

  • Influencer partnerships (Bethenny Frankel, Jessie James Decker)

  • Celebrity investors (Anna Kendrick, Shaun White via Plus Capital).

• Prepares to launch TV advertising and sports sponsorships:

  • Grüns becomes the official nutrition partner of Gotham FC in women’s soccer.

• Plans international expansion and new SKUs every quarter.

Tech Stack

Top 3 Lessons from Grüns

Scratch your own itch
Chad didn’t launch “another supplement.” He solved his own problem, greens powders that tasted nasty, and obsessively iterated until gummies nailed taste, efficacy, and branding.

Diversify sales channels if you find early growth
Most Shopify founders stay purely DTC too long. Chad pushed into retail quickly. Retail built credibility and volume that DTC alone couldn’t achieve.

Ride a wave
Demand for “super greens” has exploded in the last 10 years with supplement brands flooding the shelves. Most taste terrible and are hard to take, Chad didn’t re-invent the wheel, he just made it better.

Besos,

Nick