The Blog

Huel has been on an absolute ripper - meanwhile competitors like the incumbent Soylent was sold for parts late last year (Soylent sold for a revenue multiple sub 1x to Starco brands. The company was doing ~$100m in sales and sold for ~$67m).

One of the hallmarks of the DTC model has always been ‘cutting out the middleman’ - or the retailers that used to hog all the margin. When DTC came about in the 2010s, online brands were able to offer goods for cheaper than what you might at Walmart because Walmart wasn’t taking 50% of the selling price immediately off the top from the brand. This allowed the brand to pass on that margin to the customer in the form of price cuts, which allowed brands to compete on pricing and gain market share.

If your brand is over $15m, things actually may be going pretty well, all things considered. If you are under $15m, its hard and requires a lot of work and attention to right metrics to get profitable.