Ep 616: How Neuro Built a Nine-Figure Smart Gum Brand Before Expanding to Retail.
About this episode
In this episode, Eric talks with Brian Evangelista about how Neuro built a successful online smart gum brand before expanding into retail.
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Neuro didn't fight for checkout shelf space first. They built a nine-figure online business through TikTok Shop, creator marketing, Amazon, and DTC, then used that momentum to walk into Walmart, Costco, CVS, and 7-Eleven with demand already proven. In this episode of the DTC Podcast, Eric talks with Brian Evangelista, Chief Commercial Officer at Neuro, about creating a category that didn't exist, running an affiliate program with tens of thousands of creators, and what actually changes when a digitally native brand wakes up as a real retail business. Built for DTC founders scaling from $5M–$100M who are trying to turn ecom momentum into retail distribution. We also get into: Why TikTok Shop worked so well early on, and what changed when it got pay-to-play How creator incentives shifted once GMV Max rolled out The retail launch strategy behind Walmart, Costco, CVS, and 7-Eleven Why retail completely reshapes your P&L, ops, and marketing stack The hidden operational tax of moving from DTC into omnichannel How Neuro frames category creation vs stealing share The strategy behind the "Your Gum Is Dumb" sloth…
People in this episode
Host: Eric
Guest: Brian Evangelista
Topics covered
- DTC growth
- retail expansion
- creator marketing
- category creation
- TikTok Shop
- affiliate programs
Keywords
- Neuro
- smart gum
- retail strategy
- TikTok marketing
- DTC
- category creation
- affiliate marketing
- omnichannel expansion
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Neuro, Walmart, Costco, CVS, 7-Eleven, TikTok Shop, DTC Newsletter
More episodes of DTC Podcast
- Ep 615: Prepare Your Brand for Agentic Commerce (How LLMs Are Collapsing the Consideration Phase)
- Ep 614: Creative Is the New Conversion, Not Just Targeting -- Charlie Cole, Thuma
- Ep 613: AI Is a Stack of Two-by-Fours. What Are You Building With It? (Plus Meet Gary and Blanche)
- Ep 612: The Bootstrap Beauty Brand Going Up Against BlackRock in Target – Megababe
- Ep 611: Velocity Isn't Strategy – Pilothouse on the Andromeda Creative Trap
- Ep 610: How Full Glass Built a $200M Wine Rollup by Fixing DTC Unit Economics
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