How Boochbod Scaled from 0 to 50 Creators and 1,000 Posts in 100 Days

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Eric Winkler never set out to sell supplements—he just wanted his dad to feel better. Years of drive‑through dinners left Mr. Winkler overweight and flirting with diabetes. A dietitian prescribed real fibre and whole foods and, almost overnight, the blood‑sugar charts turned green. Eric filed that lesson away: fix the gut and the rest follows.

Fast‑forward a few years. Eric and his wife were kombucha fanatics, yet every bottle on the grocery shelf tasted like soda masquerading as health food. Why can’t gut care be easy—and actually healthy? What began as a kitchen‑table rant turned into a wild idea: pack kombucha cultures into a shelf‑stable gummy that busy people would look forward to every morning.

Sixty calls, one handshake

Turning a napkin sketch into a product was brutal. Eric emailed more than 100 supplement manufacturers and pitched 60 of them on Zoom. Most tried to push white‑label probiotics. Custom kombucha cultures? “Too niche,” “unstable,” “come back when you’re bigger.” Call number 60 was different only because Eric had, by then, learned to speak their language—pH ranges, colony counts, shelf‑life protocols. The lab director bit. Boochbod had a production slot and a real batch in motion.

Recruiting believers, not billboards

Product in hand, revenue at zero. Eric needed storytellers. Early outreach dangled tiny retainers and attracted what he now calls retainer farmers—creators who post once, invoice, and disappear. So he pivoted.

Every prospect sat through a 10‑minute Zoom. First five minutes: the gut‑health mission and his dad’s comeback. Next three: What drives you? Student loans? A house deposit? Pure creativity? Last two: lightning brainstorm. If the chemistry clicked, they joined. If not, no harm done.

“Each creator has to feel like a mini founder,” Eric says. “If they only care about the retainer we both lose.”

The approach worked. Dozens signed on, and soon Boochbod content was popping up across three TikTok accounts and three Instagram handles.

When the hook finally landed

The first wave of videos hyped Boochbod’s taste—and mostly flopped. Then one creator opened with a raw confession: I’m so bloated I look five months pregnant. She blamed America’s fibre gap, then offered the gummy as the fix. Views surged. Eric rewrote every brief: lead with the pain, end with the solution. Engagement climbed week after week.

Six days that proved the model

Roughly two months in, a creator trimmed her best video into a Tiktok post. It racked up 100 000 views in six days and drove Boochbod’s biggest sales spike yet. Growi’s weekly recap laid the pattern bare: a viral clip produced a six‑day revenue tail before tapering off. Eric’s takeaway was simple—repeatable math beats lucky breaks.

Where they stand now

A few months after launch, Boochbod works with about fifty creators who have published close to a thousand posts across TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube. Eric still jumps on quick calls with every new recruit, still tweaks briefs based on weekly data, and still starts each meeting with the same reminder: We’re here to fix guts, not just sell candy.

What’s next

Growi’s Discovery beta rolls out to Boochbod this month, giving Eric a faster way to spot fresh talent and track every post that moves the needle. The plan is simple: more reps, sharper data, bigger impact.

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