$0M to $10M in just 3 weeks?

Hello Sellouts

We talk every week about finding the gap: the group of unsatisfied customers whose lives you can improve to build your business.

Today, we're going to talk about a viral product that was literally engineered to create and fill a gap. Everything from the product to the launch was carefully calibrated for maximum impact, and the result was a huge success.

I'm talking about David's protein bars.

They first popped into my social feeds last fall, and I was skeptical. The nutrition facts seemed impossible: 28g of protein with just 150 calories and 0g sugar? 

Let's break down how this brand’s strategy has made them one of the fastest-growing nutrition brands of 2025.

The Problem with Traditional Protein Bars

When former RxBar founder (sold for $600M in 2017) Peter Rahal's non-compete clause finally expired in 2022, he saw an opportunity to create something to outshine his former work.

Partnering with Zach Ranen (formerly of low-carb bakery brand RAIZE), Rahal spent over a year developing what would become David—named after Michelangelo's sculpture.

Most "protein" bars are majority fats and carbs. The reason? Protein bars are food. Fats and carbs help with taste, texture and binding.

The tradeoff is that standard protein bars often work against your goals. This is particularly true for the hardcore fitness fanatics who make up a huge part of the protein product market:

• The 20g protein sounds impressive until you realize it comes with 250+ calories

• "Low sugar" often means they've added sugar alcohols that cause digestive issues

• Many bars use low-quality proteins with incomplete amino acid profiles

The Tool You Eat

How do you make a protein bar to compete against your own half-billion dollar success?

Rahal's prior brand, RxBar, describes itself as "actual food", "real food", "healthy food", "whole food," made from "natural sources" and "simple ingredients."

The audience is clear: nutrition-focused fitness buffs who want healthy, less-processed food they understand.

So David’s went the other way: what about the people who don't care about anything but high impact on their fitness goals?

David's self-describes as a "tool to increase muscle and decrease fat." 

They never say "real food", "actual food", or "whole food". In fact, the word "food" only shows up four times on their website… and is never used to describe the bars.

The ingredients list is a chemistry experiment.

But we know from the success of brands like Impossible Meat and Soylent that tons of consumers don’t mind a good product made with science, especially if it achieves a greater goal.

For David’s, that’s resulted in a genuinely revolutionary bar:

• 28g protein per bar

• 150 calories

• 0g sugar

• 1-2g net carbs

• Just 2g fat

This means over 70% of the calories come from pure protein—far surpassing the industry standard of 40-45%.

That definitely alienated some potential customers, but it created a ton of buzz in the right customers: the ones in the gap.

The Lab-Made Snack

Creating a bar with these macros wasn't just challenging—it was considered impossible.

They had to think outside of the box to make it happen. This isn’t just social media execution, but genuine innovation.

David creates mouthfeel by using fats that humans can't digest. If your body can't digest it, then it's basically no calories.

They created binding with allulose and fiber instead of syrups and sugars.

They’ve created a balance of ingredients that make an efficient gold-standard whole protein.

They lean heavily into the science-first brand philosophy, and frequently put their Chief Science Officer, Dr. Peter Attia, front and center.

A Masterclass in Product Launch Strategy

Engineering a seemingly impossible protein bar helped David's stand out, and their go-to-market strategy was just as methodical:

1. The Waitlist Launch: Before selling a single bar, they built a waitlist offering the first 5,000 signups exclusive access and giveaways. This created scarcity and anticipation, with some influencers describing it as "Willy Wonka vibes".
   

2. Microinfluencer Seeding: Rather than paying for a few big endorsements, they sent product to hundreds of micro-influencers across fitness, nutrition, and aesthetics niches. The genuine reactions ("How is this even possible?") created authentic buzz.
   

3. Direct-to-Consumer First: By launching exclusively online in September 2024, they controlled the narrative and collected valuable customer data and feedback before pushing into storefronts.

David’s knew that they could create a cycle of buzz with the right ingredients:

1. A shocking snack. The "too good to be true" element drove influencers to want to try the bar, widening organic reach.
   

2. The follower FOMO: When lots of influencers all share at one time, it creates a fear of missing out where others also want to comment to capitalize on the trend.
   

3. Algorithm assault: Breaking the dam wall so everybody posts at one time is critical, as social media and search algorithms will identify the trend and push content about a product more broadly.
   

4. The girl gap: David reached deep into women's health, fitness and beauty influencers because they tend to be more calorie-conscious and were less likely to eat protein bars regularly.

The result? Over 25% of David's customers report they weren't previously protein bar consumers—proving they're not just stealing market share but expanding the category, especially to women.

They also engaged with social media directly, live-streaming the founder for over 10 hours on launch day.

Seeding the Conversation

I went deep into the rabbit hole on David's launch and discovered another trick of the trade: David's cleverly engineered the conversation with replies, comments and reposts.

For example, there's one TikTok account with 0 videos, 0 reposts, but made at least one comment on nearly every David's protein bar video starting even before launch.

Was this an early superfan who full-time supports David’s launch? Probably not! Most likely, they used sneaky fake accounts to increase engagement and visibility.

Her comments regularly pushed reviewers to make future videos, asking them to try or review additional flavors, or try eating them with various preparations.

It worked extremely well! The 30,000 follower John Jung responded to her with multiple reviews, earning hundreds of thousands more views. It also worked in driving content from smaller creators, like the 3500 follower Random_Rican who made a video reply.

In addition, the co-founders, official brand account and chief scientist were active in replying to positive videos about their product from their official accounts.

The Sellout's Take

I've seen countless nutrition brands come and go, but David represents something truly different: a product engineered specifically to go viral.

Their focus on function and genuine innovation makes them a model for how to build a disruptive brand in 2025.

1. Find your gap.

2. Focus 100% on delivering for those customers.

3. Don’t be afraid to alienate others. 

4. Engage however you can to build following.

If you want some help building community around your own brand, check out my tutorial on automatic social outreach with ManyChat.

Want to see a food brand’s success with a polar opposite product mindset? We discussed MUD\WTR's natural-focused food brand last year.

Until next time, keep selling out (in the best way possible). If you found this interesting, please share it with a friend and hit reply.

Luke

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