Video Posted: October 15, 2025
JOHN: I’m talking to BRAVEN GRANT. We’re talking about your company today, Gains. You’d personally made a million dollars taxable—felt excited for maybe five seconds.
BRAVEN: Then I knew the taxes that were coming as a part of it. I really thought a million dollars would do something for me. Then I got there and it didn’t. It’s cliché, but money isn’t the end-all. It isn’t fulfillment. The first year I made a million dollars taxable—I didn’t take a million into my bank account—but I paid taxes on a million. For five seconds I was excited. Then I felt this depressive state for a couple weeks. I thought a million would make me feel safe, happy, secure, fulfilled. It didn’t. The path went fast: $80k, $150k, two-something, then boom to a million. I thought $250k would feel good, but I still felt worried. I figured if I get to a million I’ll feel good. I got there—it didn’t do it. Money isn’t what I hoped.
JOHN: And you extrapolated that out?
BRAVEN: Yeah. If a million didn’t do it, 10 won’t, 100 won’t. I realized I’ll never get that “thing” I thought money gives. So I reflected: why am I doing this? How do I find joy in the process? Another car, bigger house—exciting for a month, then empty. Let’s go back: I grew up in small-town Arizona, very LDS—like a mini Utah.
JOHN: Faith-based background. Your whole business is very faith-based. And we’re literally looking at creatine here. How did you go from there to this?
BRAVEN: My dad was a world champion powerlifter; my mom a fitness competitor. My dad set a world record for most push-ups in a minute when I was four. He was the first nutritionist ever hired in the NBA. Jerry Colangelo (owned the Phoenix Suns, Diamondbacks, Mercury) brought him on after he’d been training players unofficially. This was the early ’90s when athletes weren’t really lifting; nutrition felt like voodoo science. Charles Barkley, Dan Majerle—those guys were originals.
BRAVEN: I fell in love with the fitness industry as a young teen. Got made fun of for not being big; wanted to get jacked. 2013–14 was early influencer days. I went to the Mr. Olympia Expo thinking I’d see the best brands and supplements. Disappointed—the athletes didn’t believe in the products; everything was synthetic. I grew up holistic—my dad now trains doctors on alternative healing with nutrition and lifestyle.
JOHN: Which is mainstreaming now. Life extension is already here—you need to invest in yourself. Creatine is interesting—especially what’s coming out now. So at Olympia you think, “This isn’t what I thought.”
BRAVEN: Exactly. Same lesson as the money one: I thought this was the top—let down. I told my dad, “This stuff is garbage; why aren’t your formulations here?” He said the market is saturated and synthetic. But I wished his products were there. First time I realized the best marketer often wins, not the best product. You can have an amazing product and still be shouting down a well. Meanwhile the guy with a celebrity sells junk.
JOHN: That was the spark.
BRAVEN: Yeah. I was 14 turning 15. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. That day I thought, maybe I can bring what I learned from my dad and build something. The concept: be a bridge—take truly healthy, whole-food-quality products and make them badass. Amazing flavors, but no artificial flavors, sweeteners, or colors. As natural as possible but delicious. And do innovative stuff like instantized creatine that changed the category.
JOHN: For listeners who don’t know creatine, quick primer?
BRAVEN: Simplest description: it helps your body produce more cellular energy (ATP), especially under stress or low oxygen. It doesn’t directly “build” muscle; it helps you make ATP. When you’re sleep-deprived, stressed, or training hard (low oxygen), creatine shines. So meatheads were the only ones “smart” enough to take it—tongue-in-cheek. Everyone should, because more cellular energy helps everything.
JOHN: Better focus, clarity, likely better sleep and recovery. I heard a podcast on brain function with creatine—blind studies getting interesting.
BRAVEN: Your brain is ~2% of body tissue but burns ~20% of calories. Shoot a podcast all day and you feel wiped. Stress, shallow breathing, fatigue—your body struggles to make ATP (it needs oxygen). Creatine lets you generate ATP without oxygen, like a portable charger. Dose-wise, most people do 5 grams daily consistently—that gets you ~70–80% of benefits. Bigger folks or heavy training: 10 grams makes sense. I personally take 20–30 grams in higher-stress or sleep-deprived phases. Creatinine (the waste byproduct) may rise on labs—normal. Many doctors just aren’t educated on that marker in this context.
JOHN: Benefits beyond energy?
BRAVEN: Strength (more reps at the same load), recovery, less lactic acid buildup (good for lifters and runners). Mentally: more energy availability helps cognition. It’s simple—more ATP helps most systems.
JOHN: Business time. When was Gains founded, and what came before?
BRAVEN: 2015 I met the guy who invented instantized creatine—the first 100% soluble creatine monohydrate. At the time creatine was a sleepy category. We got a short exclusivity window, took 1,000 units to an expo in early 2016 (I was 17), did a side-by-side dissolve demo, and sold out that weekend.
JOHN: It dissolves so I don’t have to keep shaking it. And this Sour Gummy flavor—tastes like Sour Patch Kids.
BRAVEN: We hated the industry’s obsession with flavor via sucralose and aspartame. A year and a half ago we asked top flavor scientists who’d built famous synthetic profiles, “Can we hit this level naturally?” We did. Big part of our brand now—give people what they love in a form that’s good for them.
JOHN: So you three—your dad, brother (branding/design), and you—start the company. Distribution?
BRAVEN: We avoided retail (GNC, Walmart)—too many layers, price hikes, and cash-cycle pain. We went direct-to-consumer but didn’t know online marketing. By 2019 we were stalled and considered shutting down. I’d gotten married; pressure was real. I’d sold satellite and solar door-to-door—great training. That’s when I realized the customer is the value. Why bring customers to someone else when I can bring them to us?
JOHN: Lifetime value. Most people miss that.
BRAVEN: Exactly. In 2019 I asked my dad and brother to let me buy them out (they kept a small piece). I felt God told me to do it—literally journaled “buy 100% of the company.” I ended up with 85% then bought more later. For a while it was me, my wife, and my best friend Caleb (now my CMO/partner). We didn’t even know what an email autoresponder was—we manually emailed abandoned carts daily until we learned to automate.
JOHN: Game changer.
BRAVEN: I read .com Secrets by Russell Brunson—fundamentals of internet marketing. I thought, if I can figure this out, we can get rich. Made dumb mistakes—got banned from Facebook for life for claims (supplement rules are strict). Big shift: I hired a coach for $6,000 (I barely had $4k personally). He changed my life. He said, “Math is the path” and “You can’t scale uncertainty.” We didn’t know our numbers—unit economics, shipping, pick/pack, returns (~2%), transaction fees (~3%). We built a full cost model.
JOHN: You were underpriced.
BRAVEN: Way under. We calculated our break-even ROAS—for every $1 in ads we needed $1.80 back just to break even (after COGS, shipping, fees, returns). Once we had certainty, we tweaked pricing and creative, hit the number, and two weeks later sold out six months of inventory. We went from $30k months to a $100k week. From there, a year and a half of inventory constraints were our ceiling.
JOHN: Revenue arc?
BRAVEN: 2019: ~$360k. 2020: $1.44M (we discovered the model mid-year). 2021: $3.5M (supply chain pain). Next year ~$4.5M, then $8M, $14M, and this year on track for $30M.
JOHN: What unlocked the doubles?
BRAVEN: Subscription. We plateaued until I met with Russell Brunson in Boise. He told me, “If subscription isn’t core, you’ll die.” Next day we rebuilt the page so Subscribe & Save was default (one-time still available). First day: 10 subscribers at low spend—we did the math on 100/day and saw the compounding. Today we have ~30,000 monthly subscribers.
JOHN: Product lineup?
BRAVEN: About 20 SKUs—proteins, pre-workouts, aminos, everyday wellness—all whole-food-based. Creatine is the driver; everything else is “let us introduce you to the best.” We’re building better stacks so you can pick “57-year-old male who trains” and get the right auto-ship every 30/60 days.
JOHN: Pricing tests?
BRAVEN: We recently lowered price to make creatine more accessible. It didn’t lift conversions as much as expected and led to our lowest profit month in six. We test often. Our customers invest in themselves—experience > price. We’ll keep iterating.
JOHN: Five-year vision?
BRAVEN: Serve 1,000,000 customers in a 12-month window (2–3 years target). Make Gains a household brand—walk into a home and see our products instead of synthetic junk. That means more retail and distribution expansion, while staying true to natural formulations.
JOHN: Brand ethos?
BRAVEN: Never Stop Progressing. Also: Do more than you thought possible. It came from the “money isn’t” lessons: first million personal, first million revenue, first $10M, the house, the supercar—none of it was “it.” Progress is it. Set goals, execute, learn, repeat.
JOHN: Where can people buy?
BRAVEN: gainsinbulk.com (we’re mid-rebrand to just Gains—we trademarked the word “Gains”). Search instantized creatine—we’re the only 100% soluble creatine monohydrate in the world. Others add chemicals/buffers; our process keeps it pure.
JOHN: Shipping outside the U.S.?
BRAVEN: We ship worldwide. Outside the U.S. is usually $10–$15—order two or three to smooth shipping.
JOHN: This was awesome. I’m excited for your future—and to see Gains on kitchen counters everywhere.
BRAVEN: Thank you.
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