How Jeremy built a $5M/year natural products business from a van

Executive overview

Jeremy (Van Man) quit his job, sold his belongings, and bought a $2,000 Craigslist van. While documenting a health experiment on Twitter, he accidentally created a product his audience was already asking for.

He launched a natural tooth powder to his existing community and sold out in 20 minutes. The business hit $5M in annual revenue by stacking low-cost products, using divisive meme marketing, and obsessing over customer retention.

Build the audience before the product — then sell to the community that taught you what they want.

Finding the product idea

• Tweeted about switching to baking soda after accidentally buying fluoride toothpaste
• Followers expressed interest, signalling demand before any product existed
• Added eggshell powder after seeing an Arnold Schwarzenegger video; that became the core formula
• Community feedback shaped each ingredient decision — customers effectively co-developed the product
• Launched on Shopify; sold ~100 units on day one despite expecting 5–15

Marketing on a zero budget

• Meme marketing drives the majority of organic traffic — a single post can spike orders immediately
• Most divisive posts generate the most comments, shares, and Instagram reach
• Key formula: current event + recognisable face + product tie-in
• Requires being perpetually online — timing (posting within 24 hours of a news moment) is critical
• Email performs better than expected; Instagram posts and emails are the two primary channels
• Stays personally in the comments for hours after posting — this is where audience pulse is captured, never delegated

Building revenue through product expansion

• Started with tooth powder under $20; expanded to deodorant, mouthwash, hair oil, balms
• Average order value rises when customers bundle multiple low-cost products
• Higher AOV reduces per-order shipping and processing costs — that's when free cash flow appears
• 40% repeat purchase rate driven by aggressive customer service ("make any problem go away, immediately")
• Every product launched has sold well — none discontinued

Operations and economics

• Ships 500–600 orders per day from one San Diego warehouse
• All products handmade by hand — tallow scooped with a spoon, same method since launch
• Bulk ingredient buying and minor tooling improvements compress unit costs over time
• Early stage: long irregular days (often 12 hours) with physically demanding manual work

Advice for starting out

• Start on Etsy — browse for product ideas, add your spin, sell back on Etsy
• Test ads immediately; find one winning ad to fund the next month
• Never stop after early failures — persistence is the primary differentiator