The original is one click away. Open original ↗
How Kevin Espiritu built a $30M gardening brand from a hobby blog
Executive overview
Kevin Espiritu started a gardening blog in 2013 with no business intent — just curiosity and a desire to get off the computer. Over eight years, it became Epic Gardening, one of the world's largest gardening brands, generating over $30M/year.
The turning point was realising the audience was the business: educational content built trust, product revenue followed naturally.
Audiences built through genuine curiosity convert into customers far more reliably than audiences built for monetisation.
From hobby to revenue
- Started the blog as a hobby alongside his brother; fell in love with gardening that first summer
- Moved in with a friend and spent 12 hours a day writing articles and driving traffic through forums
- Blog reached $2–3K/month within two to three months, then $4–5K/month by end of 2016
- Treated $4–5K/month as validation — roughly an accountant's salary — and committed full-time
Revenue growth timeline
- 2016 (first six months full-time): $70,400 revenue
- 2017: $75,000
- 2018: $225,000
- 2019: $540,000
- 2020: $2.8M
- 2021: $7.3M
The product pivot
- Early monetisation came from brand deals and sponsorships
- Realised: why promote other brands when he could launch his own product line?
- Audience kept asking about one specific product — corrugated metal raised beds
- Sourced the product from overseas (it didn't yet exist in the US market)
- Built a basic Shopify store, posted one Instagram story, sold out in two weeks
- By 2019, revenue split roughly 50/50 between media and product
How he runs the business now
- Days vary between content creation, executive meetings, and product development
- Deliberately blocks time for actual gardening — no phone, no video concepts
- Brain doesn't fully switch off; he has to schedule agenda-free garden time
Advice for getting started
- Most beginners over-index on learning before acting — you don't need as much knowledge as you think
- No need for a business plan, business cards, or a polished website before validating demand
- Consume just enough to get moving, then act immediately
- Spinning on "what if I did this instead" is treading water — nothing real gets built
More like this — when you're ready for early access.
Join the waitlist for a personal account and content recommendations based on what you're working on.
No spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
You're on the list. We'll be in touch before launch.