Ep 638: Life After the $260M Exit: Hiya's Adam Gillman on USANA, Target, and Going Global

<p><a href="https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-638&utm_medium=podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-638&amp;utm_medium=podcast</a></p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - <a href="https://dtcnews.link/signup" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://dtcnews.link/signup</a></p><p><br></p><p>Adam Gillman co-founded Hiya Health (<a href="hiyahealth.com" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">hiyahealth.com</a>), the kids&#39; vitamin brand that launched in March 2020, stayed bootstrapped, and sold to USANA at the end of 2024 at a reported $260M valuation. He and his co-founder Darren still run it, and 2026 is the year Hiya finally hit retail shelves at Target.</p><p><br></p><p>If you&#39;re a founder or operator building a subscription DTC brand, this episode is a start-to-exit walkthrough from someone who did it without a single VC check.</p><p><br></p><p>What&#39;s inside:</p><ul><li>The &quot;single SKU phase&quot;: why Hiya sold one multivitamin for 2.5 years before launching anything else, and what had to be true before product two</li><li>Attacking gummies head-on: porous form factors that kill vitamin content, and sugar as &quot;candy in disguise&quot;</li><li>How new SKUs stayed accretive instead of cannibalistic as the catalog grew</li><li>Why influencer was the backbone of a channel mix that hit 25% month-over-month growth in stretches from 2023 to 2025, including creators Hiya has worked with for 3 to 4 years</li><li>&quot;We want this to sit on your counter, not inside of your cabinet&quot;: the packaging and sticker-pack decision that quietly built enterprise value</li><li>Disney, Barbie, and Marvel collabs done properly: rebuilding the entire customer experience per license, to the point that existing subscribers repurchased product they already had</li><li>The exit itself: open bidding process, why he can&#39;t imagine doing it without an investment bank, and the leverage of not needing to sell</li><li>Lightning round: the metric founders obsess over too much (revenue growth), the one they ignore (gross margin to CAC), and the e-commerce trend he thinks has peaked (creative velocity for its own sake)</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Who this is for: subscription DTC founders, operators fighting rising CACs, and anyone who wants to see what a bootstrapped nine-figure exit actually looks like from the inside.</p><p><br></p><p>What to steal: Adam&#39;s channel discipline. Under $20M in revenue, put the majority of your effort into making one channel work before touching the next one.</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Adam: @AdamGillman on X | <a href="hiyahealth.com" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">hiyahealth.com</a></p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p>00:00 Building Hiya From a Single SKU</p><p>08:00 Expanding Products Through Customer Trust</p><p>18:00 Why Brand Building Creates Enterprise Value</p><p>23:00 Scaling Growth With Influencer Marketing</p><p>35:00 Creative Velocity, CAC and Sustainable Growth</p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - <a href="https://dtcnews.link/signup" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://dtcnews.link/signup</a></p><p>Advertise on DTC - <a href="https://dtcnews.link/advertise" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://dtcnews.link/advertise</a></p><p>Work with Pilothouse - <a href="https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse</a></p><p>Follow us on Instagram &amp; Twitter - @dtcnewsletter</p><p>Watch this interview on YouTube - <a href="https://dtcnews.link/video" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://dtcnews.link/video</a></p>