https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-636&utm_medium=podcast

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup

Adam Gillman co-founded Hiya Health (hiyahealth.com), the kids' 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.

If you'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.

What's inside:

The "single SKU phase": why Hiya sold one multivitamin for 2.5 years before launching anything else, and what had to be true before product two
Attacking gummies head-on: porous form factors that kill vitamin content, and sugar as "candy in disguise"
How new SKUs stayed accretive instead of cannibalistic as the catalog grew
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
"We want this to sit on your counter, not inside of your cabinet": the packaging and sticker-pack decision that quietly built enterprise value
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
The exit itself: open bidding process, why he can't imagine doing it without an investment bank, and the leverage of not needing to sell
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)

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.

What to steal: Adam's channel discipline. Under $20M in revenue, put the majority of your effort into making one channel work before touching the next one.

Follow Adam: @AdamGillman on X | hiyahealth.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Building Hiya From a Single SKU

08:00 Expanding Products Through Customer Trust

18:00 Why Brand Building Creates Enterprise Value

23:00 Scaling Growth With Influencer Marketing

35:00 Creative Velocity, CAC and Sustainable Growth

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup

Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise

Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse

Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter

Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

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

DTC Podcast

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