Key Takeaways

  • IM8 reached a $100 million annual run rate in 11 months and hit a $200 million run rate at 18 months.
  • Danny Yeung convinced his board to back a supplement brand despite having zero prior background in the category.
  • The company avoided the crowded greens powder market by launching a daily reds powder with 90 ingredients designed to replace 16 separate supplements.
  • Yeung brought on David Beckham as an equity co-founder instead of a paid celebrity endorser to ensure the brand could stand on its own product quality.

Rejecting the Category Playbook

When Danny Yeung pitched his board on building a supplement business, they pushed back immediately. “My whole board disagreed with me,” Yeung recalled. “They're like, 'You don't know anything about supplements, Danny.'”

He had spent years scaling Groupon Hong Kong and taking genomics company Prenetics through COVID-19 testing. He did not have a nutritional science degree or decades in consumer packaged goods. But he saw an opening where incumbents were all copying the exact same formula.

Every major daily wellness drink was selling a tub of green powder. Instead of fighting for market share in an identical color palette, Yeung engineered a daily reds powder. “We wanted this to stand out. We didn't want to just create another greens powder,” Yeung said. “No one created a reds powder, and so I think by default that was interesting to people.”

The product packs 90 ingredients into a single daily sachet mixed with 12 ounces of water. It replaces 16 individual vitamin bottles. By changing the visual hook from green to red and designing a high-end unboxing presentation, IM8 gave customers a reason to look twice before they even tasted the drink.

Why David Beckham Is a Co-Founder, Not a Billboard

Celebrity brands fail when consumers realize the face on the billboard has no skin in the game. When Yeung approached David Beckham, he set clear terms right from their first meeting.

“I told David something that was surprising to him,” Yeung said. “I was like, 'David, if we do this together, I don't want you just as ambassador. I want you as a co-founder, but this brand has to live beyond you. I don't want this to be another celebrity brand.'”

The distinction changes everything about how a company operates. An ambassador signs an endorsement contract, collects a check, and posts twice on social media. A co-founder helps refine the product, commits to the long-term vision, and attaches their personal reputation to the science behind the formulation.

The strategy paid off at speed. Yeung compared their trajectory to other category giants: “We hit a 100 million annual revenue run rate at 11 months. Groom did it in 22 months, and they were acquired for 1.2 billion. AG1 took them 10 years to hit 100 million. We hit 200 million run rate in 18 months.”

What to Do With This

Audit your current core product against the top three competitors in your space. Find the single visual or structural default that everyone takes for granted, such as color, packaging, or onboarding flow, and intentionally invert it. If everyone sells green powder in plastic tubs, design red powder in sleek single-serve sachets.