sports-nutrition
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The $50,000 Shake Disaster That Built Orgain’s Protein Empire
A teenage cancer survivor became a doctor, launched an organic shake during residency, and nearly lost the business when the product turned solid on the shelf. The repair became a playbook for building trust in a category full of promises.
The 90-Year-Old Vitamin Shop That Refuses to Sit on the Shelf
From a Depression-era yogurt counter in Pittsburgh to a global supplement empire of roughly 14,000 people, GNC keeps rewriting the same question: what does a vitamin store look like when the customer shops on their phone?
AG1
AG1 built a reported $600 million business by turning a scoop of green powder into a morning ritual. Now the company that preached one product, one channel and one flavor is testing how far that ritual can stretch.
CELSIUS
A Florida fitness drink spent two decades escaping the supplement aisle. Now CELSIUS, Alani Nu and Rockstar share one owner, one powerful distributor and a new problem: proving that three brands can move as one without losing what made each matter.
Bodybuilding.com
Bodybuilding.com helped invent the content-to-commerce fitness playbook. Now the 1999 internet original is trying to turn its store, workouts, social community and new health services into one daily habit.
NOBULL
NOBULL is a Boston-based direct-to-consumer athletic brand that designs minimalist, durability-focused footwear and apparel for training and daily life. Founded in 2015 by two former Reebok executives, it built its reputation on no-nonsense CrossFit trainers before expanding into running, lifestyle apparel and nutrition. Now co-owned by entrepreneur Mike Repole and Tom Brady, the brand carries a reported $1 billion valuation.
G.O.A.T. Fuel, Inc.
G.O.A.T. Fuel is a Plano, Texas-based sports energy drink company co-founded by Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice and his daughter Jaqui Rice Gold and son-in-law Trevion Gold. Billed as the first Black-owned energy drink in national retail, the health-forward brand blends natural caffeine, electrolytes, BCAAs, antioxidants and cordyceps mushroom extract, with no added sugar or artificial sweeteners. Launched in January 2020, it has grown from a direct-to-consumer Shopify shop to more than 10,000 retail doors including Target, Walmart, Publix, H-E-B and 7-Eleven, and serves as the official energy drink of the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Sky.
Quantum Energy Square
Quantum Energy Square is a Venice, California-born food brand that makes plant-based energy bars engineered to replace the energy drink. Each square pairs 100mg of caffeine from organic green coffee with 10g of plant protein and balanced macronutrients from fruits, nuts and seeds, so the caffeine releases slowly for steady, no-crash energy. Founded by Daniel Medvene and Leah Marquez after 200-plus recipe iterations, the company sells direct-to-consumer and through Whole Foods, Sprouts, REI and Thrive Market, and is the official energy bar of IRONMAN and Rock 'n' Roll Marathon events.
Jaqui Rice Gold
Jaqui Rice Gold is the co-founder and CEO of G.O.A.T. Fuel, a health-forward sports energy drink she launched in January 2020 with her father, NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, and her husband Trevion Gold. Built as the first Black-owned energy drink to lean on cordyceps mushrooms instead of sugar and synthetic stimulants, the brand grew from a pandemic-era direct-to-consumer scramble into a nationally distributed product in tens of thousands of retail doors, with sponsorship deals spanning the Los Angeles Lakers and the WNBA's Chicago Sky.
Gainful
Gainful is a New York-based personalized sports nutrition company that builds custom protein powders, hydration, pre-workout and performance supplements tailored to each customer's body, goals and dietary needs. Customers take an online quiz, get a formula matched to them by Gainful's algorithm and registered dietitians, and can chat with a real RD about it. Founded by high-school soccer teammates Eric Wu and Jahaan Ansari and incubated at Y Combinator, the brand grew from a dorm-room experiment into a profitable, multi-channel business now sold direct-to-consumer and in Target stores nationwide.
Jahaan Ansari
Jahaan Ansari is the co-founder and CEO of Gainful, a New York-based personalized nutrition company that builds custom protein and supplement formulas around each customer. A UC Berkeley chemical engineering and computer science graduate, he wrote the algorithm that matches a person's body and goals to a unique blend, turning a college dorm-kitchen experiment that filled its first 50 orders by hand into a Forbes 30 Under 30, Y Combinator-backed brand sold at Target. He raised more than $17M with high-school-best-friend-turned-co-founder Eric Wu, and in 2024 took an unexpected detour onto ABC's The Bachelorette.
Create Wellness
Create Wellness is a New York-based consumer health company that built the world's first creatine monohydrate gummy, turning a messy, bodybuilder-coded powder into a low-sugar daily habit. Founded in 2022 by husband-and-wife team Dan and Sienna McCormick, the brand sells creatine gummies, electrolyte stick packs, and unflavored powder direct-to-consumer and through Target, GNC, The Vitamin Shoppe, Sprouts, and Wegmans. With more than 250 million gummies sold and $25M+ raised across Series A and Series B rounds, Create is trying to take creatine from the 2% of people who use it to the other 98%.
Dan McCormick
Dan McCormick is the co-founder and CEO of Create Wellness, the New York brand that turned creatine from a bodybuilder's powder into a daily gummy. After years inside high-growth consumer companies like Away, Parade and the Not Boring newsletter, he started Create in 2022 with his wife Sienna and pioneered the first creatine monohydrate gummy. The company has sold over 250 million gummies, reached GNC and Target shelves, and raised a $20M Series B in 2026 led by Alliance Consumer Growth.
Sienna McCormick
Sienna McCormick is the co-founder and co-CEO of Create Wellness, the New York company that turned creatine - long stuck in the bodybuilder aisle - into a daily gummy. After six years at Goldman Sachs, she and her husband Dan bootstrapped the brand from their apartment in 2022, shipped the first creatine monohydrate gummy after more than twenty manufacturers said it could not be done, and have since sold north of 250 million of them. In March 2026 the company raised a $20 million Series B led by Alliance Consumer Growth, with the stated ambition of getting 100 million Americans onto daily creatine by 2030.