Transcript: From Zero to $2 Billion in Two Years, in a Saturated Market | Coffee with Eyal

October 22, 2026

In the second episode of "Coffee with Eyal", Eyal David breaks down the story of David, a consumer company that jumped to a valuation of over 2 billion dollars in two years, not in SaaS, not in cyber and not in AI. The founder, Peter, is a "second-timer" in the protein bar world: he had already sold a company focused on the CrossFit niche for 600 million dollars, and came back to the same saturated category, where all the bars look the same, target men, taste bad and cost about the same. Even before he had a product, he recruited the three strongest influencers in the space, among them Andrew Huberman, with equity, to build credibility and a free marketing channel. For the product itself he found EPG, an artificial fat that makes a tasty, high-protein, low-sugar and low-fat bar possible, and in marketing he aimed at women with a luxurious gold wrapper and different flavors. The most interesting move came after the success: he bought Epogee, the only company making EPG, for tens of millions of dollars, secured his own supply, blocked competitors and entered new verticals such as high-protein ice cream that sold out within 28 minutes of launch. Thanks to that moat the company raised 250 million dollars at a valuation of two billion and change.

In this episode

A real moat can be control over a critical ingredient in the supply chain: when David bought Epogee, the maker of EPG, it secured its own supply, blocked competitors and opened up new verticals for itself.
Even in a saturated market you can win by focusing without compromise on what the customer actually measures: for protein bars that's the protein-to-calorie ratio, plus good taste.
Influencers with equity, recruited before there's even a product, create credibility and also a free marketing channel with an incentive to succeed.
In a category where everyone looks the same, is priced the same and targets the same audience, a neglected segment (here, women) and completely different branding are a way in.
A "second-timer" founder returning to the same category comes with deep understanding of the market and can crack it again, this time at a bigger scale.

A 2 billion dollar consumer company

Eyal David: [00:09] Hi, welcome to Coffee with Eyal. Today we're going to talk about the story of a company that I find really interesting, a company that jumped in two years to over 2 billion dollars. It's not a SaaS company, not a cyber company and not an AI company, and that's why this story is so interesting and I wanted to share it. It's a consumer company, and what's interesting about the story, at the entrepreneurial and product level, is that it's the story of a company that was really focused, in the end, on the customer's need. They didn't go and invent some idea around something cool, they were really focused on what the customer needs.

Eyal David: [00:53] They went and built an amazing product there, they thought through everything at the marketing, product and pricing level, at a very high level, in a market that is very saturated. But the more interesting part is that after they succeeded, they identified a moat, they bought the moat, or took control of it so to speak, and then basically took over their whole category, and that lets them push up their valuation really exponentially, and there's clearly more to come.

Peter and the saturated protein bar market

Eyal David: [01:22] So this is […], about a guy named Peter, and Peter is a second-timer in the world of protein bars. Okay? It's a very saturated market and category. For anyone who knows it, it's a category that until recently was very male, at least aimed at a male market, all of it looks the same, all of it with a pretty horrible taste, at least to my taste. The metrics you basically look at are mainly protein, a high percentage, and a low percentage of sugar, or in the end sugar and calories. So if you look today at the protein bar shelf, they all look pretty similar, […] the same pricing, in the US at the time it was around two, two and a half dollars.

Eyal David: [02:04] So Peter had already cracked this world once. He went into a very saturated market, as I said, and basically sold a company that in this case was very focused, he sold to a niche of people doing CrossFit, and he sold it for 600 million dollars, and set off on a new path, he basically wanted to start again in the same world, which is very ambitious, amazing.

Influencers with equity from day one

Eyal David: [02:32] And basically what he does right from the start, even before he has a product, is go and recruit the three strongest influencers in this category, basically the category of dietary supplements, to create trust, and create, like, I mean, credibility, and to create a kind of stamp of approval for the product and the solution he's going to bring, and of course also to create a marketing channel that in the end will be free.

Eyal David: [02:58] So one of those influencers, for example, is Andrew Huberman, the podcaster. So from day one they basically start creating the buzz around the thing, and start talking about it. And what also happens is that he identifies, we said that he found what the market wants. The market wants a very high percentage of protein, a very low percentage of sugar, and, if possible, for the taste to be a bomb.

EPG: the ingredient that broke the market

Eyal David: [03:24] So what he finds is an ingredient called EPG, which in plain Hebrew is just fat, artificial fat, where the sugar level and the fat percentage are very, very low on the one hand, and on the other hand, the fattiness and the texture are very creamy. We won't even talk about the long-term effects that have recently been discovered about this additive, but at the time that wasn't on the table. And basically what he brings into his product is something that breaks the market. Suddenly he has a product that is really, really tasty, with a high percentage of protein, and, as we said, very low sugar and fat for the calories.

Targeting women: a gold wrapper and new flavors

Eyal David: [04:09] The other thing he identifies, at the product level, is that protein bars are all very similar to one another, in the wrapper, in the pricing, and basically everything is aimed at men. So one of the main channels he focuses on, the main segments he focuses on, is women, as a way into the market. And for that, first of all he goes and makes the product look very fine. He wraps it, of course, its taste and the product itself are already very good, but he basically goes and wraps it in a very luxurious gold wrapper, he calls it David, so you can picture it a bit like a work by Michelangelo, I think, and he starts marketing it to women, also with flavors that are very, they're appealing, they're not the ice cream and the birthday cake and the very banal things that existed up to that point.

Eyal David: [04:55] And what happens, again, we said he also invested in influencers from the start, so he also had channels that worked very well, that also worked for free, and they were on his side, they had an incentive, because they had equity. So right from the start it basically works really, really well, they sell like crazy, you can look at the numbers later.

The moat: buying Epogee

Eyal David: [05:18] The more interesting thing that I think happens is that this material, EPG, is made by one company, called Epogee, and they basically sold this EPG to other companies, other products, to make products with a very low calorie level. Think sweet syrups, spreads, ice cream, things in that area. And basically what he identifies is that there's a very, very big moat here, and if this moat is in his hands, he controls the category.

Eyal David: [05:52] So dear Peter goes and raises money, and buys this Epogee, I don't remember, somewhere around 90 million dollars, let's say. And what happens at that moment is that first of all he secures his own supply of this material, and he has no problem at all. On the other hand, he cuts off supply to the rest of the products on the shelf, his competitors' and products in different verticals. And he puts them out of business, they basically can't keep producing, because they have nowhere to buy EPG. And what happens is that very quickly he starts to realize that he can now take over all these products and a lot more verticals.

Ice cream, Target and more verticals

Eyal David: [06:32] So he basically goes and makes ice cream, also high in protein, with EPG and no sugar, with a very good taste, and this ice cream works so well that they sell out all the stock they had within 28 minutes of the launch, and they start selling it through Target and other chains too, so suddenly that also becomes business at a crazy scale, in addition to David, the bar he already has. So there's a kind of conglomerate of lots and lots of things he can basically do. So now he can basically go and enter more and more products with this thing, and nobody can compete with him.

Raising 250 million dollars

Eyal David: [07:13] He can sell this EPG to the highest bidder, for other products, and make money from that too. And basically what happens is that he raised 250 million dollars, again, at a valuation of two billion and something dollars, exactly because of this, because he's basically sitting on this crazy oil barrel, the oil well, so to speak.

What I loved most about the story

Eyal David: [07:37] So these are the things I loved most about this story. I think the uncompromising focus on the thing the customer cares about, which in the end is also the taste, but mainly the ratio between calories and protein; the fact that he found this technology; the fact that he brought the influencer in from the start as a marketing channel; thinking differently in a very saturated market and building a product that can put up a fight; and of course identifying the moat, the moat […], just amazing. So I'll put a link, and I hope you enjoyed it, and bye for now.