From Navy SEALs to Target Shelves: How Ketone-IQ Built a Category-Defining Brand

When Michael Brandt started what would become Ketone-IQ (formerly HVMN), he didn't just set out to create another energy drink. He set out to build something venture-scale in human performance, even if it meant starting with a product that "tasted like s***" and cost $30 a shot.

Four years after launching with a Department of Defense contract, Ketone-IQ has evolved from serving elite Navy SEALs and Tour de France cyclists to sitting on shelves at Target nationwide. Here's how they did it and the unconventional strategies that made it possible.

Starting with Your Freaks

Ketone-IQ's early days were defined by extreme specificity. The product was expensive, tasted terrible, and required significant education to understand. Yet some of the world's highest performers, like Olympic athletes, pro cyclists, and military special operations, were willing to pay premium prices for it.

"If it tastes crazy, if it's expensive, it has friction, but people are still using it because it's just mission critical for what they're doing, you might be on to something," Brandt explains. "You kind of want your freaks. You want your outliers."

This "spiky" early adoption signaled product-market fit in a way that broader appeal never could. While Brandt's earlier venture, Go Cubes (a coffee-flavored gummy he pitched on Shark Tank), was easy for everyone to understand, it lacked that intense pull from high-performing outliers. Ketone-IQ had Navy SEALs calling and podcasts requesting interviews.

The key insight: for truly inventive products, early friction paired with passionate early adopters is a feature, not a bug, as long as you can systematically remove that friction over time.

The Underwriting Philosophy

One of Brandt's most valuable frameworks is treating every marketing investment like an underwriter evaluating risk. But it's not as simple as tracking affiliate codes.

"When I say underwriting, I don't just mean we're only giving people links and only looking at the dollars that come through the links," Brandt clarifies. "You need to have a more poetic license on it."

The company uses a blended approach:

• Direct attribution: Tracking conversions from podcasts, affiliate codes, and paid ads

• Halo effects: Estimating spillover to Amazon (0.3x) and retail (0.5x) for every DTC customer acquired

• Brand value proxies: Assigning dollar values to impressions based on market rates (e.g., $5 CPM)

For example, when evaluating viral content or events, Ketone-IQ estimates what 100 million impressions would cost to buy on YouTube or TV, then assesses whether their organic approach beat that market rate. This allows them to confidently invest in "unmeasurable" brand-building activities while maintaining financial discipline.

The philosophy extends to partnerships. Working with Jon Jones as Chief Performance Officer delivers value across multiple dimensions: direct conversions, retail negotiating leverage, and brand credibility. The key is assigning reasonable values to each and ensuring the total justifies the investment.

Content Strategy: Swinging for Ultra-Viral

While many brands focus on consistent engagement across all posts, Ketone-IQ takes a different approach—they swing for the fences.

"Insanity wins," Brandt says. "The worst thing in branding is to be ignored. You'd rather be remembered and people hate you than fade into obsolescence."

Their content strategy includes:

• Mega-viral stunts: Cam Haynes (Joe Rogan's bow hunting mentor) shooting an apple off Brandt's head; Jon Jones "robbing" a Vitamin Shoppe; collaborative content with unexpected partners like adult film star Riley Reid

• Production value: Full-time content team with actors, extras, stunts, and explosives

• Cultural fearlessness: When Brandt bled through his shirt from nipple chafing during a marathon, the team turned it into a giveaway campaign

The goal isn't engagement on every post. It's ensuring millions of people have seen the brand at least once through content that's impossible to ignore. That awareness then funnels into more conventional conversion-focused ads and retail presence.

"We care more about having posts that go ultra super viral, maybe less than other brands," Brandt explains. "A lot of people have seen our brand once or twice. That's worth something to us."

When to Go Retail

For years, Ketone-IQ remained DTC-first despite its DoD origins. The shift to retail came only after hitting certain milestones — not just revenue targets, but strategic readiness.

"The playbook has changed so much even in the last few years," Brandt notes. "I think in order to succeed in retail, it's very hard to start in retail."

The key considerations for retail timing:

1. Eight-figure DTC scale: Demonstrating proven product-market fit and marketing efficiency

2. Fixed positioning: Product, packaging, and messaging dialed in (retail feedback loops are 6-12 months vs. instant online iteration)

3. Marketing engine: Existing demand generation to "bring your own shoppers" to retailers

4. Category readiness: Ability to educate retailers on why you'll grow their category, not just compete for existing sales

"Retailers are struggling," Brandt explains. "They want to hear that you're bringing a new shopper into the store or into your category. That story—we break the internet, we have a massive online engine, we're going to make your retailer shine—that's what you've got to tell."

Capital Strategy Without Losing Discipline

Ketone-IQ has raised outside capital, but Brandt approaches it with unusual caution. He doesn't celebrate fundraising; he treats it as selling an arm to fuel growth.

"The great thing about not having any outside capital is that every dollar you spend has to come back around," he explains. "There's a real discipline. When you raise all this cash, everyone spends like there's no tomorrow. There's no underwriting. It's hard to get that discipline back."

His philosophy on capital:

• Bootstrap mentality at scale: Every dollar out must come back in, even with outside funding

• Gunpowder, not gasoline: Capital amplifies existing good culture and proven channels; it doesn't fix broken fundamentals

• Investment, not spending: Capital enables running multiple growth initiatives in parallel (multiple retail launches, partnerships, etc.) that have delayed but confident returns

• Model the timeline: Be comfortable being unprofitable for 6-12 months if your models support eventual positive ROI

The key is maintaining the scrappy, ROI-focused culture of a bootstrapped company while using capital to scale what's already working.

Focus Your Channels

When asked about TikTok strategy, Brandt offered surprisingly focused advice: you don't need to be everywhere.

"It's impossible to be good everywhere," he says. "Most brands need to figure out one or two lanes to be really good at and ride those up."

He points to different success models:

• Prime (Logan Paul's celebrity leverage)

• Athletic Greens (podcast advertising focus)

• QVC brands (late-night TV mastery)

• Costco-first companies (single retailer focus)

"You only need one thing that works. Your mission is more of a search and destroy mission… what's my one killer channel, and how do I ride that one up to $100 million."

Every new channel requires investment before returns: hiring, mistakes, learning curves, and upfront costs. Spreading resources across too many channels means none get the critical mass needed to succeed.

For Ketone-IQ, podcasts and viral social content have been the primary growth drivers. TikTok remains "TikTok curious"—a potential next channel, but not one they need yet, while other channels are still scaling effectively.

Building Team Culture

When asked whether everyone on the team needs to embody the brand's customer profile (active, performance-focused), Brandt offered nuanced guidance.

The ideal is finding people who are both excellent at their jobs and aligned with the brand lifestyle. But he acknowledges the tradeoffs:

• Marketing and partnerships: These roles absolutely should "look the part" and live the lifestyle—they're interacting with customers, partners, and at events

• Back office (finance, supply chain): Excellence at the function matters more than personal lifestyle alignment

• Hiring slowdown: Accepting that narrower candidate pools mean more patience and more candidates interviewed

"If someone's going to be running your events and at your trade shows and interacting with partners, I think they need to look the part," Brandt says. "But your finance person probably isn't interacting with Olympic runners."

Most importantly, he asks every potential hire: "How weird are you?" He wants people who push boundaries, share unconventional ideas, and aren't afraid to look unhinged in pursuit of attention-grabbing marketing.

The Long Game on LTV

When evaluating partnership returns, Brandt emphasizes thinking in investment timelines, not immediate profitability.

"Every asset that you could possibly deploy capital into is going to have some return schedule to it," he explains. "If there was a machine where you could put in $10 million today and get $11 million out an hour later, you have to push that button all day. That button doesn't exist."

For podcast partnerships, they model:

• How many episodes will drop over the partnership term

• Customer acquisition from each episode

• The 36-month LTV curve for each cohort of customers acquired

• When the total investment becomes cash-flow positive (typically 6-12 months)

"If you're able to model out—'Hey, with very high confidence I'm going to be in the positive in six months, very worst case I'll be in the positive in 12 months'—then go take that bet all day."

This confidence in delayed returns, backed by solid modeling, is what enables aggressive growth investments that would seem reckless to companies demanding immediate payback.

Key Takeaways

For inventive products:

• Start with your "freaks"—passionate outliers signal true product-market fit

• High early friction + intense demand = opportunity, if you can solve the friction systematically

For marketing:

• Underwrite everything, but use "poetic license" beyond direct attribution

• Assign dollar values to impressions and brand-building based on market rates

• Swing for ultra-viral over consistent engagement (if that fits your brand)

• Focus intensely on 1-2 channels rather than spreading thin across many

For growth:

• Hit significant DTC scale before retail (typically eight figures)

• Bring your own demand—retailers want brands that drive new shoppers

• Capital is gunpowder on existing fire, not a match to start one

• Model LTV timelines confidently so you can invest in 6-12 month payback periods

For culture:

• Hire "weirdos" who push creative boundaries

• Different roles need different levels of lifestyle alignment

• Steal like an artist—combine existing ideas with your unique spin

From $30 shots for Navy SEALs to $5 convenience store bottles for everyday energy, Ketone-IQ's journey shows how a truly inventive product can scale without losing its edge. The secret isn't just great product-market fit—it's having the financial rigor to invest confidently, the creative fearlessness to break through noise, and the strategic focus to dominate one channel at a time.