320: Derek Halpern On How To Get 250K Orders In 2 Years With Truvani

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Getting into retail stores is the easy part, and selling once you are on the shelf is the job nobody prepares for. Derek Halpern’s position is that a retailer only makes your product available for purchase, and building the demand that moves it remains entirely your responsibility as the brand.

In this episode I spoke with Derek Halpern, founder of Social Triggers and co-founder of Truvani, a food and supplement brand built on complete ingredient transparency. It reached over 250,000 orders within two years and is now expanding into retail.

Below is everything: how to launch a product with a story rather than a pitch, what selling food actually requires, how to find and vet a manufacturer, why he runs ads to drive retail sales, and why he is against discounting.

Key takeaways

• Retailers do not sell your product. They make it available, and demand is still your job.
• Launch with a true story about a real frustration rather than product benefits.
• He runs ads to drive retail sales, which is unusual and matches how retail thinks about driving trial.
• Find a manufacturer who believes what you believe, because they will not take shortcuts you would reject.
• Aim for one-in-four on cost of goods, because shipping, returns, and breakage eat the difference.
• Food returns are total losses, since you cannot resell anything that comes back.
• He is against discounting and bulk buying, and uses a first-order discount only to drive trial.
• One-product companies fail. Revenue comes from selling more things to people who believe what you believe.

How to launch a product with a story instead of a pitch

Truvani’s first product launched on a genuine frustration rather than on product benefits.

The story was true and specific. Vani Hari had been taking a turmeric supplement, the company was acquired, the new owners changed the ingredients, and nobody told anyone.

That is what the launch communicated. A company that would tell customers when ingredients changed rather than hiding it.

The response validated the premise. People raised their hands saying they hated exactly that, because it happens constantly across categories.

Derek’s own version involves a pair of shoes he bought five times, where the leather started cutting his foot on the third pair and the company insisted nothing had changed.

The presell was framed honestly too. They said plainly that they did not know what demand looked like and wanted to find out before committing to inventory.

They still got it wrong. Demand exceeded expectations enough that they called the manufacturer on day one asking for four times more.

Why the ad did not lead with the product

The cold traffic ads told the same story and barely mentioned turmeric.

There were no benefits of turmeric in the creative. The pain was companies changing ingredients quietly, and turmeric appeared as an aside about what the first product happened to be.

Derek’s framing is that people buy the company they believe in. Leading with product superiority would have performed considerably worse.

His illustration is his own buying behavior. An apparel brand caught his attention through identity, the product itself was good, and he now owns fifty of the same black t-shirt.

The commercial consequence is what made the strategy work. One turmeric product became twelve SKUs, with a target of twenty-four.

What selling food products actually requires

Food and supplements are regulated, contrary to what many sellers assume.

Derek is direct on this point. The common claim that supplements are unregulated is wrong, and what is loosely policed is outrageous marketing claims rather than the products themselves.

The testing covers bacteria, foodborne illnesses, and allergens, including trace amounts of major allergens.

Facility disclosure is required. Truvani’s products are made where peanuts are present, so the label says so, and they still test for peanut residue.

Certifications stack on top. USDA organic requires ingredient-level verification, non-GMO project verification examines sourcing and suppliers, and the manufacturing facility carries GMP certification subject to surprise audits.

The enforcement mechanism is straightforward. Claiming 20 grams of protein per serving when it is not there gets you sued.

Where the real deception happens on ingredient labels

The trickery lives in composition rather than in outright false claims.

Derek’s example is a popular greens powder. The marketing shows vegetables and claims multiples of daily servings.

The ingredient list tells a different story. The first and therefore most prominent ingredient is vegetable cellulose, which he describes as plant-flavored sawdust.

The actual vegetable powder is dusted in because it is expensive, and synthetic vitamins and minerals are added to hit the nutritional claims.

His read is that the founders may not have known. A manufacturer optimizing for cost can do this without the brand understanding what happened.

That is precisely why choosing the right manufacturer matters more than negotiating the best price.

How to find and vet a manufacturer

Find people who believe what you believe, because they will refuse shortcuts you would refuse.

Truvani interviewed roughly 30 co-packers, narrowed the list, and visited the facility to audit it in person.

The one they chose were already readers of Vani’s books and already angry about what supplement companies were doing with ingredients.

Their size helped too. A smaller manufacturer meant no pre-existing relationships with large companies that could blow up the arrangement.

The search itself is tractable. There are only a few hundred co-packers in the US, which makes researching all of them realistic.

Sources include Google, industry newsletters, trade conferences, and asking people who have done it before.

Verification never stops. They validate organic certifications independently, having found suppliers claiming certification they could not confirm, and they test protein content and heavy metals directly.

His stated loyalty rule is the useful one: they are not loyal to any ingredient supplier, only to the test results.

Why manufacturers set high minimum orders

Minimum order quantities tell you what kind of manufacturer you are dealing with.

High minimums often exist to filter out people the manufacturer expects to waste their time.

Unusually low minimums can be a warning. Some manufacturers are in the one-and-done business, happy to produce something poor and move on.

The third type sets high minimums and will negotiate if you can get them to believe what you believe.

Derek’s reference point is Sarah Blakely, who was rejected by hosiery manufacturers until one owner’s daughter heard the idea and loved it.

Why physical product margins are misleading

Gross margin on a physical product tells you almost nothing about the business.

The retail benchmark Derek uses is one-in-four. A product selling for $4 should cost around $1 in goods, because everything else consumes the difference.

Shipping is a major leak. Truvani charges for shipping and handling, and every dollar collected costs them roughly two.

Food returns are total losses. Anything that comes back has to be destroyed rather than resold, because reselling it is a health hazard.

Breakage adds more, even when it is rare.

His honest comparison is that he misses information product and software margins, and that financing the growth of a physical product business has been the most stressful thing he has done.

The reason he does it anyway is that the ingredient quality they insist on makes the margins what they are, and the business exists to make products they believe in.

How to manage inventory with expiration dates

Supplements have one to two year shelf lives, which makes them forgiving relative to actual food.

Truvani holds three to six months of inventory, which balances two risks.

Holding too little is the dangerous side for them specifically. Because they test every ingredient and will reject a supplier over a failed test, a single failure with one month of stock means months without product.

Actual food is harder. Chocolate cannot sell on Amazon for roughly five months a year because warehouses get too hot.

Amazon handles part of this automatically. FBA destroys expiring inventory on your behalf, which removes one operational burden.

Why he moved Truvani into retail

Customers and retailers both asked, repeatedly, for roughly eighteen months.

Derek had spent his entire adult career in direct to consumer and knew nothing about retail.

His response was to buy the expertise rather than learn by failing. He hired a consultant who was currently a full-time employee at a food company doing significant volume.

That consultant taught him the landscape and then helped find and vet a director of sales from a company with substantial retail presence.

The first chain they entered was a specialty grocery in California, which took a chance on a new brand.

Why he runs ads to drive retail sales

Getting on the shelf accomplishes nothing without demand behind it.

Truvani’s response to entering that first chain was to run advertising into the LA area announcing they were in the store, plus email and promotion.

They sold through inventory in about two weeks, which Derek notes is rare for a new brand’s first retail placement.

Reorders followed, more stores came on board, and they repeat the local marketing push with each new chain.

His framing of why most brands fail at retail is the important part. Too many treat retail as the magic bullet that produces sales, and plenty of brands sit on shelves selling nothing.

The retailer’s role is limited to making the product purchasable in person. Building demand remains the brand’s job in every channel.

How retail advertising actually works

Retail has its own vocabulary for the same activity.

Trade spend is the retail term. Paying for an end cap display, a featured position, or a newsletter drop all fall under it.

Driving trial is what retail calls customer acquisition. You spend to convince a store’s existing customers to try your product once, and a good product earns the second purchase.

Derek asks about trade spend options immediately on entering a store, which he is told is unusual for a new brand.

Some retailers will not sell trade spend to new brands at all, or require a 90-day wait.

His response is to buy his own ads instead, which is why he was running Facebook and local advertising for a grocery placement.

The three channels and why you need all of them

People buy the way they want to buy, and the brand’s job is to be available there.

Truvani was not on Amazon for its first year. When they listed, it immediately became a significant revenue source.

Derek’s read is simply that some people prefer buying on Amazon, including him.

The same logic covers physical retail. Some people want to pick it up in a store, and that preference is not something you argue with.

The unifying principle is that selling the product remains your responsibility in every channel, and the channel only determines where the transaction happens.

Why Derek Halpern is against discounting

Discounting insults the customers who paid full price.

His second objection is behavioral. Discounts encourage bulk buying, which is a problem for a subscription business.

The third is that it pushes people to buy more of a product than they need purely to capture a saving, which he considers bad for the customer.

The one discount Truvani runs is 50% off a first subscription order, and it exists to drive trial rather than to move volume.

The reason it takes that form is practical. Producing sample sizes across every product is a separate expensive SKU line, so a discounted full-size product is cheaper than building samples.

His argument against bulk came from his own experience ordering six bottles each of six supplements and receiving 36 containers he had nowhere to store in New York.

Subscription solved it. He now receives deodorant, toilet paper, and everything else on recurring delivery because it is simply a better experience.

Truvani makes cancellation easy, which he notes is increasingly a legal requirement anyway, and runs a lenient refund policy on the reasoning that a bad experience costs you the customer permanently.

Why one-product companies fail

A single product cannot support customer acquisition costs at most price points.

The math is what decides it. Revenue per sale, minus cost of goods, minus acquisition cost, and whether anything remains.

Higher price points buy more room. A $500 handbag has considerably more margin to spend than a $29 supplement.

Even so, selling one handbag and nothing else loses. The business works when the same customer buys a second handbag, then a shirt, then accessories.

That is why luxury apparel brands sell handbags, sunglasses, and perfume. The expansion is what makes the acquisition affordable.

Truvani’s version is consumable repeat purchase, which produces the same effect through reorders rather than category expansion.

How to decide between digital and physical products

Derek has built both successfully and says the choice comes down to why you are doing it.

He started Social Triggers because he had something to say about marketing and bad advice was circulating.

He started selling courses because Lewis Howes convinced him to, and admits he never really liked it.

The results kept him going for a while. Watching people get real value became its own motivation until burnout arrived, because he had not wanted to do it in the first place.

His filter for digital products is whether teaching is what keeps you up at night, thinking about how to structure a course so people actually get results.

His filter for physical products is frustration with something in your own life.

His current unbuilt example is a nursing chair with a hard wooden armrest that his daughter kept hitting her head on, which he fixed with taped-on socks before throwing the chair away.

The ad writes itself from the true story, which is exactly how Truvani launched.

Frequently asked questions

Do retailers sell your product for you?

No. Derek Halpern’s position is that a retailer only makes your product available for purchase. Building demand remains the brand’s job, which is why plenty of products sit on shelves selling nothing.

Should you advertise to drive retail sales?

Yes, and few new brands do. Truvani ran local advertising announcing each new store placement and sold through their first chain’s inventory in about two weeks, which is rare for a new brand.

What is trade spend in retail?

Retail’s term for advertising. Paying for an end cap, a featured position, or a newsletter drop all count. Some retailers will not sell it to new brands or require a 90-day wait, in which case buying your own ads works.

Are supplements actually regulated?

Yes. Derek is direct that the common claim otherwise is wrong. Products require testing for bacteria, foodborne illness, and allergens, and claiming nutritional content you do not deliver gets you sued.

How do you find a food manufacturer?

There are only a few hundred co-packers in the US, so researching all of them is realistic. Truvani interviewed roughly 30, visited the facility to audit it, and chose one that already shared their views on ingredients.

What margins do physical products need?

Roughly one-in-four on cost of goods. Shipping frequently loses money even when charged for, food returns are total losses since you cannot resell them, and breakage adds more on top.

Should you discount your products?

Derek argues against it. It insults full-price customers, encourages bulk buying that hurts subscription businesses, and pushes people to buy more than they need. He uses a first-order discount only to drive trial.

Can you build a business around one product?

Rarely. Acquisition cost has to be recovered somewhere, which means either repeat purchase of a consumable or expansion into adjacent products. Luxury brands sell accessories for exactly this reason.