David Protein CEO Peter Rahal previews new bar, targets $300M+ in 2026 revenue, and launches in Target and Walmart in January

cowboy hats.

And we got a cowboy in the studio. Peter Rahal from David Protein.

Protein cowboy.

Cowboy. How you doing?

What's happening? How are you?

It's great to have you back.

Good to have you back on the show.

The COD King.

The COD King. Yeah. We haven't talked to you since you did the COD. Uh I was talking to Jordy, but I thought I didn't know it was real. It was real. You actually sold cod. Is that correct?

Yep. And we still are selling it.

No way.

Wait. [laughter] So So are people just cooking up

What is Yeah.

tacos at home.

Where does this go? Like what if it's actually successful and then you just have to sell cod only?

Yeah. I mean hard to outsell David protein bars.

We don't have the same product market fit.

Okay. [laughter]

With uh frozen blazer.

Yes. Uh, amazing. Uh, how's how's it been since we last caught up? Uh, I know I know like that it sounds like the number one challenge for David is just keeping the product in stock. Is that true?

Yeah, I would say um building foundation for for a big um big 26 uh getting the supply chain set up. Um yeah, so mostly on the supply side and um you know this business is a little seasonal. So Q

seasonal

Yeah. Q Q4 is pretty slow.

Pretty slow. New year, new you, you go on a diet. Is that the idea?

Well, Q4 you're just really eating turkeys.

Yeah.

Drinking alcohol. Um and then yeah, January all the shame comes and you just

get on the ground.

Yeah. It's like it's like 50% month over month from January or December to January.

Wow.

Yeah. How uh how is now that you're what how how is it two years into David or around there?

One one year and three months.

One year and three months. Um how is it different than uh the journey uh from RXAR? Like like in the first year it's obviously been accelerated on the capital side, but what what are the big learnings? Like what's what what's the what's the biggest difference? Um so RXAR for the first two and a half three years was finding product market fit like

Sure.

And then um yeah once we hit it it's pretty similar actually once we hit it. It was in 2016. Um David was like right off the get-go. So

like year three of RXAR is like year one of David. Um and then um I'm trying to think like markets have changed like marketing tactics have changed like influencer marketing.

Tell me more about the the what was the biggest uh tactic then and then what was the biggest tactic of 2025 for you.

So Instagram and influencer marketing was sort of the arbitrage.

Um and it was more that the influencers weren't aware of their influence. So, um, that was like a big mispriced opportunity.

So, so, so there were opportunities like if you just showed if you just like shared someone like like sent them the product and they would just post about it for free almost or or just small little little uh little like checks here and there as opposed to now there's like whole companies that intermediate, you know, oh, this person has this many followers, it's going to cost this much. It's a whole machine now.

Yeah, totally. Like this is pre stories, but like if Kim Kardashian posted a story of RX bar, we would see it right in our sales.

Y

today I don't think you see it in your sales.

So I think there's like fatigue.

Oh, interesting. Fatigue. So So it's actually becoming less effective as well as back then it was potentially underpriced. Interesting.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense because there's like novelty of like oh these people they like I haven't seen them pro promote products. Uh so so what is working on the growth side in 2025?

[sighs and gasps]

Um, [clears throat] it's a good question. I mean, it's it's it's hard to attribute to um like one thing, you know. Um, I I I think the if you're in the health and wellness space, the health and wellness podcast are great. Um, um, Huberman of course is really powerful. Um, meta ads are working really well for us.

Um, and then like I I'm kind of old school like just trial like sending product out, sampling like the business is really simple.

We have a we have a bar.

It's really easy to sample it and if you do that at scale it really works. Um,

and so at scale sampling means you have hundreds of people out in the real world that are going to retail stores and and maybe fitness studios and just like physically sampling or is are you saying more like sending it you know sending out uh sample bars to individual consumers or both? both sending up we don't have much retail so sending out individual sample packs to to consumers and influencers and people of influence and then um events doing good good events and micro influencers I heard your previous guest talk about that that like really powerful um because they have credibility um but from a grow like tactically speaking like everything's working for us and it's not to be arrogant it's just that the product's just really differentiated like

no that's the key that's the key in CPG I've every time I've invested in a company where I try the product and I go this product is 10 out of 10 it's the best in its category

the business just crushes and the founders can you can still make a bunch of mistakes

you can you can you can not have the best ads you can not have the best website you can not even have the best team but if you have the best product It just it just works. People people come back. And so if you have the best product and the best execution, you're pretty much unstoppable and you just see this lift across the board.

Yeah. And so it's it's really hard to attribute what's working because it just kind of works everywhere. I know where it doesn't work and it's usually like a price thing. Um

but um because our product is expensive. Um

yeah.

What [clears throat] about uh so what is the plan on the retail side? Like I I'm assuming as soon as you have the inventory, you'll flip a switch and try to be everywhere or is there a more specific roll out?

Yeah. Yeah. So in um January rolling out in Target and Walmart. So that's a huge huge lift and then um we'll be building the majority of we'll get majority of the major distribution um with great retail partners throughout 26.

Yeah. Uh, and what about new new product like stuff on the new product side? You've talked before about

being a being a house of brands and that being the way that you get to the multi-billion dollar scale. Any any uh

rough timelines you're thinking about?

Yeah, we have a new product we're launching in uh January.

Is that fishbased?

It's No, no, it's it's legit.

Is that another fish product?

Yeah, it's not it's I won't confuse anybody.

It's boiled trout now. John, [laughter]

that should that should be how you haze new employees. Like how you ramp them up. It's like to earn a to earn a spot on like the core David team, you have to be able to sell fish online. Like frozen fish

on Tik Tok shop. You have

Exactly. You got to hit a million dollars of sales on Tik Tok shop.

Um what So this is a new product under David or it'll be in a new brand?

Under David. Um it's a new bar. M

I'll flash it right here.

Oh, leaking alpha right here. First time we've ever seen it.

I was hoping you were going to pick it up with like two massive arms like it was a duraf flame fil [laughter] like a cord of firewood. It's like Yes. This has enough protein for an entire year

and you can just slice off

slice off a chunk as you need.

Yeah. So, no uh no stunts. That's a real product. Um, let me put on do not disturb. Um,

Chad is asking if it's a collab with Nature's Valley Granola. You know, the crumb one that like you eat it and the crumbs go everywhere. That one's so funny. Some of [laughter]

the funniest bars.

It's like a It's a funny It's like a negative trait became a meme that actually benefited the brand.

Yeah, 100%. And you have to imagine that those bars are like 100% carbs basically. [laughter] [gasps]

Energy bombs.

Yeah. But you know

what uh

place

what are you seeing? I know you have a big uh CPG portfolio. What what are you seeing on on the portfolio side? What's working? Where are brands doing well? Where are they struggling?

Uh not everybody can have a product that has as much product market fit as David. Uh, so it's not always

I mean [clears throat] I mean I don't I um I don't spend any time on my portfolio and I don't um [laughter] so I don't know. Um I strictly focused on David. Um so I actually have no idea. The one that is sticking out is this THC. Um Boom. The Willies. Um

Oh yeah.

What is that?

Yeah. They're crushing it.

That was the kombucha. The kombucha brand. They didn't they like spend that

yeah Juneshine um and it's like a [clears throat] historic pivot because like the June shine or the hard kombucha TAM is like 200 million. They pivoted this and it's like

really really strong numbers. Um

interesting.

Yeah. And I think it's you know macro trend is known people want to get high but they don't want alcohol. Um Huh. And

they're seeing all that demand.

That is crazy. Uh

what's the biggest fish you've ever caught? a uh 33 inch uh lake trout.

Lake trout.

Lake trout. Let's hit the gong.

We're going to hit the gong for the lake trout.

Uh la last question. Uh what's the what's your prediction around 2026 revenue? Are you sharing any of those numbers?

Uh yeah, I'll share it. Um the moving target um we should do north of 300 million. There we go. [laughter]

Wow.

Masterass is crazy growth.

That's a lot of bars. That's a lot of protein.

That's a lot of protein.

A lot of protein. Um we have a great team. [clears throat] Uh sort of trying to We're striking on all cylinders. So,

how many how manyions of

uh what will the team look like next year? Um, well, next year, I mean, we're we shoot for 2 million per head. Um, so I bet we'll be north of 150.

Yeah.

Um, we're about 80 80 right now. Um, I try not to comp these things because I find they're really bad. Um,

but um, yeah, we have a great we have a great team and super productive u group. two million ahead. It's good.

It's a good good benchmark.

Keeps you honest.

Love it.

Um yeah, amazing. Well, thank you. Thank you for joining. Always always good to have you. Uh and uh incredible to get the update on the business.

No Black Friday talk.

Uh

how's it going? Yeah. I mean, I mean, you mentioned that it's not the biggest day for you.

Yeah. What what's your strategy going into this? I mean, and what's your philosophy even around uh like discounting? I I I uh I'm we're hearing different things from different people today. Uh I know brands that that their max discount ever is 15% and they're super religious about that. They don't want to train their audience to kind of wait and uh buy a ton on a specific day because it it hurts the rest of the year. But what's your approach?

Well, we I we did this at RX. We basically condition our customers to a quarterly clearance of some sort. So with David, we don't we don't do discounts. Um, and then, um, yes, we don't do discounts. We just do a buy four, get the fifth free, and then

Nice.

Yeah. So, as a I think it's important for us as a brand, um, I think it's a I think it hurts the brand to be discounting. Um, and then we just bring we do bring a lot of value like on a dollars per um, protein perspective. Um, so, uh, and then with Black Friday, um, it's just too competitive. And then, um, yeah.

So, is it even worth it to ramp? Do you ramp ad budgets at all or do you just let people

not a gift?

Yeah, we basic we basically just run steady state. Yeah.

And we basically kind of hibernate and November, December.

Yep. And you know, like our sales are today are only going to be down 20%. From an average.

Wait, so you're going to have 20% uh less sales today, but but less sorry. Explain. So you're just like you're turning off.

So So we're not say ads are ads are consistent at 15K. Mhm.

Uh uh we're not like you would think that all the consumer attention is going to Black Friday and our sales would be hurt pretty pretty materially, but they're actually like they're only down 20% to a normal

Yeah.

Got it. Got it. Got it.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, which I think is interesting cuz like we're not participating and it's actually not that I thought it'd be more impactful because

people are taking all their dollars to somewhere where they can save 30% on their favorite apparel brand or something.

Yeah, but it makes sense. I mean, people need to order consumer staples on Fridays. Wow. And then they they almost see it they probably see it as like a different thing. It's like, yeah, I got to order groceries. I got to order protein bars. I got to order whatever my health products are. And then I also got to get that new TV. And then I also got to get the gift for grandma. But I'm not gonna forget to get food for myself as well. So I show up and I get food and then I go and get the TV and then I go and get the gift for grandma or whatever.

That that'd be my mental model. I don't know.

From a uh

as you think about next year from a

capac like h how do you think about like just getting enough inventory to support that kind of revenue? And how far how far in advance are you kind of uh doing demand planning given that you're you're on a rocket ship? Um, and I know that you guys have a unique unique supply chain and some unique advantages, but uh, how are you thinking of scaling that up?

Yeah, so so since August, we've been preparing more or less for 26.

So we've we've actually had a throttle back demand to build safety stock to prepare for um, to prepare for 26. Um, so, um, I always think like in growth like we don't have you kind of want to oscillate between, um, chaos and just like crazy growth. And, um, we had to intentionally do that just to make sure we service and don't have service failures in uh, 26. Uh,

and service failures are like somebody's a subscriber on on ecom and you actually cannot deliver the product.

Yeah. And and that's a failure. And then what then that's unacceptable. But it's more on retailers.

Like if you open up retailers, it's a deal and you cannot if you can't ship your PO if you can't fulfill POS, it's a huge problem.

Yeah.

Um and so there's just not a tolerance for that.

How are you thinking about the long term of the business? Like you've sold RXAR. I'm sure you know all the potential buyers in the category already. Uh they kind of knew they know you're a known quantity. Uh I'm sure they can DD this really quickly, but do you want to IPO the company? Do you want to own it privately forever? Do you see yourself working on this in 20, 30 years? Is this like your life's work? It seems like to pull back from all the investing stuff, like you're pretty into it. Like you you you're enjoying what you're doing, but do you think you'll do you think that'll be the case forever?

Yeah. U speaking personally, um yeah, I mean, this is basically a platform for me to create new businesses and brands. Um, and if I were to sell it, I would just have to

start another start.

Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] You're like the ultimate like I know one thing guy.

Mark Zuckerberg of bars.

Yeah. Yeah. Mark Zuckerberg was like if I sell Facebook, I'm just going to start another social networking. So that's

and starting the hard part like Yeah. Starting is really hard. So never want to do that. And like the ass the asset becomes the organization.

And that's the hard part. Um, so yeah, I mean our vision is to create multiple brands to address different consumer needs and help remove a ton of excess calories from American diet.

Yeah.

Um,

and I I think I I my I think going public is something that's like a notch on the belt thing,

but I would try to just be objective about it. Uh

what about uh what about uh like uh reference points throughout CPG or or consumer brand history? Are you like I love the Red Bull model of like all this crazy marketing for a very narrow product? Do you like the Budweiser model where you know the Clydesdale's come out every uh every Super Bowl? Like are there certain brands or founders that you look up to throughout history and draw like inspiration from? Um, I look at Mars.

Yeah,

we're going we're going for Mars.

Yeah, [laughter]

that's a fantastic one. Uh, there's that book, uh, The Chocolate Wars, right? About Mars versus Hershey. I I'm I'm blanking on the name, but it's fantastic. All about the development of the Eminem, how that was Mars and another company that was like the offspring, and they did some joint ventures. Crazy business.

Yeah. Yeah. I think we're we're trying to build a like a house of brands, and

that's cool. I think Mars is a great role model. Um,

I love it.

Do you think there's a finite amount of good consumer brand ideas?

Um,

like do they come do they come in like based on consumer preferences and then innovation like innovation on the ingredient side? Like what are the because cuz David was coming into a category that people thought was noisy and and and had a number of of winners. everybody could name like a protein bar company, but clearly you came in innovate, you know, innovative product

and and uh have just, you know, very quickly dominated. So, I'm assuming like whatever the next brand is, it has to fit, it kind of has to fit within that same criteria of like it doesn't matter if the category is noisy, but there needs to be something that is like durable and differentiated about about the product.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think the the both good thing and bad thing about food and it's similar to fashion like there's always a need for novelty with humans. Um and both food and fashion there's always going to be room for for something new. Um the the ugly side of that is there's like product fatigue and so you have staying relevant and innovating is is the challenge. Um but there's always room. Um and then there will be different sort of waves or opportunities that come. Um whether it's a trend or a new ingredient or uh something like that you have to spot. Um but in general my my approach to something new like we're planting a seed now for something to launch next year and the I would say like the product has to be 30% better like measurably better. Um brand cannot be a differentiation. If I'm sitting here telling you how our brand is differentiated, like [snorts]

that's just like so abstract and doesn't mean anything. So,

it has to be um yeah, materially better than what's on the market. And um and I I personally I like categories that are sort of boring and what appear to be on the surface like really uh competitive.

Yeah. uh do you spend any time at all thinking about the uh kind of strength of the consumer? Obviously David customers are all strong because they're consuming a lot of protein but uh more more abstract I think if you are a Mars and the strength of consu and consumers aren't doing well you're going to see contraction just because you are basically are the TAM and so if the economy is if demand is falling you're just going to see lower sales. you guys are growing rapidly in in a big category and so you're not necessarily going to notice the fluctuations but any any like feelings around sentiment and overall strength.

Yeah. And I like in our life cycle um yeah we're not we're not feeling the pricing issue but you can tell by the retail the retailers are constantly talking about it which is a reflection and then I always I tell our team internally like our product needs to get less expensive and crunchier like our portfolio needs to get less expensive and crunchier over time

um and that is to address a larger group of customers because price really really matters. Um, like the the TAM for a bar will be really set on like on price. Like you need to get to the 10 for 10 promotion spot to get to a billion revenue. Um,

and and it's it's that Nature Valley angle, right? Like, you know, you're not going to be buying for your family

$3 protein bars for for everyone to eat. You're going to be buying this 49 cent snack bar.

Yeah. Uh and so um for sure we think about it and and it's becomes a as our as we go down our our adventure and and um in our life cycle it becomes more and more and more important. For sure.

Well, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Jason Freed says hello by the way to you. Nice.

He says hey. Hey Peter. [laughter]

Hey Jason. Legend.

Have a great rest of your day.

Yeah. Great to catch you up. Congrats on all the problems. Thanks so much for coming on. Give us the update. We'll talk soon. Fantastic.

We'll talk to you soon. Goodbye.

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