Momentous Protein's Huberman Pivot

Rob Dyrdek shares the story of cofounding Momentous, a premium supplement company, and its journey from struggling startup to successful brand.

"I cofounded Momentous with Matt Wan in 2016. When they brought it to me, he had a vision for creating the most premium supplements the market had ever seen - the Ferrari of supplements. Matt was foregoing his first year at Harvard to build this company at 18 years old.

We rebranded it from Project 1 to Momentous, creating a timeless extraordinary logo. But then we didn't sell a thing. We had the most overpriced protein in the industry, about 35% above every other protein. Nobody bought it.

This business never got off the ground for years. Matt tried everything - different partnerships, different product verticals. It was the Ferrari of supplements, absolutely the purest and best, but we couldn't find a market for it.

When he was 23, I told him 'You've got to make a decision - you either have to sell it or find somebody to merge with, but you've got to move on.' He went out and found Amped, merged the companies under the Momentous brand, then they locked in that Huberman deal and the business exploded overnight. It grew like 20 times.

But what do I have now? About 4%. I've been so diluted after 9 years. I'll get a return on my $300,000 investment that would be significant to a regular investor, but for me in the cofounding game - I looked at selling that business for $100 million in under 5 years with 20% ownership versus selling it 8 years later and making a million wherever I end up getting diluted. That's not why you play the game of venture creation."