More Plates More Dates (Derek's Brand/Portfolio)

Derek's journey wasn't a lightning-bolt startup moment—it was systematic leverage. Starting with a high-traffic YouTube channel (1.9M subscribers) and a blog, he began as an affiliate marketer, promoting products he genuinely used: hair loss prevention shampoos, supplements, and other health tools. But he noticed the same pattern repeatedly: "How do I monetize stuff that I use anyways and would tell people for free?" Rather than chasing random affiliate deals, he only recommended products he truly believed in. This organic approach built trust, but it also revealed a market opportunity: the products he was promoting weren't good enough.

Gorilla Mind, his supplement line, was the natural first move. Derek had been deeply interested in supplement formulation and pharmacology for years—it wasn't a business decision forced on him, but an inevitable extension of his existing expertise and passion. He started with affiliate commissions and blog revenue, which "funds your ability to actually start your own businesses." Once viable financially, he launched Gorilla Mind as a private-label supplement company, differentiating on quality formulation and influencer partnerships. His co-founder Chris ("Good-Looking Loser") handled operations in Idaho while Derek managed marketing, product formulation, and the content machine from Canada.

The brand strategy was deliberate: for cognitive and pre-workout products, edgy branding (Gorilla Mind) works; for preventative medicine, premium branding matters (Merrick Health). Gorilla Mind scaled to over 1M monthly website visitors, generating an estimated $6-8M in monthly revenue, becoming one of the top-selling pre-workouts on Amazon—outselling legacy brands he'd bought as a teenager.

Unlike traditional startups, Derek didn't cold-email or run paid ads. His first customers came through his existing YouTube audience and affiliate recommendations. Once Gorilla Mind launched, influencer partnerships became the lever. Derek notes: "Our combined following is like I don't know in the tens of millions if not a hundred million plus." These weren't random partnerships—they were with creators who already trusted him and aligned with his vision. Merrick Health, his telemedicine play, followed the same pattern: years of content about preventative medicine and hormone optimization made the transition to actually providing those services a natural fit.

What worked: **extreme focus on product quality and personal involvement**. Derek doesn't launch products he hasn't personally vetted. "I don't want something to come out with my name on it that I don't have significant personal time investment into that formula." This is why Gorilla Mind consumes more of his time than the telemedicine business—he's deeply involved in formulation.

What didn't work (or he learned to avoid): traditional wealth management. He hired wealth managers who underperformed basic index funds while extracting management fees. He liquidated that portfolio at a loss and is now sitting on cash, still figuring out optimal Canadian tax structures.

He's also deliberately avoided over-relying on his own popularity. "There is a diminishing returns point and for us at this point. It's very global expansion oriented and retail going heavier into retail." Gorilla Mind now has its own credibility independent of Derek—it wins on product quality and retail distribution, not just influencer halo.

Derek runs three major companies with 50-100 person teams each. Gorilla Mind is estimated at $6-8M monthly revenue with retail expansion underway. Merrick Health operates as a premium telemedicine platform ($300+/month subscription) with serious regulatory compliance (unlike the underground labs he refuses to associate with). Intelligent Elephant (hair loss) has the best profit margins but smaller scale.

His explicit goal: "I do know from a value standpoint. I think Gorilla mind and Merrick health are billion dollar companies in the future at some point. I do very much intend for them to get there." But he's not fundraising, and he doesn't plan to exit. "I don't necessarily want to sell them either. It's just kind of a vanity metric." Instead, he's focused on what he's passionate about—especially Merrick Health's mission around preventative medicine—and letting the business scale through product quality, retail expansion, and global growth rather than chasing growth-at-all-costs.