Bar Bruhis - Building a High-Protein Couscous Brand In the Mountains

On this episode, we're joined by Bar Bruhis, Founder and CEO of Boostcous, the gluten-free, high-protein couscous brand that packs 18 grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber into a five-minute meal. Before going all in on Boostcous, Bar spent a decade in SaaS and DTC, running day to day at KnoCommerce and helping start Sumo.com. Bar walks through the two-year formulation grind: roughly a hundred failed kitchen batches, a promising overseas manufacturer that collapsed the moment tariffs hit, and the decision to rebuild the supply chain and vertically integrate production in the US. We dig into how Bar funded the first run for under $50K, the signal that made him leave KnoCommerce to go all in, the five customer segments, and why he personally texts and calls one-star reviewers. We also talk about cracking paid ads with a founder video he spent 70 hours making, going viral through Snaxshot and the New York Times, finagling his way into ExpoWest for free, and the aisle-placement that puts Boostcous next to rice and quinoa instead of pasta. --------------- Episode Highlights: 🥣 Why regular couscous is just a carb bomb 🧪 Two years and 100 failed kitchen batches ⚠️ How tariffs killed the overseas manufacturing plan 🏭 Vertically integrating production in the US 💸 Launching for well under $50K 🚀 The signal that made him leave KnoCommerce 👥 The five customers he never expected 📞 Why he texts and calls one-star reviewers 🛒 The first 500 orders sold from his garage 📈 Going viral via Snaxshot and the New York Times 🎬 The 70-hour founder ad that cracked paid 🛍️ Finagling his way into Expo West for free 🤖 Building the company AI-first --------------- Table of Contents: 00:00 – Intro 00:50 – Origin story 02:55 – The product: 18g protein, 11g fiber, three ingredients 03:25 – The two-year formulation journey 05:22 – Tariffs blow up the plan, rebuilding in the US 07:12 – Moroccan vs Israeli couscous 10:18 – Funding the first run (write it to zero) 12:28 – The signal to go all-in and leave KnoCommerce 14:17 – Who the core customer actually is 17:08 – Finding your real customer fast 19:05 – The first 500 orders from Bar's garage 20:04 – Brand identity and naming Boostcous 22:58 – Cracking paid and going viral 25:01 – The 70-hour founder ad 26:44 – Expo West strategy 28:48 – First retail doors and velocity learnings 33:05 – Building the company AI-first 35:42 – Product roadmap and flavors 37:14 – Where to follow along --------------- Links: Boostcous – https://boostcous.com/ Follow Bar on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbruhis/ Boostcous on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/boostcous/ Follow Bar on X – https://x.com/Bbruhis Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/. Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes. Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.