This 36-Year-Old YouTuber Turned CEO Wants to Build A $100 Million Business in San Diego
Founder and CEO Kevin Espiritu has big plans for his San Diego-based startup.
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Kevin Espiritu, a 36-year-old YouTuber best known as the founder of Epic Gardening, operates the world’s most followed gardening brand, with millions of followers across its social media platforms (2M+ on TikTok, 2M+ on YouTube, 1M+ on Instagram)
In 2022, Epic Gardening reportedly generated $27 million in revenue — largely through its strategic acquisitions and selling retail products online — with a goal to become a $100 million business within the next decade.
More impressively, the company was self-funded for nearly ten years before bringing on additional outside investors.
“We were a true bootstrapped company, we started with a $10 domain and paid $5 a month to host our website,” said Mr. Espiritu during our 30-minute Zoom call. “By the time that we got to raising our Series A funding in 2021, it was only me and a team of 4 contractors and we had hit about 7.5 million in revenue.”
What started as a niche website blog in 2013, has evolved today into a direct-to-consumer gardening empire with original content on YouTube, TikTok, and other social media platforms that sell millions of products directly to consumers.
This traction has led the company to raise a $17.5 million investment from The Chernin Group (TCG) at the tail end of 2021. TCG is betting big that Epic Gardening will be the next wave of popular (and profitable) media companies.
Mr. Espiritu has been busy using his brand to collaborate with celebrities including Carrie Underwood, among other top internet creators as well as introducing new product lines ranging from planters to gardening beds to plant food.
In January 2023, Epic Gardening acquired Botanical Interests, a seed packet company, which provided distribution to over 4,500 stores across the country. Espiritu and I spoke for about twenty five minutes over video chat.
We discussed Epic Gardening’s founding story, his decision to raise venture capital from investors, untapped opportunities in the gardening sector, and his thoughts on scaling a fast-growing startup in San Diego versus other startup ecosystems.
High Level Overview
Founded in 2013, Epic Gardening is a direct-to-consumer company that sells various gardening products. Its mission is to help 10 million people learn how to grow plants at their homes.
The San Diego-based company has grown at a 300% growth rate for three consecutive years. In 2022, the company brought in $27 million in sales and currently employs 22 staffers.
The company was bootstrapped for about 10 years, before raising a $17.5 million Series A round from The Chernin Group (TCG). In the next decade, Mr. Espiritu expects the company to hit $100 million.
Founding Story
“It all started with a blog around 2013,” said Espiritu, who recalled setting up the site after taking up gardening as a hobby alongside his younger brother. “At the time, it was a chronicle of various gardening experiments — but I got really hooked on it.”
Espiritu worked as an early employee at Scribe Media, where he helped scale its publishing business from $200,000 in revenue to $2.5 million in under two years. On the side, he was making roughly $17,000 from his website Epic Gardening, he said.
Deciding to go full-time on the blog, and quit his job that summer to apply everything that he learned at his previous company. In particular, Espiritu focused on creating a content-to-commerce strategy, which allows content creators to generate revenue from digital content.
“I expanded on all platforms. I started from blog to social, then podcasts to physical, and then books to products,” he said. “When we introduced our Raised Garden Bed product line in 2019, that’s when the company really blew up. It really flipped my entire perspective on what the company could become.”
Espiritu, recalled the early days of the global pandemic helping grow its followers and customer base. In particular, Epic Gardened gained 250,000 viewers and over 15,000 subscribers to its main YouTube channel in a single day. From there, Espiritu doubled down on what was working. “The business really took off post-covid,” he said.
Epic’s mission is to teach the world to grow — the San Diego-based company has already helped tens of millions of aspiring gardeners across 100 countries.
Raising $17.5 Million Series A
When the company had just four contractors and roughly $7.5 million in revenue, Epic Gardening began showing up on investor’s radar. The Chernin Group reached out multiple times before I even took a pitch meeting, Espiritu recalled.
“At the time, I never thought I’d take outside investment,” he said, explaining that he primarily didn’t want to give away a decent stake in his company. “But they [TCG] had this big thesis around the gardening category and so did I — That's what really sold me on the investment opportunity.”
Linus Walton, vice president at TCG, believed in the company so much — he joined as the Chief Operating Officer. During his stint, he helped close the $17.5 in series A financing, led by The Chernin Group. He now serves as a board member and advisor.
“Community and authentic engagement are Epic Gardening’s lifeblood,” wrote Luke Beatty, partner at TCG in a statement following the $17 million investment. “Tens of millions of consumers identify as gardeners. Our belief is that they will increasingly turn from big box stores to content-led digital brands.”
As of today, Epic Gardening operates four YouTube channels and has an online audience of about 7 million combined subscribers. It sells retail products primarily using online content and works with various content creators within its niche.
What’s Next for Epic Gardening
Epic Gardening remains well-positioned as the few venture-backed startups in the space, which is also a category leader in its industry.
It regularly competes with big box retailers including Home Depot, Amazon, and Lowe’s. There's certainly space for a player that is doing $100 million in revenue, according to Espiritu.
“If you look at the gardening market, it’s about a $10 billion market. It’s also a very fragmented market,” said Espiritu. “Our competitors are passionate about the space, however most of them are simply not as tech savvy nor do they fully embrace modern marketing tactics.”
Espiritu believes there are untapped opportunities to develop products that are high-quality, more sustainable, and room to establish a differentiated brand in the space.
Focused on best selling products and creating educational content for its audience, Epic Gardening plans to further grow its revenues by incubating new products as well as new content to reach new audiences. “It’s sort of like us against the world,” he said.
San Diego Has the Best Climate
Kevin Espiritu, who went to University of California at Santa Barbara for college, was born and raised in San Diego. “My Grandma and Mother live here, so I have big family ties here,” said Espiritu, who also lived in Austin, before purchasing his dream home in San Diego in 2021.
I asked him to walk me through his decision to build his fast-growing startup in America’s Finest City, instead of Los Angeles where some of the most successful internet creators live.
“Lifestyle wise, it's pretty hard to beat San Diego,” he said, adding that from a pure logistics standpoint, it offered a better climate to grow his garden year round. “Places like Austin, are objectively worse from a growing perspective because the summers can be brutal.”
Espiritu said he regrets not living in different cities before settling down and purchasing a home in San Diego, primarily because he wanted to be exposed to different lifestyles, cultures and ways of living.
“Being born in San Diego is a blessing and a curse,” he joked. “You end up in a city that more people want to retire in, but you’re already there. There are certainly times where I tell myself — it would have been nice if I had spent some time in like New York or Los Angeles or even a different country some day.”
Espiritu said San Diego is the home, but who knows what the future might hold.
Great article. One small correction: MrBeast famously lives in North Carolina.