Mystic Gum Sees Early DTC Success

Braxton Manley first appeared on the podcast in 2021. As a college student, he had launched Braxley Bands, a maker of Apple Watch bands. Last year he returned with an update on that business after operational and sales challenges.

He’s back, having launched his latest company, Mystic, a direct-to-consumer maker of health-focused chewing gum. In our recent conversation, we discuss the origins of Mystic, marketing plans, early successes, and more.

The entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Bandholz: How’s business?

Braxton Manley: Braxley Bands, our Apple Watch band company, is surviving in a challenging climate. We’re operating from a profit-first mentality. We grow as much as possible and, based on the prior month’s profit-and-loss statement, scale back if needed. It’s multiple scale-ups, then pull-backs. My brother Zach and I run the business, working remotely. We haven’t taken a salary in a while and are focused on the business’s long-term stability.

I’m involved with three direct-to-consumer ecommerce businesses now. My fiance, Maddie, started Peace Love Hormones about three years ago. It’s a direct-to-consumer supplement brand for women’s hormone health. I have an executive role there, functioning as CEO so that Maddie can pursue her doctorate in herbal medicine and focus on the product. I focus on the marketing and operations.

Our third business, Mystic, just launched. It’s chewing gum for women made with sap from a mastic tree, which grows on a Greek island and has a ton of health benefits.

We’re trying to build a family holding company to operate multiple DTC businesses. At this point, they’re all relatively humble — six and seven figures in annual revenue.

Bandholz: Tell me about Mystic.

Manley: It’s square chunks of organic gum. It costs $38 for a can. It’s a beauty product for women and is categorized that way on TikTok. It’s different from regular gum. It’s not sweet at all. It’s palate-cleansing. It relieves indigestion and promotes oral health. You can develop an appreciation for the flavor.

The business is six months old. We’ve been fulfilling orders for just a week. The beginning stage was figuring out what the logo would look like. We did a beta test last year. We invested about $3,000 and ended up selling $20,000 worth. We realized we had a viable product.

We then raised $90,000 from friends and family. We developed custom packaging and produced 5,000 gum units — enough to make our first $200,000 in revenue.

Bandholz: How are you marketing the product?

Manley: Well, we’re a week into fulfilling orders. So it is fresh. We’ve spent much time on a TikTok Shop. We believe TikTok is a good product fit.

Affiliates are important to us too. Maddie, my finance, is an Instagram creator in the health and wellness space. She has an incredible community, which produced our first Mystic orders — about $5,000 in revenue. By Q4, we’ll be doing six figures monthly. This can scale quickly.

We sell recurring orders, but we’re not using the terms “subscribers” or “subscriptions.” Instead, we sell memberships to a gum-chewing club. We have cool hats, a club logo, and patches. The idea is to build a culture. We will charge more for our first subscription and less for renewals. It’s $38 for a one-time order or $30 to join the club for recurring shipments.

Bandholz: Where can people buy the gum and follow you?

Manley: Go to MysticGum.com. You can follow me on X, @Braxtonmanley, or LinkedIn.