The Underdog: From Life Changing Accident to $100M/Year | Starter Story
August 12, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readIn 2019, a group of investors convinced Ryan Chen and his co-founder Kent Yoshimura to appear on Shark Tank. Chen did not want to do it. He saw the show as a distraction. But the exposure proved to be a step change for their company, Neuro, which makes caffeinated gum. The business grew rapidly after the episode aired. Then a woman sued them for trademark infringement. Chen knew they would win in court, but he also knew the legal fees would bankrupt the company before they got there. He reached out to every investor and friend he had. Nobody would help. As a last resort, he DM’d Daniel Lubetzky, the Kind Snacks founder who had been a guest judge on their Shark Tank episode. Lubetzky responded within hours, consulted them for 18 months, covered their legal fees, and personally called the opposing party to say he was backing the case. The lawsuit went away. Neuro survived. Today, the company does nearly $10 million a month in revenue.
The Accident and the Mindset Shift
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:26) **The Accident and Rock Bottom** - Ryan describes the snowboarding accident that shattered his spine and left him paralyzed at age 19
- 2 (04:40) **The Support System That Saved Him** - Ryan credits his friends and family for helping him see he was still the same person, just "in the chair chillin'"
- 3 (05:26) **The Origin of Neuro: Energy Pills in a Dorm Room** - Ryan and Kent were taking homemade energy pills made in Kent's dorm room, mixing racetams, paracetam, and creatine
- 4 (06:49) **Real Jobs and the 401k Gamble** - Both founders took corporate jobs (Ryan as a financial analyst at Hulu, Kent as a music producer at Sony) while saving to launch Neuro
- 5 (09:38) **Indiegogo and the First Break** - With zero dollars left for another batch, the founders launched on Indiegogo as a desperate final shot
- 6 (11:57) **The Slow Grind: Year One to Year Two** - The business grew from a little over $100k in year one to $750k in year two, proving it could be a real thing
- 7 (12:59) **The Realities of Building: Inventory, Freight, and Trust** - Ryan details the unglamorous grind of inventory challenges, sold-out products, uncertain freight costs, and goods stuck at the border for weeks
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
The Underdog: From Life Changing Accident to $100M/Year
This is the true story of how Ryan Chen and Kent Yoshimura overcame the odds and built a $100M company called NeuroGum.
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Follow Ryan and Kent's Journey Ryan's IG: https://www.instagram.com/ryan.ryc/ Kent's IG: https://www.instagram.com/kentaro/ NueroGum: https://www.instagram.com/neurogum/
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