Every once in a while, we feature a product that I enjoy working on the story, and I'm like, hey, I want to go and try that out myself.

When we first heard about this story, went out and did some research, it's called neurogum.

It's an all natural energy

chewing gum. And I was like, well, this sounds interesting. I want to check it out. It promises to be

an alternative to coffee and energy drinks, or for some of us, perhaps, in addition, I'm not trying

to get rid of my coffee. So in today's episode, I'm going to tell you a little bit about how this came

to be, how they went from idea to actually taking action, turning it into a real business.

They've done 20 plus iterations, at least in the product development stage.

They have now sold five million pieces of this gum.

These two guys, they are friends, they are high performing athletes, looking for a way to get energy on the go without a big sugar rush or a crash. And so they create chewable energy gum. Let's talk about it. What does that look like? Detailed story all about Kent and Ryan, the co-founders of this business. And what can we take from it in the side hustle world? That story is coming right up.

Kent Yoshimura and Ryan Chen are obsessed with trying to optimize their mental and

physical performance. When the two friends first met in Los Angeles, they were both

working demanding careers and performing as high-level athletes. Kent was a muralist for the city of

L.A. who trained with the Japanese Olympic judo team. And Ryan was a data analyst who trained with the

U.S. Paralympic wheelchair racing team. This constant need to be at peak

performance left the pair mentally and physically drained for the other tasks in their life. And for

Ryan, this was made worse by his body's adaptation to being paraplegic, which was the result of an injury

a few years prior. They tinkered with different supplements, tricks, and methods to get the

most out of every day, wild sleep patterns, meditation, crazy diets, and any emerging science that

might help them get a little edge. But mostly, like a lot of us, they were reliant on energy

drinks and coffee. Feeling that this wasn't the optimal way to get energy on the go,

Kent began experiments with different supplements in his makeshift bedroom laboratory.

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