Cheers’ Post

Sometimes I think people look at me and judge me: "Suburban kid with rich parents who went to Princeton." They think: "He was born with a golden spoon... so of course he's successful." For tax reasons, yesterday I had to go through and pull our tax filings and financials since Cheers' inception. It ended up being a trip down memory lane. Cheers used to be called "Thrive " before our rebrand—hence the name at the top of the balance sheet. Sometimes I truly forget how far we've come... this was how much I started Cheers with: $20k. That's it! I won the lottery of life in 2 ways: 1) I was born in the United States—the country with the highest opportunity to become a millionaire. People move here from all over the world for the chance of a better life... being born here is the lottery. 2) I was born the only child of two AMAZING middle class parents who put their heart & soul into me and encouraged me to be the crazy person I am. They gave and still give me their unconditional love. I have never once doubted that no matter what I do—good, bad, & dumb... that I will still be loved and welcomed in my family. That has allowed me to take risks that others would not be able to emotionally handle. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Houston where I competitively swam from the age of 5. By my senior year of high school I was the fastest 50 freestyler in the state of Texas—winning the state championship 3 years in a row. At just 5'10", it was unlikely for me to be the 8th faster high school 50 freestyler in the nation, but I was. I had a bad GPA my freshman year of high school, but I still finished 11/425 students at my public high school by the end of 4 years. I wasn't nearly good enough academically when it comes to Princeton standards. While I was being recruited, the Princeton coach told me it was a stretch to get admitted, but they'd support me anyways. I wrote my admissions letter and explained that every year of high school my GPA improved. And, in fact, if you deleted my freshman year from my average that I would have been valedictorian. I asked them to please consider my trend line rather than my average. The argument worked, because despite my low chances, I was accepted into Princeton and became the first person from my family to attend an Ivy League. The plan was for me to become a Baptist minister and go to seminary upon graduation. But then God put DHM in my path and the rest is history. I called my parents and told them I wanted to start a company around this ingredient called DHM and brand it as an "alcohol supplement". Rather than call me crazy, they told me they could give me the $20k inheritance that my grandfather had left me for after graduation so long as I agreed to finish getting my degree from Princeton and not drop out. In 2014 I only did $10k in revenue. Now in 2024 we're on pace to do somewhere between $15-20m in revenue. Never judge a book by its cover. This has been a long journey from humble beginnings!