Building a DTC Brand in a Category Nobody Knows Exists | Gene Oh, Day—Guard

6 months into your launch, the data shows you're targeting the wrong customer. Do you pivot the entire brand, or push through with what you've got?In this episode of Ecom Growth Insider, Gene Oh, co-founder of day-guard, walks through how he and his best friend Felix Lee brought Korea's jelly-stick alcohol-aid category to the United States. Day Guard was featured in Forbes in February (the article went viral and drove their first NYC distribution deal across a few hundred convenience stores and bodegas). Their cap table includes Magic Spoon's Gabi Lewis and Rip Van's Marco De Leon as investors.Gene turned down a guaranteed med school spot in Brown's PLME, an 8-year combined BA/MD program, to build day-guard with Felix.Gene's category creation playbook:Anchor cultural credibility through the country of origin.Make the novel form factor the selling point.Build retention loops because the pain isn't felt at point of purchase.Pivot the entire brand the moment customer data demands it.In this episode:- How Gene tested 3 flavors with 500 sticks across Brown bars to lock down his ICP before manufacturing- Why "insurance for when you drink" outperformed every other positioning for a product he can't legally call a hangover cure- The customer data that flipped his real ICP from college students to 29-44 year old urban millennials- Why he killed the original brand and reformulated the product 6 months into launch- How one Forbes feature drove a few hundred thousand views and turned into Day Guard's first retail distribution deal- The channel mix that's actually moving the needle (Meta, Amazon, DTC) and where TikTok Shop fits next- The creative volume target: 20 ads per week minimum, around 100 active in testing at scale- Why founder-led marketing on Instagram made Meta ad performance better- Why Gene treats ROAS as a vanity metric and what he tracks instead (CAC, retention, LTV)- The 10-year vision: become America's joystick company across sleep, creatine, energy, and skinChapters:00:00 PLME dropout selling jelly sticks at 3am02:27 The instinct to build something, not just consume it04:29 How medical training shaped the formulation06:03 ICP research at Brown bars: 500 sticks, 3 flavors, 2 months09:38 Will the jelly-stick category translate outside Korea?12:17 Creating demand for a category nobody knows exists13:34 The no-pain-yet problem: retention plus retail unlock18:07 Writing copy when you can't legally say "hangover"19:43 Why they rebranded AND reformulated 6 months in24:04 The daily liver play: expanding beyond hangover25:47 What's actually moving the needle right now28:35 Should every e-com founder build a personal brand?30:38 Why they still do offline despite Meta scale32:10 How to ignore every shiny object35:38 The creative volume target: 20 ads per week36:28 The 10-year vision for the alcohol-aid market38:29 Lightning round43:48 Where to find GeneConnect with Gene:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geneo.h/Day Guard on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/takedayguard/Text Gene directly: (781) 467-9870Day Guard: https://www.dayguard.com/Ecom Growth Insider is the podcast for e-commerce founders who want to scale profitably. New episodes weekly on paid media, CRO, offer strategy, and operating systems that actually move the needle.More episodes and newsletter: https://ecomgrowthinsider.comWork with HoloGrowth: https://hologrowth.com