The Idea

In 2019, Darren Litt did not need to build another company. He had already run GoLive! Mobile, a media business that cleared more than $250m in revenue, co-founded MarketerHire, and, very briefly, been an IP attorney. He was a post-exit founder with nothing left to prove. Then he became a dad, started reading vitamin labels, and got annoyed. Every children's multivitamin on the shelf was basically a sweet: gummies loaded with sugar and dye, dressed up as health. Parents kept telling him the same thing: my kid loves their vitamins, but they taste like candy and I'm not convinced they do anything. It was not a clever insight. It was sitting in plain sight, which is exactly why Litt trusted it. He teamed up with Adam Gillman, assembled a panel of paediatricians and nutritionists, and set out to build a kids' vitamin with no sugar, no gummy junk, and a refillable bottle kids could decorate themselves. This was the beginning of Hiya.

The Execution

• 2019: Litt and Gillman bootstrapped Hiya with personal savings and never raised institutional capital, taking on only around $400k of outside money in total.
• Launch: They shipped a single product first, a chewable multivitamin sweetened with monk fruit instead of sugar, and put everything behind making that one thing the best version of itself before adding anything else.
• The model: Hiya went direct-to-consumer on subscription, refillable glass bottle plus monthly refills, turning a daily habit into recurring revenue and a direct line to parents.
• Distribution: The brand leaned on partnerships with Disney and Mattel to build reach and trust in a category where parents trust almost nothing.
• June 2024: Litt was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Greater Los Angeles, as the company scaled to eight products across vitamins, probiotics, greens and more.
• Year to Sept 2024: Hiya posted $103m in net sales, up 50%, with $19m net income, $22m adjusted EBITDA, and more than 200,000 customers. Bootstrapped, and profitable.
• 23 December 2024: USANA acquired a 78.8% controlling stake for $205m cash, implying a total valuation of roughly $260m, with a put/call structure on the remaining equity. Litt and Gillman stayed on to run it.
• 2026: Hiya made its retail debut in Target stores nationwide, moving beyond DTC for the first time.

The lesson?

Litt could have raised a fortune. He was a proven operator with a nine-figure track record, and the cheques would have come easily. Instead he put in his own money, kept roughly $400k of outside capital, launched one product, and said no to almost everything else. The DTC crowd never bothered to cover Hiya. Then it did $103m in sales and sold control at a nine-figure valuation. The founders everyone was too busy to notice quietly built the most valuable brand in the room.