Tabs Chocolate Marketing Blueprint: $0 to $10m Per Year using TikTok Growth Hacks

Oliver Brocato didn’t follow a traditional path. By 21, he had built an eight-figure empire through ventures like Tabs Chocolate, Study Buddy, and Boston, leveraging e-commerce, social media, and B2B innovation.

His story begins in childhood, weaving through teenage experiments. Oliver’s entrepreneurial roots trace back to elementary school, where small ventures taught him big lessons in creativity, leadership, and grit.

Pencil Insurance: A Third-Grade Empire

In 2011, at just 9 years old, Oliver launched "Pencil Insurance" at Byram Hills Elementary School in Armonk, New York. The concept was simple but ingenious: classmates paid him one pencil per week, and in return, he replaced any pencil they lost or broke. He quickly turned pencils into a playground currency. By the end of the school year, he had amassed buckets of pencils—hundreds, by his estimate—stored in his bedroom.

Fidget Spinners: A $50,000 Teen Triumph

He didn’t stop at solo sales. Fast forward to 2016, when Oliver, now 14 and a freshman at Byram Hills High School, spotted a trend ignited by senior Alan Mamane.

Alan had discovered an expired fidget spinner patent on Kickstarter and turned it into a school-wide craze. Oliver saw dollar signs. With a $500 loan from his grandfather, he bought a 3D printer, a rubber mallet, and bulk skateboard bearings.

He set up a mini-production line in his basement. Each day after school, he printed spinner frames, soaked bearings in acetone to maximize spin time, and hammered them into place. His started selling them to his classmates. Demand surged, so he built a commission-based team with friends, who sold during lunch and after class. By October, they’d saturated the high school market—until spinners were banned.

Oliver pivoted fast. He took his spinners to the streets, knocking on doors and selling at local events. He struck a deal with party planner, setting up customization booths at bar mitzvahs. Kids picked colors and designs, netting him $2,500 per night.

Online, he launched listings on eBay and Etsy. With keyword optimization (e.g., "custom fidget spinner"), professional photos shot on his iPhone, and review inserts, sales climbed. By age 14, he’d hit $50,000 in total revenue. The trend faded by late 2017, but the experience cemented his e-commerce instincts.

Star Social: From Haircuts to Hustle

At age 15, Oliver ventured into digital marketing, learning the power—and pitfalls—of social media.

In 2017, inspired by YouTube marketer Iman Gadzhi, Oliver founded "Star Social," a social media agency. He’d grown his personal Instagram to 8,000 followers, posting about teenage life and fidget spinner hacks. His first client was his barber, Rob. Rob paid in free haircuts—two per month—while Oliver managed posts, stories, and photos from a backroom office.

Through Rob’s network, Oliver landed two more clients . He assembled a team: a photographer, a content strategist, and a copywriter. He also hired a virtual assistant from Philippines.

Oliver later identified a limitation of his initial social media management service, which was the lack of attribution, meaning it was difficult to track the real impact of his work. Clients couldn’t track sales from his efforts. This realisation eventually led him towards exploring paid advertising and dropshipping.

Dropshipping Flops Expose Supply Chain Realities

Oliver’s dropshipping experiments in 2018 and 2019 were a rollercoaster of ambition and hard-earned lessons.

At 16, in the summer of 2018, Oliver launched eight Shopify stores, selling phone cables, kitchen gadgets, and fitness gear sourced from AliExpress. He struggled to find success with Dropshipping and questioned if the online money claims from gurus were real. He later concluded Dropshipping was difficult but online money was real.

eBay Revival: Chargebacks Crash the Party

In 2019, at 17, Oliver returned to eBay and Etsy, selling phone cases and leather wallets. He obsessed over optimizing listings to rank high and understanding the platforms' native advertising. He saw sales grow, hitting $1000, $3000, and $5000 days. However, he lost all his money from chargebacks caused by a fraudulent supplier on Etsy.

He lost his entire profit and closed his shop.

Andrea’s Clothing Store: A $28,000 Day

In July 2019, Oliver’s friend Jesse recruited him to boost his mom Andrea’s online store selling women’s clothing. Andrea had strong wholesale and retail sales but a poor online presence. It averaged $400 daily despite clunky emails and a dated Shopify site. Oliver revamped it over two months: new product photos, streamlined checkout, and Klaviyo email flows. Oliver increased online sales from $400 to $3,000 daily in the first month.

The breakthrough came when a reality star wore a blazer from the brand, driving a $28,000 day. Andrea later let him go, stating she needed a professional agency, despite his results. Oliver felt devastated but recognized the value of the skills he gained.

Itsme App: TikTok’s Early Days

In late 2019, mentor Alan Mamane hired Oliver to grow Itsme, a video chat app with 3D avatars, backed by $15 million from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Alan was pioneering TikTok influencer collaborations before the platform was mainstream. Oliver joined to run the TikTok influencer process, building a team of 5 VAs. They targeted US TikTokers with 50k-500k followers, leveraging low costs and high engagement on the new platform.

From January to March 2020, his campaigns pushed Itsme to #4 on Apple’s social charts just behind major platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. He made $3,500 per month there. Oliver was let go from Itsme before a fundraising round, as they sought even faster growth and hired a high-cost agency.

Light Leggings: A Million-Dollar Exit

Towards the end of high school, Oliver connected with Jake, a Dropshipping Wizard, and Nico Pericos, an investor who had backed Jake. They hired him as an operator and to run influencer collaborations for their viral TikTok leggings brand, Light.

Oliver worked closely with Jake and scaled Light leggings to over $1 million in sales in about a year. Jake and Nico later sold Light leggings for mid-six figures.

After this experience, Oliver felt he had saved enough money and gained the necessary experience and intuition to build his own business from zero to millions.

The Genesis of Tabs Chocolate: Engineered for Virality

Oliver's goal for his next business was to create a product with high barriers to entry, unlike previous ventures that faced quick saturation.

He wanted a product engineered specifically for virality on TikTok, a platform he understood well.

He saw a TikTok video featuring an aphrodisiac chocolate product called "Sexs," which had 8 million views and 2 million likes. Researching the brand, he found they had no online presence or strong branding, revealing a significant market opportunity for a product with inherent viral appeal if executed properly.

He decided to create his own version, Tabs Chocolate, prioritizing the marketing potential. Development of the supply chain and formulation took about a year. He aimed to transform natural supplements commonly found in pills or powders (like Maca Root, Epimedium, DHEA) into a luxury chocolate experience, moving away from the taboo image of typical sex products. He emphasized premium branding and packaging for customer acquisition.

Product development focused on balancing impact and taste, working with a chocolatier and a food scientist. Custom polycarbonate molds created the chocolate's unique breakable shape, designed for visual appeal in videos ("breaks in half, half for each partner").

The scarcity of 3 small squares per box aimed to create a sense of luxury. The packaging included gold foil stamping and details like social media handles on the inside lid and emojis under each chocolate piece, all contributing to the customer experience and vibe.

Managing the supply chain involved around 8 manufacturers across different countries. Raw supplement materials came from separate US vendors, while the chocolate itself was made in Salt Lake City, Utah.

owever, packaging (boxes) and specialized polymailers were sourced from China. The packaging required extensive hand labor, making US production difficult. This distributed supply chain resulted in long lead times, with boxes taking 2 months to make and 2 weeks to ship, and polymailers taking 90 days to ship.

Oliver designed the packaging himself using Canva, with the manufacturer refining the design. This complex process, though challenging, created a "moat" protecting Tabs from competitors.

The Evolution of Tabs Marketing Strategy

The initial marketing strategy centered on organic TikTok using micro influencers. Oliver aimed to work with many influencers, providing free product and small payments, leveraging TikTok's focus on content over follower count to stretch marketing dollars. He targeted creators with 50k-200k followers, valuing their distribution potential.

This approach faced significant challenges. Reaching influencers was difficult due to platform limits on DMs and widespread ghosting. Those who responded often demanded unprofitable rates. Some influencers stole product after receiving it. Scaling this manually was logistically complex despite using VAs and spreadsheets. Sales were inconsistent, spiking after a post and dropping to zero the next day.

Oliver concluded this model lacked sustainability and needed a system for continuous content output. He discovered Key on Twitter, a Dropshipper successfully promoting products (high-powered flashlights) organically on TikTok with daily videos on a brand page.

Key had a $30,000 sales day from a viral video. Oliver proposed Key become an affiliate for Tabs, focusing solely on content creation while Oliver handled e-commerce operations.

Convinced that Key was the missing piece, Oliver reached out via direct message and, after a quick negotiation, hired him for a $1,000 monthly retainer to take over the @TabsOfficial TikTok account and inject it with his creative energy. Key didn’t waste time—he dove in with a strategy that was straightforward yet brilliant: posting one TikTok video every single day, each one designed to entertain while subtly showcasing Tabs Chocolate in a way that felt organic rather than forced. His content leaned heavily on humor and real-life scenarios, steering clear of the polished, salesy vibe of traditional ads that might turn viewers off.

Key's content quickly hit, driving $70k-$80k in sales that month ($80k-$100k revenue).

This success became the model for horizontal scaling. Oliver realized adding multiple creators to one account could confuse the TikTok algorithm and stifle views.

He opted to set up each new creator with their own independent TikTok account under variations of the Tabs brand name (e.g., Tabs Chocolate one, The Viral Chocolates).

This allowed for better analytics and leveraged the algorithm's favor for consistent, niche accounts. Different creators also brought diverse audiences, acting as miniature ad units. This strategy scaled to hundreds of creators and accounts, relying on the law of averages for consistent wins.

The One-Two Punch Content Strategy on TikTok

Tabs employs a content strategy called the "one-two hook" or "one-two punch" on TikTok.

Punch #1 focuses on creating viral videos for broad brand awareness and capturing attention. These initial videos are general, not heavily focused on product details, aiming simply for maximum eyeballs using TikTok's low CPMs.

Punch #2 activates after a video goes viral and gains traction. This involves creating follow-up videos that directly respond to comments left on the initial viral video.

TikTok has a feature that embeds the comment in the new video. Crucially, making these response videos from the same account that posted the original viral video triggers free retargeting, showing the new videos to the initial viral audience.

Videos 2, 3, 4, and beyond become the conversion engine. In these follow-up videos, creators explicitly sell the product, explain benefits, address common questions ("Is this real? How does it work?"), counter objections, drive traffic to the website, and create urgency.

Oliver notes a video with 30 million views generated $40,000 in sales on the viral day, but the follow-up response videos generated $130,000 the next day and continued to drive the bulk of sales.

The innovation for specific viral content angles often originates from the creators themselves, who remade successful formats like "Finding Tabs in [fill in the blank]" where the blank is "Airbnb", "sister's boyfriend's room" and "a school parking lot".

Building a Content Creator Machine and Affiliate Network

Finding content creators for Tabs involved searching for individuals skilled in creating conversion-focused content, not just aesthetically pleasing user-generated content (UGC).

Oliver specifically looked for organic Dropshipping types on Twitter who knew how to promote products online.

He leveraged his personal brand and Twitter following, built by sharing his e-commerce journey, to attract talent.

Initially, the requirements were minimal ("Do you have all your limbs and do you have a phone?"), relying on the product's inherent virality.

Twitter became the main recruitment channel through simple "hiring" tweets and Google Form applications, supplemented by referrals from existing creators.

The initial payment structure was a retainer of $1000-$3000 per month for 30 TikToks. Creators received full creative control.

Viral video concepts were shared across the network for remaking. Communication was personalized, often via iMessage, with VAs sending daily check-ins. A community vibe was fostered through monthly group calls and bonuses for top-performing videos.

Oliver transitioned to a performance-based model to manage costs and reward results. Creators became affiliates, earning commission (typically 20% on tracked revenue) on sales driven through their links or codes. This hybrid model (small retainer + commission or full commission) incentivized performance and naturally filtered out less effective creators.

Social Snowball was implemented to automate UTM link and coupon code generation, track performance, and manage payouts. Exolyt was used for analytics.

To further scale content distribution, Oliver created a Discord community, inspired by Andrew Tate's model.

It started small but grew to over 2500 (and later 7000) members.

Members were trained to set up social media accounts (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube) under variations of the Tabs brand and given a library of viral videos to repost on platforms like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels, and Pinterest Idea Pins.

This created a mass syndication network not tied to a single IP.

Social Snowball tracked affiliate revenue from Discord members. The community was gamified with incentives like cash prizes for posting consistency or inviting new members through tournaments, fostering a sense of belonging beyond just work.

Leveraging Viral Content Beyond Organic Feeds using Meme Pages

Tabs leverages its viral content beyond just organic TikTok feeds. The validated viral videos are saved (without watermarks using downloaders) and used for paid distribution, but not through traditional platforms like Facebook or Google Ads.

Instead, they pay popular meme pages on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat with large followings (cumulatively hundreds of millions). They pay the meme page owners ($100-$2000 per post) to share the viral content for 24 hours.

This uses the meme page's existing distribution network. Since the content is already proven viral, it often performs well again, getting a boost from the large audience.

On Twitter, this involves paying viral tweet pages to post videos or concepts related to the product. The structure includes a native first tweet with the viral content, followed by a reply tweet underneath (often tagged #partner) stating the website where the product was found. This aims to make it feel like a discovery rather than a forced ad, encouraging sharing. Tabs spends six figures monthly on meme page placements.

The viral content serves as a perpetual asset library for other uses, including potential future paid ads, website content, emails, and SMS marketing, reducing the need to hire separate creators for these specific purposes.

Oliver sees leveraging these organic viral strategies on platforms like Amazon as a significant opportunity for achieving high product rankings and evergreen sales, citing the success of others in this area. TikTok Shop's emphasis on pushing videos with direct purchase links is also seen as a major opportunity.

Operational Excellence and The Importance of the Funnel

Running Tabs Chocolate requires a lean team primarily composed of independent contractors, freelancers, and agencies. Oliver found much of this talent through his personal brand and network on Twitter, vetting individuals based on reputation among mutual connections.

The contractor model allows for testing performance, with only high-performing individuals staying on. Key functions outsourced to agencies include Instagram meme buying, email marketing, conversion rate optimization, and Google Ads.

Core operational tools include Klaviyo for email marketing and One Text for SMS. One Text is highlighted for its ability to send abandoned cart texts to customers who provide their phone number at checkout, regardless of marketing opt-in, by treating it as part of the transaction, circumventing some TCPA regulations.

One Text also facilitates purchases directly within texts and vaults customer card information for one-click reorders. Shopify Plus ($2000/month) is used for the website, offering cost savings on transaction fees at scale.

The One Click Upsells app manages post-purchase upsells. Organization uses Trello, and internal communication relies on Slack. Social Snowball is crucial for managing the large affiliate network, automating coupon codes, tracking revenue, and handling payouts for the Discord community.

Analytics rely on Google Analytics and internal Shopify reports, with past use of spreadsheets for detailed creator performance tracking. While analytics are important, Oliver emphasizes not overcomplicating them and focusing on core metrics tied to growth goals (more creators, more affiliates, more scale).

Optimizing the customer purchase funnel is a critical operational focus for increasing Average Order Value (AOV).

Initially, subscriptions and bundles were promoted simultaneously on the product page, diluting AOV as customers opted for 1 box + subscription instead of multi-box bundles. The funnel was restructured: the product page focuses on one-time purchases and multi-box bundles.

The cart page introduces an upsell for "melting insurance" ($4.99), which is highly profitable as replacements are already covered.

The checkout page then offers the subscription option (save 20%), converting customers who have already committed to a larger initial purchase.

Post-purchase upsells (e.g., 50% off an additional box) are offered seamlessly via an app without requiring re-entering payment details.

Email drip campaigns follow up with customers who did not subscribe. This layered funnel design significantly increases revenue extracted from each visitor compared to a simpler checkout process.

Little operational efficiencies, such as reducing box weight by one ounce to meet a lower shipping threshold, resulted in over $300,000 in annual savings at their scale.

Overcoming Adversity: The Rollercoaster of Entrepreneurship

Tabs Chocolate experienced immediate success upon its launch in December 2021, selling out inventory in the first three weeks and achieving $280,000 in revenue during the second month, largely from pre-orders.

However, a critical error occurred when relying on cheaper boat shipping from China for packaging instead of faster air shipping. This resulted in a three-month delay, leaving them out of stock and causing a significant loss of momentum, with viral sales dropping dramatically.

Upon restocking in April, Oliver mistakenly expected sales to return immediately to prior levels, but momentum was lost.

He decided to take a gap year from the University of Michigan to focus entirely on the business, moving to Miami. The business began to rebuild momentum, but in July, revenue dropped by 40% simultaneously with TikTok banning all their accounts and videos.

Oliver felt it was "game over." His co-founder also decided to return to school and went MIA, suggesting Oliver do the same, contradicting their plan to take a gap year together.

Oliver faced immense personal hardship, moving back home with his parents in Tampa, which felt like a regression. He couldn't immediately re-enroll in Michigan Ross due to missing a prerequisite class, forcing the gap year.

He felt isolated, depressed, and questioned his decisions, believing his parents and friends who advised against leaving school were right. He struggled with basic self-care and withdrew socially, feeling like a "loser" who had failed.

His uncle visited and provided crucial support by simply listening. Oliver gradually began to recover, re-engaging with healthy habits like exercise and clean eating. He realized the necessity of building a strong team. He hired specialists for key areas like email/SMS and CRO, and added more creatives. The business began a strong rebound entering the Q4 holiday season.

As the business grew and things stabilized, Oliver felt he needed to re-engage with life outside of being "locked up" focusing solely on work. He booked a one-way ticket and traveled through Europe for a month and a half, finding his passion for life again. He realized his mental state directly impacted his business performance.

He emphasizes that pushing constantly ("monk mode") isn't sustainable if you aren't happy. He then settled in Scottsdale, Arizona, living with friends who were also e-commerce TikTok guys, creating a supportive environment.

The business grew from $60,000/month during the July crash to consistently pushing over $1 million/month.

Oliver sees these past failures and hardships (like the supply chain issue and the July crash) as essential "battle scars" that built resilience and informed his current strategies, making him more capable for future ventures.

Oliver critically views Dropshipping, particularly as promoted to beginners, arguing it is often more difficult than building a real brand due to chasing trends, lack of LTV, and poor customer experience.

Building a Personal Brand and Future Ventures

Oliver did not start Tabs with an existing personal brand but built one concurrently by sharing his journey and insights on Twitter. He discovered the immense power of even a modest following (21,000 on Twitter), noting the quality of his audience (e-commerce entrepreneurs) leads to invaluable connections, mentors, talent recruitment ("killers" who work for him), investment opportunities, events, and access to cutting-edge information. He sees having a personal brand as creating "access" and leverage ("one tweet away").

He is actively investing significant resources ($5000/month) and effort into building his personal brand on platforms like YouTube (starting with a small subscriber count), Instagram, and TikTok, despite not seeing immediate monetary return. He views it as a long-term investment for the unparalleled opportunities and relationships it provides. While acknowledging the potential negatives of increased fame, he sees it as a necessary cost for operating at the highest levels.

Looking ahead for Tabs, Oliver sees significant growth opportunities in international expansion (40%+ traffic is international, currently only sells domestically), diversifying sales channels beyond the D2C website (Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, wholesale/retail like gas stations, smoke shops, hotels), and breaking into paid advertising. He plans to launch new product lines, including flavors, moods, functional foods, and potentially venturing into CBD, shrooms, or sex toys, aiming to build a "one-stop sex shop" or functional food brand.

Beyond Tabs, Oliver is excited about new ventures, particularly in the B2B software space.

He is starting a software company (Boston) that finds and takes down copycats for e-commerce merchants, leveraging his personal experience and authority in the e-commerce industry for marketing through cold outreach, personal brand promotion, community engagement, SEO, events, and partnerships.

The exit multiples for e-commerce businesses (like Tabs), are typically 3-5x EBITDA, while those of B2B SaaS businesses (like Boston), which can be 10-20x revenue.

He views Tabs as an important stepping stone for building generational wealth through future SaaS ventures.

Oliver also launched a B2C app StudyBuddy: an AI Chrome extension as a side project. Oliver used his Tabs Experience to grow StudyBuddy from $20,000 MRR to around $140,000 MRR. All in all, Oliver has built successful businesses in E-commerce, B2C SaaS, and now B2B SaaS.

Sources: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, MoneyUp Discord.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

Extremely insightful. On a similar note, mindset & self-belief is the best way to psyop yourself to become successful.

Confucius nailed it centuries ago, "He who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right"

2/

Lmao, these apps are hilarious. These apps are intrinsically viral and are built to pop-off on socials so you don't need to be a genius to make effective content.

3/

In the post-AI world, robots & AI can do this cheaply. It has a setup cost and need a house to host hardware but it can be done for <$2000 per month and can easily make $100k per month with pure content.

Farms + AI Videos + AI Scripts + AI Voiceover + AI Apps = $$$

The hardest part is definitely farms. The world is used to 1-click easy solutions like hosting a $5 VPS, spinning up a database so very few will actually try hardware. But it has massive $10m-$100m+ potential on the right project.

Last time, a Cutwail botnent sent 74 billion spam emails a day, or 51 million every minute. The episode on Darknet Diaries is fascinating. Expect an even bigger scale when AI Agents go wild.

Rabbit Holes

1. I Spent 24 Hours With Roblox Millionaires by Starter Story

2. Building TikTok & Instagram Farm by Julian Ivaldy

3. Speedrunning a home-cooked DocSend replacement by Andy Bromberg

What’d ya think of today’s newsletter? Hit ‘reply’ and let me know.

Do me a favor and share it in your company's Slack #marketing channel.

First time? Subscribe.

Follow me on X.

More Startup Spells 🪄

1. Oren John's Instagram Playbook: Bold Fonts, Vibrant Shades, Luxury Aesthetic (LINK)

2. Custom Domain as Affiliate Strategy (LINK)

3. AI Ads: 300x Conversion Rate (LINK)

4. TikTok Live Growth Hack (LINK)