A product people want to talk about is born to go viral. And today’s story is exactly that. Tabs Chocolate — $30 for a box of three, designed to boost romantic motivation. The founder, Oliver, kicked it all off from his college dorm. In less than two years, he turned it into an $11 million brand. What impressed us the most was how he pulled off social media without paid ads. It basically powered the entire business.
A Million-Dollar Idea Born on TikTok
The idea for Tabs Chocolate came to me while I was scrolling through TikTok back in college. I stumbled across the sex chocolate. The concept was interesting, but the execution was terrible. No website, no social accounts, and awful packaging. Still, the video had 8 million views and 2 million likes.
That’s when it hit me: this was a significant market opportunity. The product was naturally attention-grabbing. It easily got people talking and made them want to share it. And if no one else was going to do it. Why not me? I decided to create my own sex chocolate. Most natural supplements come in boring pills or powders (like Maca Root, Epimedium, DHEA) . I could turn it into a luxury chocolate experience. So I left college and went all in.
How We Reached Millions Without Paid Ads?
I decided to build a viral video engine
I knew TikTok cared more about content than follower count, so I started DMing creators with 50k–200k followers. I offered them free products and small payments. I even made detailed spreadsheets, worked with a few different agencies, and really thought this strategy could work. But reality hit hard. There’s a daily limit on how many DMs you can send on Instagram. And most of the creators ghosted me or charged crazy high fees.
Some days we made a few hundred dollars, and then the next day absolutely nothing. It felt like a rollercoaster. That’s when I realized something important. I was getting some traction but the problem was consistency. What I really needed was a system that could produce viral content at scale.
The turning point came when I discovered a dropshipper named Keith. He was posting one to three videos a day and somehow pulling in $30,000 in daily sales. That’s what I wanted to build. So I reached out and got him on board. He joined as an affiliate and focused purely on creating viral videos for us. In just the first month, he made over 90 videos — and drove $80,000 in sales.
Hundreds of creators. One mission.
Suddenly, I had a bright idea: what if I built an entire community of creators like Keith? I started launching more Tabs accounts and had different creators run each one.This helped me quickly spot which creators were actually driving traffic and converting sales. I paid them $500 to $1,000 a month in cash, plus a 20% revenue share based on tracked sales. It became almost automatic — a win-win for us and the creators.
But here’s the best part. TikTok’s algorithm loves niche-specific content. Since every creator had their own niche and style, we were able to reach diverse audiences. Young people, older couples, LGBTQ communities — each account naturally spoke to a different slice of the market. Eventually, we scaled up to hundreds of creators. With that much content going out every day, I knew we were destined to win.
First grab attention, then sell
Step one is all about getting eyeballs. At this point, we’re not trying to educate people about the product. We’re trying to go viral. The goal is to trigger emotion — shock, humor, curiosity, anything that grabs attention fast. It doesn’t really matter what the emotion is, as long as it’s strong enough to stop the scroll. Think of hooks like “Found this in my sister’s boyfriend’s room” or “When your boyfriend is mad at you.” These aren’t mainly about the product. They’re about making people feel something and click.
Once we capture that attention, that’s when step two kicks in: respond and sell. We follow up the viral video with a second one, replying directly to comments. And here’s where it gets really fun. TikTok’s algorithm will actually re-push this reply to the same people who saw the first video. That means we get a second chance at visibility, but this time with higher intent. Now that people are paying attention, we use the second video to introduce the product and push the sale.
The best part? These videos don’t just work once. They become evergreen assets. We can reuse them for future paid ads, drop them into email flows, embed them on product pages — all without spending another dollar on production.
No ads, just repost
After TikTok proved that our content could go viral, I started thinking — where else could we take this? Meme pages immediately came to mind. Let’s be real: we were selling a product that touches sex and supplements. It didn’t play well with Facebook or Google Ads. So we went for another solution. The high-exposure meme accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat get close to a billion views every month. We just need them to repost our already-proven viral content. I knew the videos worked and I needed more people to see them.
We also reposting across platforms using accounts we created ourselves. That came with a new issue. Social platforms are smart. They caught on that all these videos were being posted from the same IP addresses. Pretty soon, accounts started getting banned or shut down.
To solve this, I built a Discord community and started recruiting 20s teenage looking to make money online. What began as a group of 5 quickly grew to over 7,000 members. We taught them how to set up social media accounts and gave them access to a content vault of proven viral videos. Each person posts one video a day.
To keep it fun and efficient, we gamified it. Post 5 days have chance to a giveaway. Post for 30 days unlock a cash bonus. It created a consistent community. Soon enough, videos were popping off again. This time across every platform.
How I Built a Product Supply Chain from Scratch?
I had zero experience selling physical products, let alone supplements. Building the supply chain and developing the formula took me about a year. To find someone who could co-manufacture a “sexy” chocolate, I literally Googled it and started cold-calling every company I found. I asked about their MOQs, but the biggest challenge was finding someone willing to work with a small startup.
I only had $30,000 but some suppliers wanted MOQ of 2 million. So I kept calling. Out of hundreds, only one or two were even open to working with me. Once we locked down the chocolate supplier, we had to actually make the product. We chose a mix of the most popular and effective natural supplements that usually comes in pill or powder form. The ingredients came from around eight different vendors, scattered across several countries.
We wanted the product to feel premium, like a luxury gift. Technically, one box could hold dozens of chocolates but that would’ve killed the experience. We wanted it to feel scarce, like a small bottle of truffle hot sauce that sells for hundred dollars. I found packaging supplier on Alibaba. To my surprise, they had in-house designers. I sent them the design I made on Canva, and told them what I wanted. They took all of that and turned it into a 3D render.
Running Out of Inventory Nearly Broke Us
Luckily, we sold out within the first three weeks. But after that came the panic of being completely out of stock. I rushed to place a new order with our supplier, and the most cost-effective way to ship a large batch was by sea. However, the shipment ended up arriving three months late. By the time we finally restocked in April, the viral momentum we had built was already fading fast. Sales dropped by 40%.
To make things worse, TikTok banned our accounts and videos. It felt like the whole thing was crashing down. My co-founder went back to school. He told me I should probably do the same. I didn’t want to quit and honestly, I couldn’t afford to. I left in such a rush, so I couldn’t re-enroll. And most of my money was tied up in business.
Slowly, I started to realize I couldn’t do this alone. I brought on a marketing expert and added more creative talent to the team. As we entered the Q4 holiday season, the business began to bounce back. And shortly after Valentine’s Day, sales exploded.
Expand Chocolate to a Functional Food Brand
After launching the sex chocolate, we started expanding the product line with new flavors and eventually listed on Amazon in 2023. Thanks to strong traffic from our own channels, we were able to drive enough momentum to the Amazon listing without relying heavily on paid ads. Because of platform restrictions, we positioned it more broadly as a mood chocolate.
Then came tongue tab candies, each designed for a different use case. There are ones for parties, with caffeine to boost energy and keep the vibe going. Others are made for relaxation, improved focus, or better sleep. Bit by bit, we’re building a full-on functional food brand instead of a novelty chocolate product.
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