I Made $30M With My Side Project

Kevin Espiritu

• Grew up in suburban San Diego, Southern California, with a strong early interest in science, math, collecting rocks, and coins
• His father passed away in a swimming accident when Kevin was 13, which made him exceptionally independent and less concerned with others’ expectations
• After graduating college, he had no clear direction and spent time trying multiple hobbies including night photography and drumming for 6–8 hours a day
• Started gardening with his brother around 2013 as a way to get off the computer and spend time outdoors, initially treating it as just a hobby
• Registered a gardening blog without any intention of turning it into a business
• Spent roughly 12 hours a day writing blog articles, researching gardening topics, and promoting the blog through forums and link-sharing
• The blog earned about $400/month at first, grew to $2,000–$3,000/month within a few months, and reached $4,000–$5,000/month by late 2016
• That growth convinced him Epic Gardening could be a real business
• Now lives with his girlfriend on a one-third-acre homestead in suburban San Diego with nine hens, over 300 plants, and 25 fruit trees, which serves as Epic Gardening’s headquarters for content filming, product testing, and seed variety development

Products and Offerings

• Epic Gardening is the world’s most followed gardening brand, combining educational content with a product line
• Started as a gardening blog and content brand, then expanded into e-commerce
• First product was a corrugated metal raised bed that Kevin already had in his own garden and that his audience kept asking about
• Initially distributed an existing product that was not yet available in the U.S., launching via a basic Shopify store and promoting through an Instagram story, selling out completely within two weeks
• Revenue in 2019 was split roughly evenly between media/brand deals and product sales, each around $250,000

Metrics and Financials

• First six months full-time (2016): approximately $70,400 in revenue (no personal profit)
• 2017: $75,000 in revenue
• 2018: $225,000 in revenue
• 2019: $540,000 in revenue
• 2020: $2.8 million in revenue
• 2021: $7.3 million in revenue
• Revenue roughly tripled or more each year through 2021
• Current annual revenue is over $30 million

Strategy and Growth

• Kevin’s innate curiosity drove him to learn every aspect of the business, from plant growth to e-commerce, product development, team leadership, and hiring
• The core insight was realizing he could become the brand that sponsored his own content rather than relying on outside sponsors
• Growth was fueled by first building a large audience through educational content, then identifying what products that audience wanted and offering them directly
• The business evolved from pure media revenue to a combined media-and-product model, with product becoming the larger revenue driver
• Kevin schedules dedicated time for content creation, executive/CEO responsibilities, product development meetings, and unstructured gardening with no agenda to stay connected to the original passion

Tech Stack and Infrastructure

• Launched the e-commerce store on Shopify with no prior e-commerce experience
• Used Instagram (specifically Instagram Stories) as the initial sales and marketing channel for the first product
• Content production is based out of Kevin’s homestead, which doubles as a filming and testing location

Lessons and Advice

• Curiosity is a key entrepreneurial advantage; it drives you to figure out how everything works even when there’s no immediate application
• Beginners often over-prepare and delay action, waiting for a fully polished business plan before validating whether anyone wants what they’re selling
• Consume knowledge in a focused way, but immediately put it into action rather than getting stuck in an endless learning loop
• Avoid spinning cycles by researching too many business ideas without committing to and testing any of them in the real world
• The real business opportunity may be hidden beneath the surface of what you are already doing, as the product line was beneath Kevin’s educational content