The second company I picked is RAW Nutrition, the supplement brand co-owned by Chris Bumstead. I wanted a company that was close enough to 1st Phorm to compare fairly but built on a completely different foundation, and RAW is exactly that. 1st Phorm grew a community from scratch over two decades. RAW borrowed one that already existed.
Why RAW Nutrition
RAW Nutrition was founded in 2019 in Port St. Lucie, Florida by Dr. Domenic Iacovone and bodybuilding coach Matt Jansen. It grew out of their earlier company, Revive MD, after customers kept asking them to make protein and pre-workout. Chris Bumstead, the six-time Classic Physique Mr. Olympia, joined as a co-owner on September 13, 2021, reportedly holding about 25% of the company.
The growth has been unusual. RAW ranked number 9 on the Inc. 5000 in 2024, making it the fastest-growing consumer packaged goods company in America that year, and number 127 in 2025. In April 2025 they entered a co-ownership partnership with The Quality Group, a German company backed by CVC Capital Partners, with a stated goal of scaling RAW to $700 million annually.
On the assignment requirements, RAW has an active LinkedIn company page at linkedin.com/company/get-raw-nutrition, with current job postings in Port St. Lucie. The Google reviews requirement is less clean and I want to be upfront about it. RAW Nutrition is direct-to-consumer and does not appear to run its own Google Business Profile. However, Raw Athletic Club, the gym the company operates at its exact headquarters address of 760 NW Enterprise Drive, does have a Google listing at 4.2 stars. Same company, same building, so I used it, but it is a weaker fit than 1st Phorm’s retail locations.
The Persona: Aspiring Alex
The whole funnel runs through one person
Chris Bumstead has roughly 25.8 million Instagram followers with a 3.73% engagement rate and about 4.79 million YouTube subscribers. What makes this more than a vanity number is that you can actually trace it into sales.
Similarweb shows that 58.78% of traffic to getrawnutrition.com comes from organic search, and that one of the top search keywords driving that traffic is “cbum.” YouTube is also the number one social referrer, ahead of Instagram and Reddit. So the path looks like this: someone watches a long-form Bumstead video, then searches his nickname, then lands on the RAW site. People are searching for the man, not the brand.
That is the most measurable influencer-to-purchase path I have seen while researching this, and it is the single biggest difference between RAW and 1st Phorm. 1st Phorm spreads acquisition across 4,000 ambassadors. RAW concentrated it in one athlete and then had to build insurance against that.
Two customers, not one
RAW’s pricing is not accidental. In an interview with Athletech News, CEO Dom Iacovone described launching the roughly $20 to $25 Essential Pre-Workout for “weekend warriors” while keeping premium formulations around $55 for competitive athletes. That is a deliberate good-better structure designed to widen the funnel past hardcore bodybuilders.
It works because the CBum audience is enormous but not uniformly wealthy. A lot of the people watching those videos are young, and $15.99 creatine is a realistic entry point where a $64.99 protein is not. Bumstead himself reportedly pushed internally for lower prices because he reads his own comments.
Similarweb also shows the audience is 62.9% male and 37.1% female, with 25 to 34 as the dominant age band and 61.62% of traffic from the United States. Like 1st Phorm, the female share is far bigger than the brand’s image would suggest.
What customers actually say
RAW sells through GNC, The Vitamin Shoppe, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Amazon and now Target, which means there are real third-party reviews to read instead of just their own site.
Taste is the number one thing people praise. One Sam’s Club reviewer wrote, “I’m used to having to choke down pre workouts. But I ordered the peach mango and I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying it!” Another said simply, “CBum’s products are all I use.”
Taste is also the number one complaint, which tells you flavor quality is inconsistent between products. A one-star Sam’s Club review said, “They definitely need to work on their flavors.” A Walmart reviewer said of the protein, “The flavor on this one isnt that great, it tastes quite artificial.” Some customers reported digestive issues.
The other recurring theme is value. Even the Google review on their gym hit the same note: “the membership cost feels way too high for what you actually get.” Price shows up everywhere in this brand’s feedback.
What I would do with this
The obvious risk is dependence on one person, and RAW clearly knows it. Iacovone said on the record that Bumstead “didn’t want the brand to be him,” because “we all have short shelf lives in any industry.” They have since built an ambassador network of around 9,000 athletes and expanded into major retail.
If I were working there, the priority would be flavor consistency. It is the top reason people buy and the top reason they complain, which means it is the highest-leverage fix available. Acquisition is already handled. Retention is where the money is leaking.
Sources
- Similarweb, audience and traffic data for getrawnutrition.com, accessed September 14, 2026
- getrawnutrition.com, product pages and pricing, accessed September 14, 2026
- Athletech News, CEO Corner interview with Dom Iacovone of RAW Nutrition
- Athletech News, reporting on The Quality Group H1 2026 revenue
- Business Wire, RAW Nutrition and The Quality Group partnership announcement, April 1, 2025
- PricePlow podcast, episode with Chris Bumstead on joining RAW Nutrition
- HypeAuditor, Instagram and YouTube audience statistics for @cbum
- Inc., RAW Sport Supplement Company profile and Inc. 5000 rankings
- Sam’s Club, customer reviews for CBUM Essential Pre-Workout
- Walmart, customer reviews for CBUM Itholate Whey Protein
- Google Business Profile listing for Raw Athletic Club, Port St. Lucie, Florida