How a Singapore D2C firm used infomercials to build profitable $28m business

Singapore-based founders wanting to grow their business’ sales to nine figures and up need to look beyond borders. That’s the advice that entrepreneur Alvin Huang has for aspiring founders.

While the city-state can be a stepping stone, “you definitely want to look outside of Singapore… If not, you’ll grow to a seven-, eight-figure business, and you’ll cap out,” he tells Tech in Asia.

Truegenics CEO Alvin Huang / Image credit: Timmy Loen

Huang, whose company is self-funded, speaks from experience. He runs Truegenics, a direct-to-consumer health supplements brand that made a “seven-figure” net profit last year and over US$167 million in cumulative sales to date.

In the seven years prior to that, Huang sold ebooks as well as audio and video content about personal development online through a firm he founded named Success Vantage, which mainly catered to customers in the US.

While the business was successful, it peaked, then stagnated at about US$4.5 million in annual sales with a team of 15 people. He realized then that in order to scale further, he had to think bigger and target a larger market.

In 2015, he launched Truegenics, which sells supplements across multiple categories – from heart health, weight loss, to pain relief – under three brands: Simple Promise, 5th and Glow, and N-Labs.

Most of its customers reside in the US and are aged 55 and above.

What’s his tried-and-tested formula? Huang boils it down to a combination of good marketing, learning by doing, extensive market research, and believe it or not, infomercials that can be 50 minutes long each.

Infomercials and fitness gurus

To convince customers to try its products, Truegenics offers a one-year money-back guarantee, with no questions asked.

“My motto is to get a product into the customer’s hands… We just want to make sure that they try,” Huang adds.

A bulk of its sales is made through its website, which Huang started back when “there was no Shopify.” These days, a small but growing percentage comes from Shopify and Amazon, which Truegenics began tapping into this year.

“We’re looking to see it grow, hopefully to 10% of our revenues,” Huang says.

Driving 90% of its sales are the 30- to 50-minute-long infomercials on its website, designed to educate potential customers and “to build trust.”

Profitable (almost) every year

Getting burned

A “rocky” 2023