Why it matters:
- The U.S. digestive health products market is an estimated $13.53 billion and is projected to surge to $23.6 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research.
- Startup BelliWelli is tapping into a growing trend of candid conversations about digestive wellness, especially among Gen Z on social media platforms.
- The gut company’s viral videos helped to fuel a 405% jump in its revenue from 2023 to 2024.
When Katie Wilson stopped by her local Walmart to see how her daily fiber supplement powder was placed on shelves, she spotted an elderly man who told her he was browsing fiber products for his wife. She pulled out her phone and began recording.
“This is my brand; I just launched in Walmart. I’ll buy you one,” Wilson told him in the Foothill Ranch Walmart in Los Angeles. The man explained he was on a “honey-do mission,” and Wilson asked if she could share the video of their conversation about fiber supplements and her BelliWelli powder on TikTok.
He said yes, and the clip went viral. By the next day, her products had sold out at Walmart. “It was free, authentic marketing — and I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” Wilson said. “One viral video wasn’t enough. I wanted that feeling every day.”
That initial customer interaction spiraled into a creative, winning social media marketing campaign on TikTok based on celebrity and customer interactions. In just nine months, BelliWelli’s content racked up more than a billion views — outpacing a Super Bowl ad — and helped to fuel a 405% jump in its revenue from 2023 to 2024, only a few years after the brand’s 2021 launch.
“The single greatest superpower a founder has at this stage is getting to watch real people interact with their product,” Wilson said. “It’s such a good use of my time.”
BelliWelli is part of the U.S. digestive health products market, estimated at $13.53 billion and projected to grow to around $23.6 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research.
Find your schtick, and once you find it, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. Your schtick won’t be the same as everyone else’s. It will be something unique and ownable to you and for you.Katie Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of BelliWelli
BelliWelli’s videos of its founder interacting with customers and celebrities in Walmart go viral, drawing attention to the brand
Wilson and her husband Nick launched BelliWelli after a chocolate chip cookie Nick made for her that was free of processed grains and dairy products, and didn’t aggravate her sensitive stomach, took off in an online group of “people with gut trouble.”
The couple quit their jobs and raised money to start a company that would make gut health fun and approachable, ultimately launching with irritable bowel syndrome-friendly cookie bars. Now, BelliWelli sells the bars’ — which went national after Sprouts began carrying them — fiber powders in flavors like strawberry lemonade and peach mango, and, most recently, fiber gummies, sold exclusively at Walmart. Their products are carried in some 8,000 retail stores nationwide.
After BelliWelli’s first viral video, Wilson called her contact at Walmart to ask if she could film customer videos in the store every day for two months. The answer was a resounding yes. Wilson went to Walmart from 7-11 p.m. nightly, watched people shop for her fiber products, interviewed customers, and filmed funny product-related skits.
“I was really able to create this viral moment day in and day out, and we could only do this because Walmart leaned in so hard,” Wilson said.
She racked up 120 million views weekly across the brand’s social channels.
[Read more: 3 Scaling Startups Unpack Customer Acquisition and Retention Strategies Driving Growth]
‘Find your schtick, and once you find it, rinse, repeat’
Then, the former celebrity matchmaker took her marketing tactics to the streets of Los Angeles. She “Belli Bombed” celebrities by adding a scoop of her product to their drink and filming it for social media. She’s filmed influencer and model Haley Kalil, influencer Brooke Monk, blogger Perez Hilton, and singer and dancer JoJo Siwa. Part of the allure of the videos, Wilson said, is people wondering whether the moments were real or orchestrated. Celebrity meetings are prearranged, but she does a single take. “Everyone has had so much fun with it,” Wilson said.
The secret to going viral is to create compelling content that’s authentic to your specific brand, added Wilson. “Find your schtick, and once you find it, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. Your schtick won’t be the same as everyone else’s. It will be something unique and ownable to you and for you.” Wilson suggests taking two weeks to figure out what your schtick is. “It will be worth every moment,” she said.
Wilson’s litmus test for deciding whether a piece of content is compelling is if she can imagine five friends stopping what they’re doing to share the video because it’s that good. You have to create emotional moments, she added, moments in which people feel seen and heard or like they’re part of an inside joke. “It has to strike a chord,” she said.
[Read more: 3 Entrepreneurs on Building Million-Dollar Businesses]
BelliWelli extends the surprise factor to offline marketing strategies, including billboards
The surprise factor Wilson takes with BelliWelli’s social media campaigns extends to the company’s more traditional marketing strategies, too.
One day driving through Los Angeles, she looked up at a billboard and thought how bland and boring it was. She envisioned a hot pink ad that would draw attention. Not long after, she launched a series of “Hot Girls have IBS” billboards.
The first bright pink ad went up in Los Angeles in the fall of 2021, with a phone number. People who texted it received a message asking them to post a photo of themselves with the board in the background and they’d get a free product. Two more boards went up, in Portland, Oregon, and New York. Foot traffic in the area where Wilson puts her billboards is key so people can photograph themselves with the board and post photos online.
“Hot Girls Have IBS” went viral, and BelliWelli trademarked the phrase and created merchandise like bumper stickers. Wilson said she’s had an 80-year-old customer send the company photos in front of a billboard, saying, “I’ve never felt hotter.”
“The North Star is, how can we create a cultural moment?” Wilson said. “If you have a great campaign, it has an impact, and then sales follow.”
The tagline connects with a wider cultural shift toward openly talking about gut health, particularly among Gen Z on social media. Trends like #guttok and #ibstok have racked up hundreds of millions of views, showing that conversations about digestion are no longer taboo.
Wilson is constantly brainstorming new ideas for surprising marketing campaigns that spark a cultural conversation. “Things get stale,” she said, “even if they’re fun and funny. Part of marketing in 2025 and 2026 is constantly making it fresh.”
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