[ BDSN ] How a US immigrant turned 10K into $200 million

💰 $10K to $200M in 5 YEARS: TRUE SEA MOSS BLUEPRINT

In February 2025, Ivan Tsvilik participated in a hot seat at BDSS Market Masters 2 with his sea moss wellness brand doing approximately $110 million annually. Just 8 months later, he's on track to hit $200 million, essentially doubling in less than a year.

What makes this remarkable: Ivan moved to the US in 2019 with $10,000, launched his first Amazon product in March 2020 (a whiskey decanter set), and built True Sea Moss into a category-dominating brand with 460+ retail stores, 250+ million social media views, and 500,000+ customers.

He recently shared his blueprint with My Real Profit:

The Small Category Strategy

Instead of chasing saturated supplements like Vitamin C during COVID, Ivan deliberately searched for:

• Small categories with growth potential

• Markets without a clear dominant player

• Wellness products that could help during the pandemic

This led to two finalists: mushroom supplements and sea moss. Both were small with potential, neither had a leader. He chose sea moss.

The Lesson: Find growing categories without dominant players. Higher risk, but exponentially greater opportunity for market leadership.

Product Evolution: Listening to Customers

Ivan started with raw sea moss in black bags (designed himself, no designer). Customer feedback revealed critical problems:

• "How do I make the gel?"

• Salty, sea taste issues

• Inconsistent results (too liquidy or sticky)

By end of 2020, True Sea Moss launched ready-to-consume sea moss gel. Mango pineapple became their bestseller, eliminating all preparation friction.

The Lesson: Your first product rarely wins. Stay close to customer feedback and pivot quickly.

The Turning Point: Breaking the Amazon-Only Model

By Q4 2020, True Sea Moss hit $100K/month. But Ivan wasn't celebrating, he was reinvesting everything. For three years, he and his wife both worked full-time jobs while building the brand.

His philosophy: "Everything has been made on sales. No investors, no loans – just ads and reinvestment."

The breakthrough came when Ivan stopped viewing True Sea Moss as "an Amazon brand" and started building a true consumer brand.

The key insight: "On Amazon, people buy from anybody, not a specific brand. When we started Shopify and TikTok Shop, that's when we started growing."

Three-pillar strategy:

1. Shopify – Main branded revenue driver

2. TikTok – Brand awareness and community engine

3. Amazon – Benefits from branded traffic generated elsewhere

The TikTok Strategy: Building Community, Not Sales

"The main point for TikTok is not making money. It's marketing, like TV. Show your products, tell about your products as much as possible."

True Sea Moss generated 50+ million views in September alone. Result? Zero profit on TikTok Shop, but massive growth everywhere else.

The Multi-Touch Framework

Today’s customers need 6-11 brand touches before purchasing:

1. See influencer content

2. See paid ads

3. Discover live streaming

4. Google the product

5. See Amazon reviews

6. Finally purchase

True Sea Moss TikTok Execution Playbook

1. Affiliate/Influencer Program

• Send thousands of free samples (pay shipping)

• ~50% average commission (flexible)

• Double down on successful influencers

• Treat top performers as team members

2. Daily Live Streaming

• Start at 8-9 AM and go until end of day

• TikTok notifies followers (additional touch)

• Creates real-time conversion opportunities

3. Content Strategy

• Post before going live to warm audience

• Pay for influencer content creation

• Test messages and formats

• Boost high-performing videos with ads

• Provide conversion-optimized scripts

4. Paid Advertising

• Run ads on successful influencer content

• Test creative concepts

• "Everything we can push by ads, we push it"

The Real ROI: Branded Search Volume

TikTok's impact shows in search behavior:

• 127,000 posts with #seamossgel

• 19,000 posts with #trueseamoss

• True Sea Moss now generates more search volume than "sea moss" had when Ivan started

The compound effect: TikTok views → Amazon searches for "sea moss" → See True Sea Moss → Higher CTR/conversion → Better rankings → Dominate generic keywords

Ivan runs at breakeven or negative on individual channels (like TikTok) because he tracks holistic impact across Amazon, Shopify, retail, and brand equity.

The Agency Mistake

Biggest regret: Relying too heavily on agencies early.

"Agencies care about you first, then your customer. Your own team cares about your customer. Use agencies to learn, then build internal teams fast."

The Margin Framework

Initial launch: 5:1 ratio (price to COGS)
Growth stage: 5:1 to 10:1 ratio

Build margin expansion into your strategy from day one.

Product Potential Checklist

• Customizable (not commodity)

• Room to reduce costs at scale

• Value-add through branding

• Solves real customer problems

The Action Framework

• Test immediately (don't wait for perfect)

• Run multiple tests daily

• Copy what works in your industry

• Iterate faster than competitors

• "The magic you're looking for is in the things you're avoiding"

Attribution is a Difficult Reality

"It's like TV: people see ads but buy anywhere: stores, Google, Amazon, your website."

Track holistic metrics instead:

• Total branded search volume

• Cross-channel revenue growth

• Retail expansion

• Social engagement

10 Lessons for Amazon Sellers

1. Choose Small, Growing Categories
   Find potential without clear winners, not saturated markets.

2. Build a Brand, Not Just an Amazon Business
   Amazon is a channel, not a business model. Scale comes from multi-channel presence.

3. Use TikTok as Marketing, Not Sales
   Focus on views, engagement, community –> not TikTok Shop profit.

4. Branded Traffic Is Your Moat
   External marketing creates superior Amazon performance through better conversion metrics.

5. Reinvest Aggressively During Growth
   Run at breakeven or negative if you know your LTV and path to profitability.

6. Speed Beats Perfection
   Launch fast, test constantly, iterate quickly. Waiting means losing to competitors.

7. Build Internal Teams Over Agencies
   Use agencies to learn, hire internal talent ASAP for customer alignment.

8. Think Multi-Touch, Not Single-Click
   Modern customers need 6-11 interactions before purchasing. Design accordingly.

9. Focus on Revenue Velocity During Growth
   Profit matters, but revenue growth indicates market validation and scalability.

10. Customer Feedback Drives Evolution
    First iterations rarely win. Listen and pivot quickly.

Ivan's journey from $10K immigrant to $200M brand owner isn't about luck or secrets. It's about:

• Strategic market selection (small, growing categories)

• Relentless customer focus (product evolution from feedback)

• Multi-channel brand building (not just Amazon optimization)

• Creative TikTok use for awareness (not direct sales)

• Aggressive reinvestment during growth

• Speed over perfection

Most importantly: think like a brand builder, not just a product seller. The branded traffic True Sea Moss generates through TikTok, influencer marketing, and community building creates a compounding Amazon advantage competitors can't match through PPC alone.

Watch the full interview for deeper insights into Ivan's strategies, including specific TikTok tactics, hiring philosophy, international expansion, and audience Q&A on attribution, margins, and scaling.

🕹️ CHINESE SELLER COMPLIANCE CRACKDOWN

Starting October 31, 2025, Amazon will report all Chinese seller transaction data directly to Chinese tax authorities every quarter, meaning every sale, every dollar is now visible.

• Amazon announced mandatory quarterly tax reporting for all Chinese cross-border sellers on October 13, 2025

• First report covers July-September 2025 and includes seller identity, transaction volumes, revenue, and platform commissions

• This implements China's State Council Order No. 810, requiring ALL platforms (domestic or international) serving Chinese sellers to report tax data

• Chinese tax authorities announced this requirement back in June 2025

• Era of under-reporting income is over; authorities can now verify actual marketplace activity against tax filings

• Creates level playing field for sellers with domestic Chinese platforms, which already face comprehensive tax reporting

Jianlong Hu, CEO of Brands Factory, called it "a turning point.” Tthe Wild West days of Chinese cross-border e-commerce have ended, with compliance now the only path forward.

🚫 Gadget Purge: Millions of Chinese Listings Wiped Out

The FCC forced Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers to remove millions of Chinese electronics listings over national security concerns, and more restrictions are coming.

• FCC Chair Brendan Carr announced on October 10, 2025 that U.S. retailers scrubbed several million Chinese gadget listings

• Targeted products include smartwatches and security cameras from blacklisted firms: Huawei, Hikvision, ZTE, and Dahua

• Devices were either on the FCC's Covered List or lacked proper approvals

• Nine Chinese firms currently under investigation

• Signals Washington will use marketplace enforcement as a national security tool

U.S.-China tech tensions are hitting marketplaces directly. Sellers dealing in Chinese electronics face heightened scrutiny, and Washington is willing to weaponize platform compliance to enforce security policy. Expect tougher rules ahead.

🚀 HOW to COMPARE YOUR CONVERSION RATE to CATEGORY

The guys over at Selling from the Beach recently shared a video from Igor Nuhanovic on how to compare your conversion rate to your category average. It’s an important KPI to know, as it will affect the success of your Ad campaigns.

🗜️ AI WORLDWIDE SOURCING AGENT

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