Bustem: his chocolate brand got ripped off, so he built a service that takes down copycats. $1M a year in revenue in 60 days.
Oliver Brocato was 23. Counterfeiters were stealing sales from the $11 million a year chocolate brand he had built. He built the fix, and other founders paid for it. Here is how, including the version that nobody used.
Overview
Oliver started at 14, 3D printing fidget spinners in his bedroom and flipping them on eBay. At 16 he ran social media for small businesses. He worked 15 side hustles between 14 and 18.
At 20 he launched Tabs Chocolate, a "sex chocolate" brand that blew up on TikTok. Thousands of creators, tens of thousands of affiliates, billions of views. In 3 years it reached $11 million a year with no outside money, and he exited in late 2023.
But every month Tabs was losing money to counterfeiters: fake websites, Instagram ads using his videos, scammers using his name. "So I did what any pissed-off founder would do: built my own solution."
How he built the chocolate brand with no investors
Oliver and his cofounder Jake Lewin started Tabs Chocolate in late 2021. The idea came from a viral TikTok about another "sex chocolate" brand.
They never ran paid ads. Instead they paid small TikTok creators to make short videos with the product, reportedly about $100 for every 100,000 views. They worked with dozens of micro-influencers rather than a few big names, then reposted the best videos across TikTok accounts they controlled. When one creator's video took off, they asked the others to make similar ones.
One video from a creator hit over 6.7 million views and brought in nearly $50,000 in sales on its own. Within about 18 months the brand had over 100,000 customers and roughly $11 million in revenue. Oliver exited at 22.
The first version
A cofounder he met on YC's cofounder matching flew to Miami and slept on his couch the weekend after their first call. Within 48 hours they had a first version: enter your brand's website, it scraped your images, videos and text, and searched marketplaces and social media for copies. "It was janky, slow, and barely worked."
He gave early access to 30 founders in his network. Not one used it. "Founders don't want another dashboard filled with problems. They want the problem gone."
How he landed his first clients
He did not cold email. He had already sent "millions in deal flow" to agencies and software companies through his Twitter, so founders knew him. He posted raw breakdowns of wins, screwups and live takedowns on Twitter and LinkedIn, and clients came to his DMs and through referrals. He closed every deal himself and ran every onboarding call. "I built trust through sweat."
The pivot
He killed the software. They kept the detection tech for themselves and did the takedowns by hand: gathering evidence, filing DMCA notices, escalating to platforms, chasing domain registrars, getting Google to delist fakes. The first clients paid $2,000 to $5,000 a month. Oliver closed every deal himself.
Then the smartest move: no retainer. Clients pay per confirmed takedown. "You only pay if we get results. There's no buyer's remorse." It removed the friction from every sale.
Still no ads. He posts raw breakdowns of wins, screwups and live takedowns on Twitter and LinkedIn, and clients come through his DMs and referrals.
The numbers
| Figure | Number |
|---|---|
| Chocolate brand (Tabs) | $11 million a year, exited late 2023 |
| Bustem started | January 2025 |
| First version built | 48 hours |
| Founders who used the first version | 0 of 30 |
| First clients | $2,000 to $5,000 a month |
| Annual revenue run rate | $1 million in the first 60 days |
| Ad spend | $0 |
| Team cost today | $40,000 to $50,000 a month, profitable |
| Takedown success rate | Over 90% |
It broke
Growing that fast broke everything. They once reported a competitor's legitimate listing by mistake and almost got sued. Platforms rejected their notices. "I felt like we were playing pretend." He hired a COO and an engineer, grew the enforcement team from 2 to 8 in 3 months, and wrote down every process. Now they are profitable and self-funded.
Where he says the opportunity is
"The biggest brands are protected by legacy law firms and $10K/month retainers. But there are thousands of fast-growing e-comm brands getting destroyed by counterfeits and fakes every single day. They don't have legal teams. They don't have time to file paperwork. They just want someone to solve the problem."
"Whoever builds the first truly scalable AI system that can detect, verify, and file takedowns automatically will own this space."
The tools they run it on
"Simple stack. Built for speed." Slack for clients (every brand gets a private channel, and they answer within 30 minutes). Notion for brand assets, processes and onboarding docs. Zapier to connect everything. Stripe for billing. Twitter and LinkedIn are the whole growth engine.
His advice
"Start before you're ready. You'll never feel ready. Sell before you build. If no one will pre-pay, you're building a vanity project. Do everything manually before you try to scale. Learn the pain. Then remove it. Build your audience. Your distribution is your moat."
On learning: "Most people don't have an information problem. They have an execution problem. It's like fitness. We all know what to do. Most people just don't do it."
Where he says the opportunity is
"The biggest brands are protected by legacy law firms and $10K/month retainers. But there are thousands of fast-growing e-comm brands getting destroyed by counterfeits and fakes every single day. They don't have legal teams. They don't have time to file paperwork. They just want someone to solve the problem."
And the next step: "Whoever builds the first truly scalable AI system that can detect, verify, and file takedowns automatically will own this space." He even said publicly that if anyone has advanced scraping infrastructure for TikTok, Temu or Amazon, he will pay for it.
Starting a service like this yourself
1. Pick a niche of brands that get copied.
Do this: small online brands with a hit product: supplements, skincare, apparel, gadgets. Search their product name on Amazon, Temu and TikTok Shop and look for copies using their photos.
2. Learn the free takedown routes.
Do this: every big platform has its own report form for copyright and trademark: Amazon's infringement report, TikTok and Meta's intellectual property forms, Google's legal removal request, and the abuse contact of the registrar hosting a fake site. Practice on one brand for free.
3. Show a brand its copies, then offer to remove them.
Do this: send the founder screenshots of 5 copies you found and offer to take them down.
4. Charge per takedown, like Bustem.
Do this: no retainer. They pay only for copies that actually come down. It makes yes easy.
5. Do it by hand until it hurts, then automate.
Do this: keep a spreadsheet of every listing, report and result. That record becomes your process, and later your software.
Do what he did: step by step
1. Start from a problem that costs you money.
Do this: write down what keeps costing your business, or your last job, money every month.
2. Show people the fix, then watch if they use it.
Do this: give it to 30 people you know. If nobody uses it, ask what they want instead.
3. Do the work for them.
Do this: if people want the problem gone rather than a tool, sell it as a service and do it by hand first.
4. Get paid only when it works.
Do this: price per result. It makes saying yes easy.
5. Post your wins and mistakes in public.
Do this: share real results where your buyers hang out. Let them come to your DMs.
Want 50 more breakdowns like this?
Real businesses with their revenue, tools, costs and how they grew, plus step-by-step guides to start your own. Free.
Get free accessMore breakdowns
Sources
- Bigblue, "How Tabs Chocolate Bet Everything on UGC with TikTok"
- Hampton, "He's Building the Internet's First DTC Digital Hit Squad", interview with Oliver Brocato of Bustem
