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# Lessons from Justin Mares
- URL: https://www.antoinebuteau.com/lessons-from-justin-mares/
- Published: 2026-06-26T03:23:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-18T21:49:01.000Z
- Description: Justin Mares founded Kettle & Fire, Perfect Keto, and TrueMed, and co-authored Traction. His operating method combines rigorous testing for durable consumer businesses with a push to realign financial incentives around treating chronic disease’s root causes.
- Author: Antoine Buteau
- Tags: Profile, Tech Entrepreneurs & Founders Profiles

![Visual summary of operating lessons from Justin Mares.](https://www.antoinebuteau.com/content/images/2026/06/lessons-from-justin-mares-profile-infographic.webp)

## Lessons from Justin Mares

Justin Mares founded Kettle & Fire, Perfect Keto, and TrueMed, and co-authored the startup manual *Traction*. His writing outlines how to build durable consumer businesses through rigorous testing while shifting financial incentives to treat the root causes of chronic disease.

### Part 1: The Pursuit of Traction

1. **On the 50 Percent Rule:** "Spend 50 percent of your time on product and 50 percent on traction." — [*Source: \[Traction Book*](https://leananalyticsbook.com/traction?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Defining Traction:** "Traction is growth. The pursuit of traction is what defines a startup." — [*Source: \[Peter J. Thomson*](https://peterjthomson.com/traction?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Product Development:** "The biggest mistake startups make when trying to get traction is failing to pursue traction in parallel with product development." — [*Source: \[Traction Book*](https://leananalyticsbook.com/traction?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Customer Acquisition:** "Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don't have is enough customers." — [*Source: \[Reading Graphics*](https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-traction?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Identifying Channels:** "Often the most underutilized channels in an industry are the most promising ones." — [*Source: \[Reading Graphics*](https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-traction?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Finding What Works:** "If you can get even a single distribution channel to work, you have a great business." — [*Source: \[Freelance Cake*](https://freelancecake.com/traction-justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Startup Failure:** "Most startups don't fail because they can't build a product. Most startups fail because they can't get traction." — [*Source: \[YouTube Interview*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=traction-justin-mares&ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Evidence of Demand:** "Traction is basically quantitative evidence of customer demand, a concept central to the framework developed with Gabriel Weinberg." — [*Source: \[99Signals*](https://99signals.com/traction?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Systematic Testing:** "Instead of guessing which marketing channel will work, founders should use the bullseye framework to systematically test and isolate the single best channel for their current stage." — [*Source: \[ChannelE2E*](https://channele2e.com/traction?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
10. **On Avoiding Bias:** "Founders naturally gravitate toward marketing channels they already know, but true growth usually comes from testing unfamiliar channels with an open mind." — [*Source: \[WiseWords*](https://wisewords.blog/traction?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 2: Health and the Modern Environment

1. **On the Zoo Animal Theory:** "We are like zoo animals, shaped by our environment, and that impacts our health." — [*Source: \[ClipFinder*](https://clipfinder.com/zoo-animal-theory?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Systemic Sickness:** "I think it is so wild that we have accepted somewhat implicitly that we have a food system and a food environment that makes almost everyone sick, unhappy, unhealthy, all these things." — [*Source: \[The Next Newsletter*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Modern Environments:** "We currently live in an environment that dictates human health outcomes, much like an enclosure defines the health of a captive animal." — [*Source: \[a16z Podcast*](https://a16z.com/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Food Toxicity:** "The decline of nutrient density in the modern food supply is one of the most pressing, yet largely ignored, issues in modern society." — [*Source: \[Justin Mares Blog*](https://justinmares.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Fixing the Core Issue:** "I think that very, very few people are interested or trying to fix what, in my mind, is this core obvious massive, issue." — [*Source: \[The Next Substack*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Regenerative Agriculture:** "Transitioning away from factory farming toward regenerative agriculture is necessary to restore the nutrient profile of the human diet." — [*Source: \[Wellness Mama Podcast*](https://wellnessmama.com/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Ignored Solutions:** "The current medical establishment often overlooks the fact that our bodies are reacting exactly as expected to a highly processed, unnatural diet." — [*Source: \[True Medicine Podcast*](https://truemed.com/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Processed Ingredients:** "Large-scale food manufacturers routinely take shortcuts that degrade human health in order to maximize shelf life and profit margins." — [*Source: Entrepreneurs on Fire*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpQvSXvii3M&ref=antoinebuteau.com)
9. **On Chronic Disease Origins:** "Chronic disease is rarely a simple individual failing; it is the predictable output of a food and lifestyle system that systematically produces unhealthy people." — [*Source: a16z Podcast*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYm4nQucSAk&ref=antoinebuteau.com)
10. **On Metabolic Health:** "Improving metabolic health through basic nutritional interventions is the highest leverage way to solve the broader chronic disease epidemic." — [*Source: \[Fitt Insider*](https://fitt.co/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 3: Building Consumer Brands

1. **On Initial Validation:** "Bone broth was a product I wanted, it was something that I couldn't find anywhere, to my quality standards, and a product that I thought there was a real need for." — [*Source: \[Get Career Hacking*](https://getcareerhacking.com/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Early Revenue Expectations:** "The way I looked at it, if we launched a business in this space, we would probably make 10K per month." — [*Source: \[Get Career Hacking*](https://getcareerhacking.com/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Spotting Trends:** "Identifying a personal health need, like finding nutrient-dense foods for injury recovery, is often the best indicator of a larger untapped consumer market." — [*Source: \[Revolution Health Radio*](https://chriskresser.com/revolution-health-radio?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Bootstrapping:** "We applied tech-style growth hacking to a consumer packaged goods business to get Kettle & Fire off the ground without massive initial capital." — [*Source: \[Indie Hackers*](https://indiehackers.com/interview/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On the Ketogenic Shift:** "We launched Perfect Keto because we saw a massive gap in clean, accessible supplements for people trying to manage their metabolic health through diet." — [*Source: \[HighPerformr*](https://highperformr.ai/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Non-Alcoholic Alternatives:** "With Surely, the goal was to create a premium non-alcoholic wine that actually tasted good, serving a growing demographic that wants to socialize without the negative health impacts of alcohol." — [*Source: \[Forbes*](https://forbes.com/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Product Standards:** "If you cannot find a product that meets your own strict quality standards, that is a strong signal that you should build it yourself." — [*Source: \[Voyage Austin*](https://voyageaustin.com/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Direct to Consumer:** "The DTC model allowed us to bypass traditional retail gatekeepers and speak directly to the early adopters who cared most about ingredient quality." — [*Source: \[Outlier Academy*](https://outlieracademy.com/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Supply Chain Challenges:** "Building a mission-driven food company means fighting an uphill battle against supply chains that are optimized for cheap ingredients rather than human health." — [*Source: \[Revolution Health Radio*](https://chriskresser.com/revolution-health-radio?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
10. **On Building Multiple Brands:** "The lessons learned from scaling one consumer brand compound rapidly, making it easier to identify and execute on the next big gap in the market." — [*Source: \[Startup Intros*](https://startupintros.com/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 4: Aligning Incentives in Healthcare

1. **On the TrueMed Mission:** "I think Truemed is one part of a decades-long shift in shifting money away from our sickcare system and towards one that incentivizes and drives wellness." — [*Source: \[The Next Newsletter*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Preventative Economics:** "The U.S. healthcare system is structurally designed to manage chronic conditions rather than prevent them from happening in the first place." — [*Source: \[Wellworthy*](https://wellworthy.com/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Unlocking Funds:** "We built TrueMed to provide the payment infrastructure that enables consumers to use tax-free HSA and FSA funds for evidence-backed lifestyle interventions." — [*Source: \[TrueMed*](https://truemed.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Lifestyle as Medicine:** "Things like gym memberships, sleep aids, supplements, and medically tailored nutrition should be treated as valid medical expenses." — [*Source: \[Health Tech Nerds*](https://healthtechnerds.com/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Misaligned Incentives:** "Our current system has perverse incentives that prioritize expensive pharmaceutical treatments over basic nutritional education." — [*Source: \[Invest Like the Best*](https://joincolossus.com/episodes?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On National Security:** "We have to start treating the chronic disease crisis as a national security issue, because it threatens to bankrupt our country." — [*Source: \[a16z Podcast*](https://a16z.com/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Empowering Consumers:** "Allowing people to direct their own pre-tax dollars toward preventative health is the fastest way to force the medical system to change." — [*Source: \[Fitt Insider*](https://fitt.co/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Medical Nutrition:** "There is a massive disconnect when doctors receive almost no nutrition education, yet diet is the primary driver of the diseases they treat every day." — [*Source: \[True Medicine Podcast*](https://truemed.com/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Financing Prevention:** "Preventative care has historically been hard to finance, which is exactly the structural bottleneck TrueMed is trying to fix." — [*Source: \[Health Tech Nerds*](https://healthtechnerds.com/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 5: Playing Long-Term Games

1. **On Long-term Thinking:** "If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you're competing against a lot of people." — [*Source: \[The Next Substack*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On the Seven-Year Horizon:** "But if you're willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you're now competing against a fraction of those people." — [*Source: \[The Next Substack*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Expanding Possibilities:** "Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue." — [*Source: \[The Next Substack*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Purpose Over Flipping:** "We need to move away from the short-term mentality of quickly flipping companies and instead focus on building long-term, mission-driven organizations." — [*Source: \[Justin Mares Substack*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Compounding Value:** "When you build with a decade in mind, every relationship and product iteration compounds rather than serving a quarterly goal." — [*Source: \[Lenny's Newsletter*](https://lennysnewsletter.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Patience in CPG:** "Building a physical product company requires a level of patience that software often does not, because supply chains move in months and years, not days." — [*Source: \[Indie Hackers*](https://indiehackers.com/interview?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Bezos Principles:** "Adopting Jeff Bezos's philosophy on time horizons allows you to build a moat simply by outlasting competitors who require immediate gratification." — [*Source: \[The Next Substack*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Structural Advantages:** "A longer time horizon acts as an automatic filter that removes casual competitors from your specific market." — [*Source: \[Building Culture*](https://buildingculture.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Enduring Missions:** "I am in business to solve problems that make people's lives better, specifically around their physical and mental health, which requires a multi-decade commitment." — [*Source: The Founder Podcast*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLv5hftgWms&ref=antoinebuteau.com)

### Part 6: Navigating E-Commerce

1. **On The Iron Law of Ecommerce:** "The Iron Law of Ecommerce across everything I've ever started is that I start out thinking I'm selling to people like me and it always turns out that it's 45-year old women that are buying the product." — [*Source: My First Million*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su5kYJb8P1Q&ref=antoinebuteau.com)
2. **On Audience Reality:** "You can build a product for yourself, but you have to accept that the market will ultimately decide who your core demographic is." — [*Source: \[Outlier Academy*](https://outlieracademy.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On CPG Growth Hacking:** "Applying software growth strategies to the food industry gave us a massive early advantage because legacy food brands moved incredibly slowly online." — [*Source: \[Indie Hackers*](https://indiehackers.com/interview?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Market Testing:** "Before you spend months developing a physical product, run simple online tests to verify that people are actually searching for and willing to buy the solution." — [*Source: \[Get Career Hacking*](https://getcareerhacking.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Distribution:** "Having the best product does not matter if you cannot figure out a scalable way to get it into the hands of the people who need it." — [*Source: \[Traction Book*](https://leananalyticsbook.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Scaling Challenges:** "Going from selling online to navigating retail grocery shelves introduces an entirely new set of logistical and margin challenges that require different skills." — [*Source: \[Forbes*](https://forbes.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Brand Transparency:** "Modern consumers are highly skeptical of big food companies, meaning new brands can win simply by being totally transparent about their ingredients." — [*Source: \[Wellness Mama Podcast*](https://wellnessmama.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Initial Traction:** "The first ten thousand dollars in monthly revenue validates the concept, but the next million requires building actual operational infrastructure." — [*Source: \[Indie Hackers*](https://indiehackers.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Niche Markets:** "Starting in a highly specific niche, like grass-fed bone broth, allows you to dominate a small space before expanding into broader categories." — [*Source: \[Voyage Austin*](https://voyageaustin.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 7: Personal Optimization and Philosophy

1. **On Motivation:** "Justin isn't in business just to be in business. He is in business to solve problems that make people's lives better." — [*Source: The Founder Podcast*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLv5hftgWms&ref=antoinebuteau.com)
2. **On Endlessly Fascinating Problems:** "Finding problems that remain endlessly fascinating to you is the only way to maintain the motivation required to build something over a decade." — [*Source: \[The Next Newsletter*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Escaping Noise:** "I look for timeless ideas in books and older philosophical writings, specifically to move away from the noise and outrage often found on social media." — [*Source: \[Justin Mares Blog*](https://justinmares.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Personal Health Experiments:** "You have to be willing to run experiments on yourself and challenge mainstream health narratives to find what actually optimizes your biology." — [*Source: \[The Next Substack*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Competence Loops:** "Building consecutive companies allows you to create a competence loop, where the operational muscle built in one venture directly de-risks the next." — [*Source: \[Moth Fund*](https://substack.com/mothfund?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Challenging the Status Quo:** "You have to be willing to look at deeply entrenched systems, like modern healthcare or agriculture, and simply refuse to accept that this is the best we can do." — [*Source: \[True Medicine Podcast*](https://truemed.com/podcast?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Information Diet:** "Curating what you read and consuming high-signal, long-form content is critical for maintaining clarity in a highly distracted world." — [*Source: \[The Next Newsletter*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Authentic Action:** "True influence comes from building the actual solutions you want to see in the world, rather than critiquing the existing systems online." — [*Source: \[5HT*](https://5ht.com/justin-mares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Alternative Approaches:** "Exploring alternative approaches, whether in metabolic psychiatry or light exposure, is necessary when the standard protocols repeatedly fail patients." — [*Source: \[The Next Substack*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 8: The Reality of Entrepreneurship

1. **On Hard Endeavors:** "If you are starting a thing that is so hard, it is so unlikely to work, it is almost impossible to develop self-respect and confidence." — [*Source: \[The Next Newsletter*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Feedback Loops:** "You cannot survive the journey if you're doing a thing that doesn't have any positive feedback loops in it, because it's just so hard." — [*Source: \[The Next Newsletter*](https://substack.com/@justinmares?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Repeat Founders:** "It has become more common for successful entrepreneurs to start multiple companies in succession because the initial friction of company creation disappears." — [*Source: \[Invest Like the Best*](https://joincolossus.com/episodes?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Building Momentum:** "You need small, early wins to sustain the energy required to tackle massive, systemic problems over a long period of time." — [*Source: \[Indie Hackers*](https://indiehackers.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Founder Psychology:** "The hardest part of building a company is not the operational mechanics, it is managing your own psychology through the inevitable brutal lows." — [*Source: The Founder Podcast*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLv5hftgWms&ref=antoinebuteau.com)
6. **On Action Over Theory:** "At a certain point, reading and theorizing must give way to launching a messy product and letting real customers tell you what is wrong with it." — [*Source: \[Traction Book*](https://leananalyticsbook.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Solving Real Problems:** "A business only endures if it solves a genuine, painful problem for a specific group of people who are desperate for a solution." — [*Source: \[Startup Intros*](https://startupintros.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Navigating Uncertainty:** "Founders have to get comfortable operating in environments where they have very little data and are forced to trust their conviction about the future." — [*Source: \[Outlier Academy*](https://outlieracademy.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On The Reality of Scaling:** "What works to get your first hundred customers will almost certainly break when you try to reach your first ten thousand." — [*Source: \[Traction Book*](https://leananalyticsbook.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*