An Insurance Salesman Went Down the Health Rabbit Hole, and Started a Side Hustle in His Kitchen. It’s Now On Track for $3M.

At the age of 20, Brian Lizama decided that his future lay in medicine. He spent his days studying pre-med coursework, memorizing formulas and studying the human body. He wanted to make his parents, who were among the first to immigrate to Los Angeles from Mexico and Guatemala, proud.

However, financial pressures changed his lifestyle. Lizama took a part-time job selling life insurance while still a full-time student, where she quickly realized she had a knack for business and sales.

“I knew that I wanted to help people and help others, and at the same time, I also wanted to help give back to my parents,” he says. Entrepreneur in a new interview.

He ended up dropping out of college to do insurance full time. By his late 20s, he had risen through the ranks, first as a vice president and then as a senior vice president, overseeing more than 300 agents and working 16-hour shifts.

After more than ten years in insurance sales, in 2023, Lizama quit his freelance job to build a sea salt brand, Nature’s Pantry, out of his garage.

The concept of Nature’s Pantry

Lizama dove into a fitness journey in 2023 and discovered that clear, purified water often lacks minerals that help the body absorb hydration. Natural sea salt, however, provides a source of minerals. He did research on the best type of sea salt for water, which led him to French sea salt from the Celtic region of Brittany. The salt he found was rich in traditional minerals and was harvested by hand.

The problem was that Lizama could not find French sea salt in the local shops when she went looking for it. “That’s when I got the idea to really create my own brand that would be able to offer French sea salt to people everywhere,” he says.

Nature’s Pantry began humbly: in her kitchen. Lizama, the founder and CEO of the company, ordered two pallets of French sea salt in August 2023. He and his father stood at the counter, filling the bags by hand, weighing and sealing each one. As the demand increased, the kitchen operation fell into the garage, and he brought in grandchildren and helpers to keep up with the orders.

Early traction

Initially, Lizama saw Nature’s Pantry as a small initiative that could provide people with natural ingredients in their pantry. But the first pull took him by surprise. By the second or third month of selling the product online, the monthly income has reached the mid-four figures, and then the low five figures.

Within two months of launching the product, in October 2023, he made a drastic decision and quit his insurance sales job. “As soon as I saw the results of the sale online, and that really, there was a lot of demand, I got into this business,” he says.

For years, fulfillment took place at home. Lizama worked out of his garage until November 2025, when he moved to a warehouse in Paramount, California. “I didn’t see it going from a small kitchen to having a storage space,” he says.

Nature’s Pantry now not only has its own warehouse where the production takes place, but also has its own offices that serve the social media team and partners. The brand has expanded its offerings from French gray sea salt to HydroCelt, an electrolyte drink mix.

Up to 3,000 stores a year

Growth came from aggressive approach and old-school marketing ideas. Lizama went into the stores in person, teaching the owners about French sea salt, hydration and why unique sea salt is different from regular table salt. “Salt is different, you know, you can see it, you can taste it, you can touch it,” he says, contrasting it with intangible life insurance.

Face-to-face communication remains central to his philosophy: “Your enthusiasm, your passion, and your belief in your product… that’s the only big difference compared to sending an email and hoping they’ll see it,” he explains.

Another big promotion was exhibiting at Natural Products Expo West in March 2025, where his team of six to eight people worked the booth non-stop. From that show, they secured distributors in Canada, Texas, and Chicago, and later partnered with natural product distributors KeHE, which chose Nature’s Pantry as the “golden ticket” brand for its growth. Today, Nature’s Pantry is in more than 2,000 stores in the US and nearly 1,000 in Canada, in approximately 3,000 locations.

Hard lessons and tips for beginners

The rapid growth came with operational difficulties, especially in the literature. Twice, Nature’s Pantry ran out of product for weeks because the shipment from France, which required 12 to 16 weeks for manufacturing, packaging and shipping abroad, arrived too late.

Lizama himself called on the traders to explain the delay and promised to prevent a repeat by aggressively ordering and discouraging traders. “We need to have the product now that we wanted to order four months ago,” he says, adding that since then they have maintained relationships with many salt farmers to meet demand.

Lizama’s goal is to reach 20,000 stores by the end of the year. To do this, he is building a sales force to repeat his first step, calling markets around the country. “It’s hard to preach,” he says. “That’s what helped us go from a garage to having a warehouse.” The company did $700,000 in revenue last year and is on track for $300 million in revenue this year.

Lizama’s advice to startups is to do everything before it’s fixed. Instead of being paralyzed by not knowing everything, he believes that founders need to move on, learn from mistakes and refuse to let obstacles weigh them down.

“I really appreciate that you take a gun, go see it on the road,” he says.

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At the age of 20, Brian Lizama decided that his future lay in medicine. He spent his days studying pre-med coursework, memorizing formulas and studying the human body. He wanted to make his parents, who were among the first to immigrate to Los Angeles from Mexico and Guatemala, proud.

However, financial pressures changed his lifestyle. Lizama took a part-time job selling life insurance while still a full-time student, where she quickly realized she had a knack for business and sales.