Why We Doubled Down on Ultra

We chased our way in once. Then he let us back in for super pro-rata.

“I’m not fucking leaving.” — Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

I used to reach for a pouch without thinking about it.

Same motion. Same pause. Same sense of control.

What I didn’t like was what came with it. The dependency. The quiet tax on my attention. The feeling that something small had started to run the show.

Ultra gave me an exit that didn’t feel like quitting. It felt like substituting.

That shift marked the start of Fund III. A 3x markup in 120 days.

I began taking Ultra this past spring as part of a broader health reset that started with GLP‑1s. I had been a daily Zyn user for years. I loved the ritual. I hated what it represented. Ultra let me keep the behavior and lose the baggage.

A few months later, I met Eric Drymer.

He wasn’t raising. The business was printing cash, supply constrained, turning away demand. Most investors admired the traction and moved on.

We don’t work that way.

At Sugar Capital, we look for brands that are the next household names. Products people reach for without thinking. Habits that feel natural, not forced. When I saw Ultra, I recognized the pattern immediately.

I stayed on Eric. Like a Jack Russell terrier on a pant leg, I kept showing up. Not with spreadsheets, but with conviction. That nobody would care more about this company than we would. That capital, in the right hands, isn’t fuel. It’s alignment.

I connected Eric with Chad, the founder of Grüns. We invested early in Grüns and watched it become one of the fastest growing wellness brands in the country. Chad had lived the same moment Eric was heading toward. When to take money not because you need it, but because the right partner changes the slope.

By late summer, Eric took over a million from us.

Earlier this month, Left Lane led an eleven million dollar Series A. We exercised our super pro‑rata and increased our ownership.

Get in early. Prove you belong. Double down when the trajectory becomes undeniable.

Ultra hit a twenty four million dollar run rate in one hundred and eighty days.

One million cans sold.

Number one nicotine‑free pouch globally.

Still turning down demand to avoid stockouts.

The insight is simple. Millions of Americans discovered pouches through Zyn. They loved the ritual. What they didn’t love was the dependency. Ultra gave them permission to keep the ritual and lose the downside.

Last month, one of our LPs, Narayan, was walking through the gym at the Filter Club in Philadelphia with a tin of Ultra in his hand. A stranger stopped him mid‑stride. Looked at the tin. Smiled.

He said he loved Ultra because he hates what nicotine does to him.

That moment can’t be engineered. That’s when a brand escapes the algorithm and enters culture.

More than half of Ultra’s customers have never tried a pouch before. They aren’t switching from Zyn. They’re starting here. People who wanted the pause but refused to begin with nicotine. Ultra isn’t just taking share. It’s expanding the category.

This is the pattern we hunt for. Not products that fight human nature, but ones that redirect it. Most companies try to force behavior change. The great ones keep the motion and change the outcome.

Grüns did it with gummies. Liquid Death did it with water. Ultra is doing it with the pouch itself, stripping away nicotine and replacing it with function. Focus. Calm. Performance.

Same motion. Different result.

The distribution truth sealed it. Ninety six percent of pouch volume lives in retail. Gas stations. Grocery stores. Convenience counters. Ultra isn’t there yet. That’s not a weakness. That’s the roadmap.

Here’s what most people still miss. Ultra can advertise where Zyn cannot. Nicotine brands are locked out of the major digital platforms. Ultra runs the full playbook. Meta. Google. TikTok. That’s been the engine behind the rocket ship. They built $24M in revenue run raye in six months while competitors couldn’t even bid on the same keywords.

And when they go to retail, the advantage flips again. Ultra can sell where Zyn cannot. They’re compliant in ways that unlock Whole Foods, CVS, Target. As nicotine products get banned from pharmacies and restricted at shelf, Ultra walks straight through the front door.

Digital was the proof. Retail is the unlock. And they have the green light for both.

That isn’t a feature. It’s a moat.

The Series A will accelerate U.S. manufacturing and fund the transition from proven demand to national retail rollout. Different formulations for different moments. Morning productivity. Afternoon focus. Evening calm.

They aren’t building a nicotine replacement. They’re building a ritual toolkit for a generation that already loves the format.

I know because I lived it.

GLP‑1s rewired my relationship with food. Ultra rewired my relationship with the pause.

Same motion I had done ten thousand times.

Now when I reach for it, there’s nothing to quit.