How The Plug Drink Achieved Profitability With Onramp Funds in Just 6 Months
Originally published September 20th, 2023
Updated May 19th, 2025
What is The Plug?
The Plug is an all-natural, clinically-backed, plant-based recovery brand focused on optimizing liver health and wellness with two product lines: The Plug Drink and The Plug Pill. Brothers Ray and Justin Kim founded The Plug Drink together in 2019, and since have grown the company over 500% year-over-year (YoY) for the last two years in a row. They doubled their revenue in the last year alone, a rare achievement among wellness-focused small businesses in ecommerce.
“We really like the flexibility of allocating the funds where we want to and where it makes sense for our needs at the time of disbursement," Justin shared.
Following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023, Ray and Justin wanted to make sure they lowered internal expenses and were able to self-sustain their business by becoming profitable. Their decision-making process was rooted in long-term well-being for the company.
Ray said, “Given the fundraising environment and VC’s being a little more cautious following the SVB collapse, let's not focus all of our efforts on 500% growth again, and instead let's focus on improving our KPI’s and being profitable. That was our main goal this year that we started working towards at the end of last year.”
They cut ad spending by 40% and focused their efforts more on existing customers. Their efforts were successful—they achieved profitability in June of 2023 and increased their customer repurchase rate by 300% YoY. They also achieved huge YoY growth. Proof: you can have it all.
The Plug Drink continues to grow through a strong ecommerce strategy and a streamlined supply chain, helping the business reduce costs and increase real-time operational efficiency.
Enter: Onramp Funds
The Plug & Onramp have partnered together for over six months. During that time, Onramp has provided more than $1.3 million in working capital to The Plug. Feeling shaken in their trust in lenders over the last year, The Plug was sold on working with Onramp due to the flexibility Onramp could provide in lending, especially for healthcare-adjacent, wellness-focused brands.
“There was one thing that made us feel very comfortable as business owners. When you’re a business owner in an earlier stage company like ourselves, sometimes situations happen and Onramp said that if anything came up for us, they would work with us. We’ve never needed to use that promise, but it made Onramp feel very customizable to our experience,” Justin said of deciding to take capital from Onramp.
They stayed for how quickly Onramp was able to provide working capital and the reliable relationship they built with their Onramp Account Manager.
“I know I’m going to get a response today from the Onramp team,” Justin voiced regarding the speed of working with Onramp.
How The Plug Used Their Funds
The Plug typically uses their funds the same way each time they receive more cash, but they like the flexibility of being able to use the funds where they need them in any given month. In a typical month, they allocate about 75% of their working capital from Onramp towards inventory and about 25% towards digital marketing and advertising, including social media.
This flexible approach helps streamline operations, supports the launch of new products, and ensures they stay agile in new market expansion. Their high-quality product lines have gained traction with consumers from Los Angeles to New York City.
What’s Next?
The Plug is focused on continued growth while remaining profitable. They have created their second product offering, The Plug Pill, which is the same formula, but in a capsule vs. a drink format, and are focusing on growing their presence in retailers across the country.
They expect their store count to triple by the end of the year as they just signed on six new distributors in eight new markets so far this year alone. The Plug is also launching an updated formula and improved taste in Q4 2023, where the herbal concentration increased by 3x their current drink, along with receiving Non-GMO, Kosher, Gluten-Free, and Plant-Based Certifications.
Onramp will be there, supporting with funds to fuel their growth and mission of bringing awareness to liver health one consumer at a time. Automation and machine learning are helping companies like The Plug make better use of funding while improving customer retention and visibility through platforms like LinkedIn and other sales team tools.
“Without Onramp, my business would be in a very tough situation right now," Justin remarked on the experience of working with Onramp this last year.
