At a Glance

Agoge is a USDA certified organic hemp protein company that creates high-quality products that improve your health.

Who is Justin Moore?

Meet Justin Moore, Founder of Agoge.

About Agoge

The name should be a bit telling for anyone who’s ever seen the movie 300, because that’s where Justin got it from. Agoge. It’s the process of turning a child into a Spartan. A process of do or die, of make it or lose everything. And to Justin, that’s exactly what a startup is. It’s about being taken out of your comfort zone and thrown into a fight, day after day, until you make it.

As Justin continued on his own journey, getting an MBA in entrepreneurship and researching hemp products, he decided to jump in and create his own hemp protein company. But it wasn’t quite as simple as that. It took time to fully launch the product with the quality ingredients that he wanted and it took even more time to reach anywhere near profitability. In fact, the third batch, which they’re coming into now, is where they’re set to make profits.

Building the company certainly took time and part of that was changing people’s minds, because so many people were confused about the legality of hemp and hemp products. They also didn’t really understand what hemp was or what it could do. But Justin was willing to put in the work showing people that hemp is perfectly legal, perfectly safe, and perfectly useful for so many things. It’s about healthy, plant-based proteins, but it’s also about reducing water usage and improving soil, feeding livestock, and so much more.

Today, Agoge provides certified organic, non-GMO, hemp protein through their website, and they’re even starting to venture into grocers and boutique shops with their high-quality products.  They are currently in all Erewhon locations in California!

Justin’s Journey

The team at Agoge is over 51% veterans, including Justin himself, which means they’re in line to get a service-disabled veteran small business certification. Overall, however, he hires a lot of contractors to take on the tasks that are needed to grow the business. From finding grants to applying, branding, sales, marketing, certification, and everything else in between, finding the right people through those contracts is instrumental to their success. It makes sure that they don’t cut corners and that they create an amazing brand, all the way through.

Business Growth and Revenue Strategies

Building a business takes hard work and it takes a great deal of dedication. For Justin and Agoge, it also took some dedicated strategies. When he was looking to get his products into Erewhon, he knew that he needed to make them see the benefits right off the bat and that meant designing the product packaging so that it was ready to put on the shelf immediately and then showing it to the business. It gave them the perfect edge and allowed them to branch into a strong market.

What else is leading to an increase in sales and revenue for Agoge and other hemp brands? The fact that it’s been changed from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 and information is continuing to be released about the benefits of hemp and the difference between hemp and other products. Not only that, as people become more and more interested in eco-friendly and natural products, hemp is becoming a big market.

Growing hemp helps farmers because it’s healthy for their livestock to eat and it continues to grow, so there’s no additional feed needed and because it’s all natural and something the animals would eat normally there are less health problems. That means less costs associated with medical care. And similar things can be said about humans as well.

All of this means that Agoge isn’t just about protein powder. It’s also about changing the agricultural system and creating new pathways to health and viability in the United States. And when you add in Agoge’s interactions with Arizona State University and even the Department of Defense, the company is certainly moving in the right direction.

Keep Moving Forward

By continuing to apply for grants and funding and cycling that funding into growing the brand and producing even more products, Agoge is scaling well. And they’re looking to continue, reaching for equipment grant funding. While they’re at it, they’re continuing to rack up the certifications as well. Ones that people are looking for and willing to support like Certified B Corp, non-GMO project certified, USDA certified organic, third party tested, and certified regenerative organic farming. But these things also take time, and Justin has been biding his time for quite a while.

The current situation for Agoge is that it’s cycling all of its revenue right back into the company. Taking any money that they make and using it to grow and expand. Because Justin is funneling everything that he has into the company as well. Including money from selling his car and his house. He’s not taking a paycheck, he’s lived frugally on his veteran pay and has an amazing family who has provided resources to help him build and focus on Agoge  And all that because he knows that hemp protein is going to be major. And it’s going to help people. That’s why he’s not afraid to start small, selling the product himself at farmer’s markets or giving it away at trade shows to get started, before he was able to get into the shops.

And as they continue to grow and scale and advance into retail it’s becoming more and more profitable and Justin himself is learning more and more about the business.

Agoge’s CX Philosophy 

What does customer service look like at Agoge? Well, for one thing, Justin prides himself on creating everything in a way that people don’t need to ask questions. The brand, the products, the website, and everything about it is designed to be so simple and over-explained that no one will need any additional information. But if you do happen to reach out, Justin himself is the one behind the screen.

Innovation and Adaptability

When it comes to technology and innovation, Agoge uses Shopify for their selling platform and they’re working  with Loop to handle subscriptions. Another tech service they’re using is Onward, offering insurance for the products when they’re returned. And they’re still looking at additional tech services for helping to manage the back-end measurements and analytics.