Dr. Puneet Nanda’s holistic wellness company GuruNanda LLC was on the verge of being kicked out of Walmart for not making its sales goals in 2022.
Then one Friday evening, his phone began chiming nonstop with notifications of people purchasing his oil pulling mouthwash.
“I said, ‘This is probably a scam. Somebody must’ve hacked Amazon,’” Nanda told the Business Journal.
Turns out the product went viral on TikTok after a woman posted a video praising it for saving her from spending $18,000 on dentures and getting rid of her pain.
The company, which sold on average 500 units a day, got 90,000 orders by the next morning, selling out completely.
“I was literally in tears,” Nanda said. “She changed our lives.”
Since that close encounter, the company went from doing $20 million in revenue to “hundreds of millions” last year, according to Nanda.
GuruNanda currently employs around 200 people at its 285,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Buena Park, which is capable of producing 200,000 units of product a day.
The Birth of “Dr. Fresh”
Nanda is known as “Dr. Fresh” to his employees, followers and even his family.
It’s the name of the oral care company he sold in 2012 prior to starting GuruNanda.
He took it over from his father after studying abroad in Russia in the early 90s, around the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that point, it was a small toothbrush company called Denton that was owned by his father and located in New Delhi, where Nanda was born and raised.
He likened the environment in Russia to the wild west.
“The situation started to deteriorate very fast,” Nanda said.
Nanda’s father gave him an ultimatum: Come back to India or go to America.
Not wanting to return to India, Nanda’s father opened a U.S. office in Buena Park for him to run.
He renamed the company to Dr. Fresh, a nickname he got back in college.
The company makes a variety of toothbrushes, dental floss, mouthwashes and other personal care products.
It owns several brands including Reach, Binaca and Dazzling White, as well as licenses to make Disney, Barbie and other popular franchise products.
Dr. Fresh became a leading children’s oral care brand with its Firefly toothbrush, a light up toothbrush with a built-in timer that was invented by Nanda to encourage kids to brush longer.
Dr. Fresh was acquired by personal care consumer products firm High Ridge Brands Co. in 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
Returning to India
As the company’s success grew, Nanda’s health deteriorated.
He recalled working 18-hour days and had a diet consisting mainly of fast food.
One day, Nanda’s secretary had to call 911 because they thought he was having a heart attack. Nanda was just 39 years old.
The experience taught Nanda to take better care of himself, so he sold a majority of the company in 2012 and decided to take up yoga.
He took a year off and went back to India, where he lived in 19 monasteries and learned different variations of yoga, as well as ancient Indian ayurvedic medicine.
“I thought I will just open up a yoga studio and teach yoga here in the U.S. for the rest of my life,” Nanda said.
Nanda opened a yoga studio called GuruNanda, a combination of “teacher” in Hinduism and his last name, in Beverly Hills in 2013.
The studio garnered attention from famous celebrities, including Jay Leno, who hosted Nanda in a 2017 episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
Discovering Oil Pulling
While in the U.S., Nanda developed a bad toothache and was told by his doctor that he’d need a root canal.
He took a flight to India and saw a practitioner of traditional medicine, who recommended oil pulling.
The traditional oral therapy involves swishing oil such as coconut, clove or sesame in the mouth for at least 15 to 20 minutes every day.
“When I started swishing it, I literally gagged,” Nanda said. “I hate oily food, so putting oil in my mouth was a very tough experience.”
He slowly acclimated to oil pulling, starting with just 30 seconds a day before working up to a minute, then five.
Miraculously, Nanda said that he didn’t need to get a root canal and still has not got one to this day.
Inspired, he created his own oil pulling mixture and gave out bottles for free at the yoga studio with the intent of helping others.
People began asking for multiple bottles.
One of his employees suggested that they sell it on Amazon.
Oil pulling suddenly became popular in 2015 when actress Gwyneth Paltrow shared that it’s a part of her daily routine, before the trend died back down. That year he started GuruNanda as a holistic wellness company that sells oil pulling and essential oils, which was being sold in Walmart.
“I just had a feeling in my heart that this was going to be big one day,” Nanda said.
Nanda said that he kept pouring money into oil pulling and was net negative $8 million by 2019.
In 2020, he considered selling the company, “taking the losses and going home.”
“But in adversity, I rise and shine,” Nanda said.
Nanda is no stranger to adversity. In 2008, while running Dr. Fresh, he had to let go of 50% of his staff but was able to hire most of them back a year later.
So, when times became tough again during the pandemic, Nanda pivoted the business to sell face masks, selling 350 million, he said.
“Whatever money I’d lost, I recovered and actually made a few million dollars more,” Nanda said.
With the funds, Nanda wanted to return to oral care, but with a focus on natural ingredients.
The company launched a series of new products, including a mouthwash with dual chambers filled with essential oil, baking soda and xylitol on one side and hydrogen peroxide on the other, so when combined, they activate to whiten teeth.
Nanda, who has a background in chemistry, recently brought on his son who studied medicine and worked at Swiss medical giant Novartis.
“We’re growing like a weed,” Nanda said.
He said the last couple of months have been “turbulent” as a result of the tariffs but that he’s confident the company will come out better. While the company does some manufacturing overseas in Asia, electrical products such as toothbrushes and flossers are made at its Buena Park facility, Nanda said.
There are no outside investors in the company, according to Nanda. His family fund is the company’s main backer.
In response to whether the company would be open to private equity investments, Nanda said “not yet.”
