This 29-Year-Old Took A $150,000 Gamble On Beef Jerky

Eugene Kang has leveraged his investment into a $21 million snack brand.

- Allana Ahktar

AFTER ALLEGEDLY KILLING CHEESE, marriage, and the housing market, millennials are disrupting yet another major industry: beef jerky.

Well, at least one millennial is. Eugene Kang, cofounder and CEO of Country Archer Jerky Co., started a beef jerky company whose product is almost unrecognizable compared with the heavily processed truck-stop snack. Instead, Kang’s jerky consists of 100% grass-fed beef or cage-free turkey that’s primarily organic—and it’s taking off.

Since Kang cofounded the brand at age 22, the meat snacks have found their way into over 25,000 grocery stores across the U.S. and Canada, up from 3,250 in 2016. The brand’s 2017 revenue came in at $21 million, a whopping 576% increase over three years.

As a college dropout starting a company, Kang faced a steep learning curve and credits his success to sensing his fellow millennials trending toward “clean eating.”