“There was a time when I was going viral in early January and February last year — to the point where, if I had 100,000 units of a product [I wanted to sell that day], I could sell it in four or five hours,” Puneet Nanda, founder and CEO of oral care company GuruNanda, told Glossy. “On one of our best days [in 2024], we sold close to $1 million on TikTok Shop — in one day!”
Nanda may not fit the average description of an influencer, but through early TikTok adoption and a low-price, viral oil-pulling offering, he found success across TikTok in 2023 and 2024. His personal TikTok, @iIamPuneetNanda, has 323,000 followers and 7.6 million likes, while the @GuruNanda.official brand page has 147,000 followers and 774,000 likes, as of Thursday.
According to Dash Social [previously Dash Hudson], an all-in-one social media management platform for brands, GuruNanda’s Coconut and Peppermint Pulling Oil is currently the No.1 selling product on TikTok Shop in the U.S. The firm told Glossy that, in its social monitoring, it found that the brand sold more than a million units in a three-month period in 2024.
GuruNanda’s oil-pulling products have been tagged in more than 173 million UCG videos, and its average monthly engagement growth in 2024 was 541% YoY, according to Dash Social.
Nanda launched GuruNanda in 2015 after selling his family’s longtime oral care manufacturing business, which made toothbrushes and a variety of other oral care products for leading brands, in 2012. Similar to other white label manufacturers turned brands — like Seed Beauty’s ColourPop or Deciem’s The Ordinary — this allowed Nanda to bring low pricing straight to consumers.
For example, the company sells an oil-pulling kit with a tooth scraper and a toothbrush for $14.99, and its waterflossing and sonic toothbrush duo kit sells for $49.99. Nanda said similar tools sell for three to four times the amount. Philips and Waterpik are his top competitors.
A rise in consumer awareness of Ayurvedic medicine, like oil pulling, along with an overall awareness of mouth microbiome health and the brand’s early adoption of TikTok and TikTok Shop allowed Nanda’s business to thrive and grow over the past few years, he said. GuruNanda is privately held and has more than 200 employees in its Southern California factory and offices. The brand also sells at Walmart and on Amazon. TikTok Shop makes up the majority of his business.
According to Mintel market research company, the oral care market is projected to reach $10.8 billion this year, representing a 6.3% annual growth rate. In 2019, oral care charted at around $8.4 billion.
Glossy sat down with Nanda on Thursday to see how he is planning for Sunday’s potential TikTok ban, which apps he is driving his customers to now and how he thinks social selling could change in the coming weeks. The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and space.
How are you preparing for the potential TikTok ban on Sunday?
“I have a lot of relationships, and I am of the opinion that it will be business as usual, so I’m not stopping [on TikTok]. Like a lot of my employees, a lot of my influencers were very worried. They came to me, and I told them, ‘I’m not firing anybody! It’s business as usual.’”
So you’re not really preparing for a ban?
“They say, ‘Prepare for the worst and hope for the best,’ and I’m hoping for the best, but I started preparing about a year ago. I do have an Instagram account that I opened — it has the same name as TikTok, with @IamPuneetNanda — but I did not find much success on Instagram. I only have 50,000 followers and interaction is very limited, whereas my fan base on TikTok is unbelievable. I say something, and they do it. I tell them to go, and they go.
“I also got some success on YouTube, so I’m doing YouTube Shorts as well as YouTube. I’m still exploring different areas of YouTube. I’m doing podcasts, I’m doing videos of products and long-form videos, all on YouTube. I’m also trying out different trending topics, so I’m kind of exploring. I’ve got a decent fan base building up on YouTube, although I think it’s not the [platform] that I can see converting into real dollars.”
Why don’t you think YouTube views can convert to sales?
“I’ve got about 350,000-370,000 people following me on YouTube. I don’t see them converting. Number one, YouTube is a global platform, so I see that a lot of people who are following me are global — but my TikTok [followers] are 99.5% U.S.-based. Number two, people on TikTok are impulsive buyers. When they see somebody talk about it, they click the button. The ease of doing things is so easy, so amazing. You press a button, and it’s done. Nobody else in the world has that ease of doing business — nobody. Literally, nobody.”
What will it take for a platform to replace TikTok?
“To replace TikTok, you need that same ease of doing business. I don’t think there is any other platform that has that. So if it does go away, hypothetically speaking, we will try to look at more options. At this point, I’m putting 75% of my time on TikTok, maybe 10% of my time on Instagram and 15% on YouTube. Maybe when I put 100% on Instagram or YouTube I’ll be able to find some gold there.”
Where else are you diversifying now?
“I have opened three other accounts. I’ve opened Lemon8, which is a TikTok sister company, so that may go away, too. I have 30,000 followers there. I have also opened up an account in a company called WhatNot [social shopping marketplace], and I’ve also opened up an account in a company called Flip [shopping social network app]. Apart from that, I’ve opened up an account in a very strange place. It’s called Red Book [here in the U.S.], just so that I’m not left out. But I think, ultimately, it would have to be YouTube and Instagram [that will take over] if nothing else comes up. [Meta owner] Mark Zuckerberg copies everything, so ultimately he will copy the TikTok algorithm, and once TikTok is gone, he’ll probably copy the shop aspect of it, too. He’s not doing it today because he doesn’t want to form enemies with Jeff Bezos.”
How will you feel if TikTok does disappear on Sunday?
“I’m an entrepreneur. Risk-taking is in my DNA. I started with zero. If I have to start back from zero 10 times, it won’t make me feel sad even for one minute. I don’t take no for an answer and I don’t take defeat.”
