šŸ¦„ From Side Hustle To Unicorn

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šŸ¦„ From Side Hustle To Unicorn

What began as a ā€˜crazyā€™ side hustle in 2017, is now one of the fastest-growing food companies of the 21st century.

In the last 7 years, founders Sawyer Hemsley and Jason McGowan have bootstrapped their weekend project to a Unicorn company worth $500M.

Since 2022, theā€™ve made over $1B in annual sales.

By late 2023, they had over 950 locations throughout the US.

The name?

Crumbl Cookies. 

The 1st Crumbl location (Utah) in a closed Dominoā€™s Pizza

Last year, the Crumbl app was ranked #8 in downloads on the IOS store for food, beating Subway and Instacart.

How did they do it?

Whatā€™s so special about a 720-calorie cookie?

Is it their secret chocolate chip formula? Their eye-catching pink box? Or their talent for going viral on social media?

Great question.

Hereā€™s what we got for ya:

  • šŸŖ The Rotating Menu

  • šŸ’° The Secret To Pricing

  • šŸ“± The $1B Content Loop

Read Time: 4 min 48 sec

šŸŖ The Rotating Menu

Every Sunday, Crumbl changes its flavors for the week.

Here are the flavors for this week:

To consumers, itā€™s simply a rotating menu with one flavor remaining the same - the chocolate chip cookie (my favorite one btw).

But to business ownersā€¦

Crumbl has completely disrupted the entire food industry.

Most restaurants have one menu that they have used for years - give or take a few items.

But not Crumbl. Why?

Well, two reasons:

  1. Itā€™s extremely expensive to store the ingredients for all 250 flavors

  2. It gives customers a reason to order cookies every week

If the Peanut Butter Cookie is available only once every 3 months, I have no choice but to order that week.

But why not rotate all 6 flavors?

Well just like Trader Joe's and Supremeā€¦

Crumbl understands The MAYA Theory:

ā€œTo sell something surprising, make it familiar. To sell something familiar, make it surprising.ā€ - Raymond Loewy

You need staples that guarantee returning customers and a successful trip if no other flavors sound appetizing.

But most wonā€™t go every week for a chocolate chip.

Keep it familiar, yet surprising.

The risk is low if they donā€™t like it, but the potential reward for something new is high.

And that brings us to their next tacticā€¦

More on this:

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šŸ’° The Secret To Pricing

After you pick a Crumbl location on the Crumbl app, youā€™re given 4 pricing options:

Customer 1 - ā€œIā€™m on a diet, I only want one. $3.98 for a cookie the size of my hand? What a steal!ā€

Customer 2 - ā€œI want to try all 5 new flavors. Iā€™ll just buy the 6 count and save the 6th for later.ā€

Customer 3 - ā€œI can get all flavors in 1 box? Great! Iā€™ll take the 6 count.ā€

The 1 count and 6 count are the highest cost-per cookie. This is on purpose. 

Some customers want only one, and an extra 20 cents wonā€™t be a deal breaker.

Other customers want to try all 5 new flavors and are willing to buy a 6th cookie - even if it is a bit more expensive.

This is the power of dynamic pricing.

Starbucks uses a similar strategy to push buyers to a more expensive optionā€¦

Notice how the middle option is closer in price to the most expensive drink.

By having an ā€˜averageā€™ middle option, then a better option for just $1 more, buyers are pushed to the larger option for a better deal.

More on this:

šŸ“± The $1B Content Loop

Every Sunday, Crumbl posts an ā€œUnbox The Pink Boxā€ video on YouTube to release their new cookiesā€¦

But even though Crumbl has 4.3M followers on Instagramā€¦

1.8M subs on YouTubeā€¦.

And even 7.3M followers on TikTokā€¦

None of the Crumbl social media accounts are responsible for Crumblā€™s skyrocketing growth.

So what is?

A hashtag.

#crumblcookies

In 2021, #crumblcookies reviews went viral on TikTok.

Now, every Sunday thousands of influencers post their weekly flavor reviews under the #crumblcookies hashtag and attach their referral link.

Then, Crumbl posts the top-performing videos on their channel which creates a competition between creators to create the best-performing video.

Genius.

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