Crumbl: Jason McGowan
Summary
Discover how Jason McGowan, with co-founder Sawyer Hemsley, transformed Crumbl into a dessert powerhouse by applying tech principles to cookies, including iterative recipe testing and an early focus on a proprietary delivery app. Their innovative approach, featuring weekly rotating flavors and a massive TikTok following, propelled Crumbl from a single store to over 1,000 locations in just eight years, redefining how food brands are built in the digital age.Episode description
Crumbl may be a cookie business – but Jason McGowan turned it into a fast-growing restaurant chain by building it like a tech startup. He and co-founder Sawyer Hemsley meticulously A/B tested the recipe, launched a delivery app early on, and went viral with weekly drops of wild new flavors like bubblegum and Almost Everything Bagel. In just eight years, Crumbl has opened over 1,000 stores, and has dominated the cookie conversation on social media, with more TikTok followers than Starbucks, Domino’s, and Taco Bell combined.
This episode was produced by Alex Cheng with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Carla Estevez. Our engineers were Patrick Murray and Jimmy Keeley.
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