In less than a decade, Crumbl turned classic cookies into a cultural phenomenon. Armed with their signature pink boxes, Crumbl’s worldwide expansion has carried its share of challenges, but has nevertheless made an undeniable mark as the fastest-growing cookie company in the United States.
The Origin of Crumbl Cookies
You probably wouldn’t expect a billion-dollar bakery to get its start in the kitchen of a middle-school dropout with no baking experience — but that’s exactly where the viral Crumbl Cookies first began.
Cousins Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley are the first to admit that they did everything backwards when it came to starting their business. Fueled by an entrepreneurial spirit, they bought professional-grade kitchen equipment and signed on a location before ever finalizing their first cookie recipe.
Through trial, error, and a lot of A/B testing — the cousins were known to pop by their local gas station to ask random patrons which cookie they preferred of two given options — they landed on their iconic chocolate chip cookie recipe just in time for their very first location to open its doors in Logan, Utah in September of 2017.
The company was built on an initial $68,000 investment from McGowan. Within a month, the business was profitable.
Magic in the Marketing: How Crumbl Went Viral
In less than ten years, Crumbl went from a single shop to a household name. Their secret? The power of the internet — specifically, TikTok.
As McGowan and Hemsley began expanding their menu, they quickly realized that keeping all of their cookies in stock at all times wasn’t sustainable. Instead, they began utilizing a rotating menu, with six flavor options each week. Before long, they’d built a loyal fan base that tuned in to social media each Sunday to discover the flavor drops for the week ahead. As of March 2026, the brand has nearly 11M followers on TikTok. In comparison, Starbucks has 3M TikTok followers, McDonald’s has 5M, and competitor Insomnia Cookies has under 1M.
The company knew from the start that their cookies couldn’t just taste good. They had to look good, too. Their signature oversized cookies and bright pink packaging were instantly recognizable, and made for great content. Creators bought in, hook, line, and sinker. Weekly taste-test videos took over social media feeds across the country, and soon the cookies were more than just a sweet treat: they were a status symbol and way to engage with culture.
This organic marketing required nothing from the Crumbl team but was arguably one of the driving forces in the company’s success.
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Expansion and Franchising: The Growth and Struggles of Crumbl
Currently, McGowan and Hemsley remain the primary shareholders, with a minority investment from TSG Consumer Partners. The cousins’ goal has always been to remain as independent as possible, and they kept franchising small in the early days. Initially, it was a way to bring family members into the business, then loyal fans.
Crumbl has rapidly expanded over the past nine years, largely due to franchising, making it the fastest-growing cookie company. By 2020, the company had 90 locations; by 2022, that number was up to 800. New owners pay a $50,000 franchise fee, in addition to up to $1 million or more in startup costs. Between 2021 and 2023, the company opened a new location almost daily and expanded internationally into Canada.
However, in 2023, revenue began to dip. The novelty of the brand had begun to wane, and the volume of franchises was beginning to lead to oversaturation.
Redefining Crumbl: A New Era
The company took the revenue dip in stride. They rebranded, shortening the name from “Crumbl Cookies” to “Crumbl,” simplifying their logo in the process. They also began to expand the menu beyond cookies, adding desserts like brownies and cheesecake into the weekly rotation.
At the beginning of 2026, Crumbl announced an additional change: they would now have six cookies as static menu items, with four rotating flavors adding variety. This kept the novelty of Crumbl alive while adding stability.
Today, Crumbl has 1,071 locations worldwide, selling over 1 million desserts each day. Though a handful of stores closed each year from 2023 and 2025, new franchises continued to pop up. Current expansion is more strategic than it is rapid, but it’s clear that Crumbl isn’t going anywhere as long as consumers continue to celebrate life’s special moments with that classic pink box.
