Crumbl
Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley's cookie franchise. One store in Utah in 2017 to $1.2 billion in system-wide sales, 1,059 locations in all 50 states, and the #6 most-downloaded food app in America, all without owning a single store.
Crumbl crossed $1.2 billion in system-wide sales in 2024 with 1,059 stores across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada, making it the fastest-growing cookie company in American history. Jason McGowan, a Canadian immigrant with an eighth-grade education who taught himself to code, and his cousin Sawyer Hemsley opened their first location in a former pizza shop in Logan, Utah, in 2017 with a single flavor: chocolate chip. Seven years later, the company was valued at approximately $2 billion when TSG Consumer Partners acquired a minority stake in May 2025.
The Crumbl app ranks #6 among all food and drink apps on the App Store, ahead of Domino’s, Taco Bell, and Chipotle, which is remarkable for a company that sells one product category. The franchise generates roughly $150 million in EBITDA, and McGowan retains majority ownership of more than 50%, despite the company operating 100% on franchisee capital without a single company-owned store.
At a glance:
| Founded | 2017, Logan, Utah |
| Founders | Jason McGowan (CEO), Sawyer Hemsley (Chief Branding Officer) |
| Ownership | Jason McGowan (>50%), Sawyer Hemsley (minority), TSG Consumer Partners (minority, May 2025) |
| System-wide sales (2024) | ~$1.2 billion |
| Franchisor revenue (2023) | $122.3 million |
| EBITDA | ~$150 million |
| Valuation | ~$2 billion (May 2025) |
| Stores | 1,059 (end of 2024), all 50 states + Canada + Puerto Rico |
| Model | 100% franchised. $50K franchise fee. $816K–$1.44M total investment. 8% royalty + 3.5% ad fee |
| Prices | Single cookie $4.50–$5.50, 4-pack ~$14–17, 6-pack ~$22–25 |
| Debt | $500M in loans from Blackstone and Golub Capital |
The Story
McGowan immigrated to the United States from Canada without a high school diploma and taught himself to code, eventually building a Facebook application called “We’re Related” that attracted 120 million users. He worked at Ancestry.com and Nintendo before deciding to start a food business with Hemsley, his cousin, who was studying at Utah State University and had launched a college clothing brand called Embr.
McGowan applied his tech background to product development in a way that nobody in the cookie industry had tried before. The two spent weekends driving to gas stations around Logan with batches of chocolate chip cookies, asking strangers to taste two versions and pick the one they preferred, then iterating on the recipe based on the data. McGowan has described it as A/B testing, the same method he used to optimize features on Facebook apps, except the product was dough. They burned through thousands of dollars in wasted ingredients before arriving at the recipe that launched the company.
The first store opened in 2017 in a former pizza shop that was slated for demolition, which meant the rent was cheap enough to absorb the risk. Hemsley designed the now-iconic pink box after being inspired by a neighbor’s vintage pink Cadillac, and “Crumbl Pink” has since become an official Pantone color. The name itself is just “crumble” with the E dropped to feel more modern.
Growth was immediate and compounding: 15 stores by 2018, 100 by August 2020, 326 by the end of 2021, and 1,000 by March 2024.
The Strategy
The rotating weekly menu
Crumbl releases 4 to 6 new cookie flavors every Monday, standardized across every store in the country, and retires them the following Sunday. The company has developed more than 800 recipes, with roughly 250 in active rotation, and the weekly reveal has become an event in itself, with peak sales concentrated in the first 48 hours after the Sunday night preview drops on social media. The model creates artificial scarcity and urgency because any flavor a customer wants could disappear in seven days, which drives repeat visits and eliminates the problem that plagues most dessert chains: customers trying a product once and never coming back.
TikTok as the growth engine
Crumbl has 9.6 million TikTok followers and more than 4 million Instagram followers, with a social media team of over 30 people dedicated entirely to content production. The weekly flavor drops generate approximately 153,000 TikTok likes per cycle, and the stores themselves were designed to function as content studios, featuring neon signage, open kitchens visible through glass, and that signature pink branding that photographs well on any phone. The entire influencer marketing strategy centers on making every customer a potential content creator, because when a new flavor looks interesting enough to film, the marketing is free.
100% franchised, zero company capital
Crumbl does not own a single store. Every location is franchised, which means the company scaled from 15 stores in 2018 to 1,059 in 2024 without spending corporate capital on buildouts, leases, or staffing. Franchisees pay a $50,000 franchise fee, invest between $816,000 and $1.44 million in total buildout costs, and then remit 8% of gross sales as a royalty plus 3.5% as an advertising fee. The franchise model allowed Crumbl to add roughly 276 new locations per year between 2021 and 2023, a pace that would have been impossible if the company had to fund each opening from its own balance sheet.
The app ecosystem
The Crumbl app ranks #6 among food and drink apps on the App Store, which puts a cookie chain ahead of Domino’s, Taco Bell, and Chipotle in download volume. The app includes a feature called “Cookie Journal” that lets users rate every flavor they have tried, and it holds a 4.81-star rating from more than 680,000 reviews. The app is not an afterthought bolted onto a retail business; it is the primary ordering channel and the mechanism that turns the weekly menu rotation into a game that keeps users opening the app every Monday.
The Numbers
| Year | Stores | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 1 | First store, Logan, Utah |
| 2018 | 15 | Franchise model begins |
| 2020 | 100 | 100th store by August |
| 2021 | 326 | |
| 2022 | 689 | System-wide sales surpass $1B |
| 2023 | 970 | |
| 2024 | 1,059 | Growth decelerates |
System-wide sales reached $1 billion by 2022 and grew to approximately $1.2 billion in 2024. The franchisor (the corporate entity that collects royalties and fees) reported $122.3 million in revenue and $42.8 million in net income for 2023.
Average unit volume tells a more complicated story. AUV peaked at $1.8 million per store in 2022, dropped 37% to $1.16 million in 2023 as the store count outpaced demand, and recovered partially to $1.35 million in 2024. The decline coincides with the period of most aggressive franchise expansion, which suggests Crumbl saturated certain markets by opening too many locations too quickly.
Franchise profitability is where the numbers diverge most sharply. The average store profit in 2024 was $251,706, but the median was only $77,359, which means a small number of top-performing locations pull the average up dramatically while half of all franchisees earned less than $77,000 on an investment of $816,000 to $1.44 million. Nineteen stores closed between 2023 and 2024.
The TSG deal valued the company at approximately $2 billion when TSG Consumer Partners acquired a minority stake in May 2025. Crumbl also carries $500 million in loans from Blackstone and Golub Capital.
Controversies
Child labor violations
In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor found that 11 Crumbl franchises across six states had violated federal child labor laws, affecting 46 minors, some as young as 14 years old. The total penalty was $57,854. Crumbl issued a statement saying it takes “any violation of federal labor laws very seriously,” though the fines were paid by the individual franchisees rather than the corporate entity.
The “Utah Cookie Wars” lawsuits
In May 2022, Crumbl filed lawsuits against two competitors, Dirty Dough and Crave Cookies, alleging trade secret theft and trademark infringement. The Dirty Dough case had genuine substance: a former Crumbl engineer had downloaded 66 proprietary recipes before leaving to join Dirty Dough. Both lawsuits settled in October 2023 on undisclosed terms, but the litigation drew public attention primarily because suing other cookie companies in the same state struck many observers as heavy-handed.
Mansion video, then layoffs
In September 2023, Sawyer Hemsley posted a video on social media showcasing the construction of a personal mansion. One week later, Crumbl laid off approximately 100 corporate employees. The timing created a public relations problem that wrote itself, and Hemsley deleted the mansion content after backlash. The layoffs coincided with the 37% decline in average unit volume, which made the optics of executive wealth alongside workforce reductions particularly sharp.
Hidden service fee class action
A class action lawsuit filed in 2023 alleged that Crumbl charged a hidden 2.95% service fee on app purchases, buried behind a small gray question mark icon that most customers never noticed. Crumbl discontinued the fee in May 2023.
Franchisee dissatisfaction
Bloomberg reported in December 2025 on growing franchise discontent, with sources describing “layoffs, chaotic operations, and paper-thin margins.” The median store profit of $77,359, combined with the 19 store closures and the gap between corporate marketing about franchise opportunity and the financial reality on the ground, formed the basis of the complaints.
What You Can Learn
A/B test everything, even cookies. McGowan treated recipe development the way a software engineer treats feature releases: build two versions, put them in front of real users, measure which one wins, and iterate. That approach produced a better product faster than any traditional bakery R&D process, and the methodology applies to virtually any product development cycle in any industry.
Artificial scarcity drives repeat behavior. The weekly rotating menu solves the biggest problem in the dessert business, which is that customers try something once, enjoy it, and never return because there is no reason to. By making every flavor temporary, Crumbl gives customers a reason to come back every week and a reason to post about it online before the flavor disappears, turning scarcity into both a retention mechanism and a free marketing engine.
Watch the median, not the average. Crumbl’s average franchise profit of $251,706 sounds like a strong return, but the median of $77,359 tells the truth about what most owners actually experience. For anyone evaluating a franchise or any business opportunity, the gap between those two numbers is the most important data point in the entire disclosure document.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Crumbl?
Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley, who are cousins, co-founded Crumbl in 2017 in Logan, Utah. McGowan serves as CEO and Hemsley as Chief Branding Officer.
How much does it cost to open a Crumbl franchise?
The franchise fee is $50,000, and the total investment ranges from $816,000 to $1.44 million, with ongoing royalties of 8% of gross sales plus a 3.5% advertising fee.
How much does a Crumbl franchise make?
The average store profit in 2024 was $251,706, but the median was $77,359, meaning half of all Crumbl locations made less than $77,000 in profit on an investment that starts at $816,000.
How many Crumbl locations are there?
Crumbl had 1,059 stores at the end of 2024, with locations in all 50 U.S. states plus Canada and Puerto Rico.
Why does the Crumbl menu change every week?
Crumbl rotates 4 to 6 flavors every Monday from a library of roughly 250 active recipes (out of 800+ developed), creating urgency to visit before a flavor disappears and giving customers a reason to return every week.
How much is Crumbl worth?
TSG Consumer Partners acquired a minority stake in May 2025 at a valuation of approximately $2 billion, and the company generates roughly $150 million in EBITDA on $1.2 billion in system-wide sales.
When was Crumbl founded?
Crumbl opened its first store in 2017 in a former pizza shop in Logan, Utah. The company moved to a 100 percent franchised model the following year and grew to 1,059 stores by the end of 2024.
Who owns Crumbl?
Co-founder and CEO Jason McGowan owns more than 50 percent of the company. Co-founder Sawyer Hemsley holds a minority stake, and TSG Consumer Partners acquired a minority position in May 2025 at a roughly $2 billion valuation. Crumbl also carries $500 million in loans from Blackstone and Golub Capital.
What is Jason McGowan’s net worth?
Public estimates have not been published, but McGowan’s majority stake at the company’s $2 billion valuation, net of approximately $500 million in loans, suggests a personal stake worth roughly $750 million to $1 billion before any liquidity discount. The figure is an estimate based on his disclosed ownership percentage.
Where are Crumbl cookies made?
Cookies are baked fresh in each individual franchise location every day from a standardized recipe developed at Crumbl’s headquarters in Lindon, Utah. The company does not operate a central commissary or ship finished cookies to stores.
Sources
- CNBC, “Crumbl Cookies: From Fun Side Hustle to Bringing in $1 Billion a Year,” February 2024. Origin story, $1B milestone.
- Restaurant Business Online, “Crumbl Slows Its Growth as Restaurant Volumes Increase,” 2025. 2024 financials, AUV, store profit, store count.
- CNBC, “Bakery Franchise Chain Crumbl Explores $2 Billion Sale,” January 2025. Valuation, EBITDA, sale exploration.
- QSR Magazine, “Crumbl’s Sales and Profit Grow Rapidly,” 2025. Revenue estimates, profit figures.
- U.S. Department of Labor, “Crumbl Cookies Child Labor Violations,” December 2022. Child labor investigation details.
- Modern Retail, “How Crumbl Cookies Took Over TikTok,” 2022. Social media strategy.
- NRN, “How Crumbl Created One of the Most Popular Apps in the Industry,” 2023. App rankings, features.
- Utah Business, “How Jason McGowan Co-Founded Crumbl Cookies,” October 2023. A/B testing, founder background.
- PE Insights, “TSG Consumer Partners to Acquire Minority Stake,” May 2025. TSG deal details.
- Salt Lake Tribune, “Utah’s Cookie Wars Are Apparently Over,” October 2023. Lawsuit settlement.
- Inc., “Layoffs, Labor Violations: Crumbl Cookies What Not to Do,” 2023. Layoffs, mansion optics.