What are the key takeaways from this How I Built This episode?

Key insights include: **Recipe Development Through Testing:** McGowan and cousin Sawyer spent five months A/B testing chocolate chip cookie ingredients with strangers at gas stations and via Twitter surveys, discovering 70% preferred milk chocolate chips over semi-sweet, applying tech methodology to food product development instead of using traditional family recipes.; **Weekly Menu Rotation Strategy:** Crumbl drops six new cookie flavors every Sunday night while keeping only chocolate chip constant, creating FOMO and conversation. This prevents inventory frustration, enables simultaneous nationwide experiences, and generates viral content even when flavors fail, as controversy drives engagement and earned media value.; **Early Platform Adoption Advantage:** Crumbl joined TikTok in 2018 before most brands, now exceeding Starbucks and Nike's combined follower count. They created platform-specific content rather than cross-posting, championed customer reviewers by displaying their TikTok videos on in-store screens, and maintained authentic engagement including CEO negative reviews.

What did Jason McGowan discuss on How I Built This?

Jason McGowan built Crumbl Cookies from zero to 1,000 locations in eight years using tech startup principles: A/B testing recipes, building delivery technology, leveraging TikTok virality, and implementing a weekly rotating menu strategy. Key topics include: **Recipe Development Through Testing:** McGowan and cousin Sawyer spent five months A/B testing chocolate chip cookie ingredients with strangers at gas stations and via Twitter surveys, discovering 70% preferred milk chocolate chips over semi-sweet, applying tech methodology to food product development instead of using traditional family recipes.; **Weekly Menu Rotation Strategy:** Crumbl drops six new cookie flavors every Sunday night while keeping only chocolate chip constant, creating FOMO and conversation. This prevents inventory frustration, enables simultaneous nationwide experiences, and generates viral content even when flavors fail, as controversy drives engagement and earned media value..

How long is this episode of How I Built This?

This episode is 64 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

How I Built This

Crumbl: Jason McGowan

August 11, 2025

64 min episode · 2 min read

Jason McGowan

Episode

64 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Career Growth, Relationships, Startups

AI-Generated Summary

Published Jan 1, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Recipe Development Through Testing: McGowan and cousin Sawyer spent five months A/B testing chocolate chip cookie ingredients with strangers at gas stations and via Twitter surveys, discovering 70% preferred milk chocolate chips over semi-sweet, applying tech methodology to food product development instead of using traditional family recipes.
✓Weekly Menu Rotation Strategy: Crumbl drops six new cookie flavors every Sunday night while keeping only chocolate chip constant, creating FOMO and conversation. This prevents inventory frustration, enables simultaneous nationwide experiences, and generates viral content even when flavors fail, as controversy drives engagement and earned media value.
✓Early Platform Adoption Advantage: Crumbl joined TikTok in 2018 before most brands, now exceeding Starbucks and Nike's combined follower count. They created platform-specific content rather than cross-posting, championed customer reviewers by displaying their TikTok videos on in-store screens, and maintained authentic engagement including CEO negative reviews.
✓Franchise Scaling Through Self-Firing: McGowan implemented a daily practice of eliminating himself from operational roles, asking whether decisions served 10, 100, or 1,000 stores. This led to building custom training apps with video content, hiring 30+ people for social media responses, and systematically replacing manual processes with scalable systems.
✓Strategic Real Estate Negotiation: A $300 monthly rent reduction on their first Logan, Utah location proved pivotal to launch. McGowan personally handled real estate for the first 100 locations, visiting each site with franchisees, demonstrating that founder involvement in early expansion prevents quality degradation and establishes replicable standards.

What It Covers

Jason McGowan built Crumbl Cookies from zero to 1,000 locations in eight years using tech startup principles: A/B testing recipes, building delivery technology, leveraging TikTok virality, and implementing a weekly rotating menu strategy.

Key Questions Answered

•Recipe Development Through Testing: McGowan and cousin Sawyer spent five months A/B testing chocolate chip cookie ingredients with strangers at gas stations and via Twitter surveys, discovering 70% preferred milk chocolate chips over semi-sweet, applying tech methodology to food product development instead of using traditional family recipes.
•Weekly Menu Rotation Strategy: Crumbl drops six new cookie flavors every Sunday night while keeping only chocolate chip constant, creating FOMO and conversation. This prevents inventory frustration, enables simultaneous nationwide experiences, and generates viral content even when flavors fail, as controversy drives engagement and earned media value.
•Early Platform Adoption Advantage: Crumbl joined TikTok in 2018 before most brands, now exceeding Starbucks and Nike's combined follower count. They created platform-specific content rather than cross-posting, championed customer reviewers by displaying their TikTok videos on in-store screens, and maintained authentic engagement including CEO negative reviews.
•Franchise Scaling Through Self-Firing: McGowan implemented a daily practice of eliminating himself from operational roles, asking whether decisions served 10, 100, or 1,000 stores. This led to building custom training apps with video content, hiring 30+ people for social media responses, and systematically replacing manual processes with scalable systems.
•Strategic Real Estate Negotiation: A $300 monthly rent reduction on their first Logan, Utah location proved pivotal to launch. McGowan personally handled real estate for the first 100 locations, visiting each site with franchisees, demonstrating that founder involvement in early expansion prevents quality degradation and establishes replicable standards.

Notable Moment

When a competitor opened one week before Crumbl's launch in the same small town, McGowan nearly panicked about losing first-mover advantage. He refocused entirely on product quality and customer experience rather than competition, leading to lines out the door from day one.

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Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode

SignalCast may earn commission on purchases via these links.

Tools

TikTok
“Crumbl joined TikTok in 2018 before most brands, now exceeding Starbucks and Nike's combined follower count. They created platform-specific content rather than cross-posting, championed customer reviewers by displaying their TikTok videos on in-store screens.”

company

Crumbl CookiesBy guest
“Jason McGowan built Crumbl Cookies from zero to 1,000 locations in eight years using tech startup principles: A/B testing recipes, building delivery technology, leveraging TikTok virality, and implementing a weekly rotating menu strategy.”