Since its launch in 2019, Cornbread Hemp has expanded its retail footprint to nearly 100 storefronts. But it's the CBD company's direct-to-consumer business that's fueling the majority of its 200% year-over-year sales growth.
This time last year, Cornbread Hemp was closing a Wefunder campaign after raising nearly $400,000 from about 900 investors. That capital was used to expand the company's marketing efforts and staff, which has since grown from three to seven full-time employees at its new facility on Data Drive in Jeffersontown.
Jim Higdon, who co-founded the company with cousin Eric Zipperle, told me Cornbread Hemp keeps breaking sales records month after month leading into its busiest quarter of the year, specifically Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In addition to its USDA-certified organic, full-spectrum CBD oil — which is its best seller — Cornbread also sells organic, full-spectrum CBD gummies and lotion.
The company is shipping thousands of orders each month, Higdon said, and the average continues to climb as Cornbread reaches new customers.
"The success that we've found creating an e-commerce business here is replicable," he said. "Anyone, in any sector or vertical, can come in and do what we're doing in e-com and be successful in Louisville."
Higdon cited these four factors behind that reasoning:
- Access to talent: "The talent is here. We've got great team members with great backgrounds that are nailing their roles."
- Inexpensive real estate: "What we're paying for this place [in Jeffersontown] compared to what we would be paying in a place like Los Angeles, New York or even Nashville [Tennessee] is super cheap."
- Supportive investment community: "Even though we had trouble finding investors for our category because we were version 2.0 in the hemp CBD space and bigger players had come in and tapped out the accredited investors, Render Capital is amazing and super supportive of startups."
- Fast shipping times: "The shipping times between Louisville and the rest of the U.S. are fantastic... The U.S. Postal Service has been good to us. It's seamless and people get their stuff quick."
In order to keep up with Cornbread Hemp's rapid growth, Hidgon said he and Zipperle anticipate that another capital fundraising round may be necessary. As I previously reported, the co-founders initially self-funded the startup with $100,000 back in 2019, and made that investment back in five months.
