Little by little, a startup founded in a Triangle basement with $200 worth of yarn has become a viral sensation. The Woobles, a startup that was once called "sharkier than we are" by investor Mark Cuban following its "Shark Tank" appearance, has grown into a multi-million dollar company – one that's about to ramp up in the retail arena.
Meet The Woobles, a crochet startup that grew out of its founders’ parents' basement to sit at No. 19 on the most recent Inc. 5000 list.
Its latest growth strategy? Wholesale. And aspirations are high. Right now, the crochet kits are on shelves at some niche stores – including fabric giant Jo-Ann.
But The Woobles recently landed the white whale of retailing: Walmart (NYSE: WMT).
In an exclusive interview, The Woobles founders Justine Tiu and Adrian Zhang talk about how they snagged the retailer, one licensing deal at a time.
From $200 to the Inc 5000 list
Tiu and Zhang, a married couple who left corporate careers to launch The Woobles in 2020 with just $200 worth of yarn, have grown their business almost entirely online.
Over the years, they’ve built a niche – from taking advantage of the pandemic crafting trend to doubling down on licensing opportunities.
It started with pre-threaded crochet kits, aiming to simplify the hobby.
Over the past four years, the company (which has a manufacturing facility just outside of Durham), has grown into a firm capable of making custom yarn – such as the variegated yarn used in its recent Minecraft-themed products – and specialized pieces, such as collector’s box packaging for a Barbie line that doubles as a “wooblified version” of the Barbie Dreamhouse.
Much of the growth has come from the successful licensing of characters such as Harry Potter and Pac-Man.
“It’s been really fun to push to see how we can really represent the brand that we’re working with,” Tiu said.
It started with, as they describe it, lots and lots of begging.
The pair heard about a licensing expo and thought they could just “swing by” on their way back from vacation. They arrived to learn that “you can’t actually talk to anyone here unless you pre-book the meeting,” Tiu said.
So the strategy changed.
“We were pitching our hearts out to the receptionist,” Zhang said. “We were like, we don’t have any meetings, but we would love to be able to meet someone.”
The begging resulted in a win: a Pac-Man licensing deal. And it paved the way for licensing deals involving other characters, as now the Woobles could show off what it could do.
“We’re not just printing Pac-Man… we’re really making it immersive,” he said. “As we do more and more of these collaborations, we get more and more ideas.”
And they get more and more wins.
“We get more street cred,” Tiu explained.
Armed with its expanded product line, the firm recently did its first in-person event in New York, using the Shopify space in Soho. “We have people waiting in line for like five hours to get in,” Tiu said. “That was really invigorating. That was our first time interacting with customers in real life.”
And it got them thinking.
“It’s, yeah, customers do want to see our products in person,” Zhang said. “This year we’ve been making a big wholesale push.”
While the pair are taking a paycheck – having finally moved out of their parents’ house a few years ago – they are investing heavily into the business, and that means hiring the team to get it to the next level. Woobles specifically targeted people with experience in scoring major retailers. Why knock on doors when you can hire people who have already opened them?
And it’s working. Walmart said yes. The crochet kits could be on its shelves next month – with plenty of time for the holiday shopping season.
It’s a huge coup for the startup, and one that could likely expedite its growth even further. Right now, the company has about 30 corporate employees. And it’s ready to ramp up.
The firm no longer releases revenue numbers publicly, but Zhang told Triangle Business Journal in 2022 that the year was "closing at roughly $4 million."
The Woobles made headlines two years ago when it appeared to score a deal on the hit show "Shark Tank." The deal never materialized once the cameras stopped rolling.
“I think once they aired, they got what they wanted from Shark Tank," Cuban told TBJ in 2022.
