A crochet hook, yarn and a dream. Durham-based crochet startup The Woobles went from zero dollars to seven figures – in the midst of a pandemic.
It all started a year and a half ago when Justine Tiu, a former Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) designer, and Adrian Zhang, a former Wall Street trader, started their company – even though neither had a history of actually crocheting.
“Secretly, we’re a tech company,” Tiu says.
Their business, which sells beginner and intermediate kits intended to help anyone crochet stuffed animals – from chicks to penguins to teddy bears – is also intertwined with their own relationship, honed over the years.
Zhang, a Cary native, and Tiu, who grew up in Queens, New York, met in a Duke University chemistry classroom more than a decade ago.
“We had chemistry – literally,” Tiu likes to joke. “I stumbled in late. I needed to copy someone’s notes and he happened to be the one near the door.”
The pair were supposed to get married last year, “but Covid hit.” They’re giving it another try later this year.
In the meantime, they’re building their crochet company – a very real business surrounding a relatively new hobby.
Tiu didn’t actually pick up a crochet needle until 2016. Zhang learned from one of Tiu’s kits. Yet they both quit their jobs to go all in on Woobles.
Zhang said the bet they’re making is not about crocheting – but about learning
“Our goal is really trying to figure out, how do we teach a physical skill using hardware and software?” he said.
“It proves to people they can always learn a new skill,” said Tiu. “Our kits are so easy that people can pick up this new skill and at the end of it, they have this cute little penguin.”
Both are interested in ed-tech – and that’s why they say The Woobles is an ed-tech experiment, not a crochet company.
“As you get older, you just tend to stop learning new things,” Zhang said. “Anyone has the capacity to learn. We just want to make it easy for you.”
Crochet isn’t the endgame. The pair see several applications as they work to merge software and hardware into a learning platform – everything from job training to juggling.
“If we can just apply a better design principle, we can break down the learning process in these little chunks,” Zhang said.
With The Woobles, advertising hasn’t been an issue. “When people make something like this, they have to show it off. They have to show it to their friends, so we have a lot of growth that way," Zhang said.
Add in a pandemic where suddenly people have had more time at home to learn a new skill, and it's been a whirlwind, they said.
The name Woobles comes from Tiu’s sister, who has an interesting way of describing the creations. When Tiu asked what she thought of a crocheted teddy bear, she called it “woobly,” and that’s how the name was born.