This guy makes $1.6M a day selling beef, fish, and organic chicken.
His name’s Mike. Here’s how it happened.
1/ Early days
Rewind to 2015. Mike’s wife just got diagnosed with a thyroid condition. And she’s on a strict diet. No gluten. No dairy. And only grass-fed beef.
So Mike starts shopping. But this fancy beef is hard to find.
After lots of searching, he lands a local farmer who sells it. Just one catch — Mike needs to buy the whole cow.
This is nuts. So he gets creative.
He buys the cow, divvies it up, and splits the meat with friends from the neighborhood. They love it.
High quality meat, straight from the farm, delivered to your door.
That worked well. And this gives Mike a big idea.
2/ Testing the business
If his neighbours appreciate farm-to-front-door beef, Mike figures others will like it too.
So he opens his laptop and throws up a kickstarter. He launches a beef subscription box campaign, with a goal of $25,000.
Turns out people are hungry for it. He raises $215,000 in a month. Now he’s got proof.
So Mike gets to work:
+ he starts dialling local farmers to build his supply
+ he finds a processor who can pack the meat
+ he partners with a shipper to deliver boxes directly to customers
Finally he comes up with a name: ButcherBox
Now it’s time to sell.
3/ Meat in motion
The business is simple. Customers can subscribe for about $130/mth. That gets you a curated box of grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, and a bunch of bacon.
In year one, ButcherBox racks up $3 million in sales. Year two is $13M. And year three is a ridiculous $30M.
He’s doing it all with no outside capital and just 25 employees.
Things are looking good. And then something bad happens.
It’s March 2020. The world shuts down. People lock their doors. And ButcherBox is about to go on a wild ride.
4/ Explosive growth
Suddenly there are 100's of new customers signing up every hour. Way too many to handle.
And this could break the company. Mike’s gotta keep the meat moving or this business might crumble. Again, it’s time to get creative.
→ His meat suppliers are running empty.
So he locks in guaranteed purchase orders to keep the food flowing.
→ His shippers can’t move meat fast enough.
So he charters private jets to fly in boxes and dry ice.
→ His support team is drowning.
So he rapidly hires dozens of people to handle the flood of customers.
It’s chaos. But it’s working. ButcherBox grows faster than ever.
Sales smash through $100M. And they just keep on growing. Delivering more meat to more doorsteps than anyone else.
Today the company sells over $600M a year.
Good thing Mike decided to buy that whole cow.
