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               <td colspan="2" style="color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Helvetica', sans-serif; font-size: 1px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 120%; padding: 20px 0;">
                Nerdy Nuts leveraged TikTok, Supreme-style drops, and scarcity to scale their tiny operation into a peanut butter powerhouse.
               </td>
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                This edition of The Hustle was brought to you by
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                 WeTransfer
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                ... Tools to move ideas.
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                     The Hustle
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                    Issue #129
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                     <img alt="The Hustle, Sunday, October 18, 2020" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fheader_20201017061443.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="display: block; height: auto; max-width: 600px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
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                    Sunday, October 18, 2020
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                <h2 style="font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 25px;">
                 <strong>
                  How a tiny peanut butter company grew to $500k per month in sales
                 </strong>
                </h2>
                <p style="color: #737373; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 10px;">
                 Nerdy Nuts leveraged TikTok, Supreme-style drops, and scarcity to scale their tiny operation into a peanut butter powerhouse.
                </p>
                <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 120%; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 24px;">
                 <strong>
                  BY
                  <a style="color: #D62829; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">
                   Zachary Crockett
                  </a>
                 </strong>
                </p>
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                 The Hustle is proud to deliver original longform journalism to your inbox every Sunday. This week, we're giving you a glimpse behind our creative process with the help of our sponsor, WeTransfer. Check out how their
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  Collect
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                 tool helped Zack capture his ideas right here.
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                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 In August 2020,
                 <strong>
                  Craig Mount
                 </strong>
                 and
                 <strong>
                  Erika Peterson
                 </strong>
                 found themselves in an enviable position.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Nerdy Nuts — the D2C peanut butter company they’d founded just 18 months earlier — had gone viral on TikTok. In the span of a few days, the couple had watched their sales multiply by
                 <strong>
                  20x
                 </strong>
                 .
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 But they didn’t have time to celebrate.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 They faced a backlog of
                 <strong>
                  $500k+
                 </strong>
                 worth of orders, a depletion of inventory, and thousands of emails from cranky customers. What began as a tiny side hustle at a farmers market in South Dakota had ballooned into a monster.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Nerdy Nuts’ journey is every entrepreneur’s dream: Create a cool product. Find a unique way to market it. Hack your way to expedited growth.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 It’s a case study in marketing, which touches on:
                </p>
                <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px;">
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  The underutilized value of TikTok as an influencer tool
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  The psychological power of scarcity
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  The “Holy Grail” of a product feedback loop
                 </li>
                </ul>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 But it’s also a cautionary tale about the unglamorous underbelly of overnight success.
                </p>
                <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 8px;">
                 <strong>
                  From idea to farmers market
                 </strong>
                </h4>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 The couple’s path into peanut butter began around 2015.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 At the time, Peterson was a clothing store manager at the Chapel Hills Mall in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mount would often grab lunch at a nearby eatery that sold jars of flavored peanut butter.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “The shop closed down and I thought, ‘Where do I get this stuff now?’” recalls Mount. “So I just decided to give it a shot on my own.”
                </p>
               </td>
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               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fpeteron-mount%2520%253Dson_20201017061637.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Peterson (left) and Mount (right), with their son (Craig Mount)
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 In the summer of 2017, he logged on to eBay and bought a used Olde Tyme PN1 nut grinder for
                 <strong>
                  $870
                 </strong>
                 . But shortly after the purchase, the couple moved to Grand Rapids, South Dakota — and the machine ended up gathering dust in the garage.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 In early 2019, Peterson, then pregnant and on the hunt for a new gig, decided to finally put the grinder to use.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 That summer, she and Mount launched
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   Nerdy Nuts
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 (
                 <strong>
                  ~$2.5k upfront investment in total
                 </strong>
                 ) and began selling their first two flavors, honey roasted and white chocolate, at a local farmers market.
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fstartupcosts_20201017061708.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 The farmers market was the ideal focus group for a new product.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “We spent hours and hours in front of live customers, whom we were able to see test out products in real time,” says Mount. “It became an excellent testing ground — and a perfect way for us to iterate.”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 By the end of the summer, Nerdy Nuts was the most popular booth at the farmers market, routinely bringing in
                 <strong>
                  ~$1k every Sunday
                 </strong>
                 .
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 For Mount and Peterson, Nerdy Nuts was only intended to be a low-stress side hustle.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Mount already made six-figures running an SEO consultancy, a job which monopolized most of his time. The couple was also raising a child — and another one was on the way. They weren’t looking to start a D2C peanut butter empire.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 But the market had other plans for their product.
                </p>
                <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 8px;">
                 <strong>
                  The takeoff
                 </strong>
                </h4>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Purely out of curiosity, Mount began spending some of his free time studying the niche world of peanut butter.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 He went on a voracious reading spree, learning about the
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   history
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 of modern peanut butter. He befriended members of the
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   American Peanut Council
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 , the industry’s largest trade group. He spent late nights Googling things like “how to affix a label without getting oil on it.”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Through his research, Mount learned that nearly
                 <strong>
                  60%
                 </strong>
                 of the
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   $1.9B
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 US peanut butter market is
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   controlled
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 by 2 companies: the J.M. Smucker Company (which owns Jif) and Hormel Foods (Skippy).
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 But he also compiled a list of 127 smaller players, including direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, and saw a trend: Most were marketed as “healthy” or “keto-friendly.”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 He decided early on that Nerdy Nuts would focus more on flavor and fun.
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fnotes_20201017061737.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Back-of-the-notepad math Mount jotted down in the early stages (Craig Mount)
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Seeking advice on where to take the company, Mount
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   posted
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 in
                 <em>
                  The Hustle
                 </em>
                 ’s
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   Trends
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 Facebook group, a community for entrepreneurs.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 In the group, he met a PR whiz named
                 <strong>
                  Adrian Salamunovic
                 </strong>
                 .
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Salamunovic was convinced that Nerdy Nuts could be the “Ben &amp; Jerry’s of peanut butter” and advised Mount to double down on quirky marketing.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 One idea in particular stood out.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Back in 2008, during the Obama-McCain election cycle, Airbnb had made
                 <strong>
                  $30k
                 </strong>
                 by
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   selling cereal boxes
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 themed after each candidate. Salamunovic suggested reprising the concept with peanut butter.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 In June 2019, Nerdy Nuts released a flavor for each candidate, based on his or her favorite food(s):
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fpbbbb_20201017061759.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Mount spent
                 <strong>
                  40 hours
                 </strong>
                 cold-emailing 200+ reporters and got a bite from Fox Business. After landing a feature on the national talk show
                 <em>
                  The Five
                 </em>
                 , Nerdy Nuts got its first taste of virality.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 In the first 48 hours after the segment aired, the tiny company made
                 <strong>
                  $20k in sales
                 </strong>
                 .
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 It was the company’s first taste of big success — and the business was woefully under-prepared for the bump.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Their sole machine could only produce
                 <strong>
                  60 jars of product per hour
                 </strong>
                 , and they were working out of a “dinky little kitchen” they’d rented from a local catering company.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Joined by a rotating cast of family and friends, Mount and Peterson worked around the clock to tackle the influx of orders. Their garage became a temporary fulfillment center.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “It was an overnight success story, but it was also super stressful,” says Mount. “You’re just thrown into this storm and you have no time to think.”
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fshipments_20201017061836.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Peterson receives a huge order of supplies (Craig Mount)
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 The influx forced them to iterate their product:
                </p>
                <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px;">
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  They switched from grinding nuts for each individual jar to grinding “batches” and filling multiple jars at once.
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  They migrated their website from WooCommerce/Wordpress to Shopify — a decision that improved the checkout process and boosted order volume.
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  They went all-in on D2C sales, as opposed to farmers’ markets or traditional retail.
                 </li>
                </ul>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Running Nerdy Nuts as a direct-to-consumer business, the couple learned, came with microeconomic benefits.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Traditional food brands that vie to get on retail shelves tend to follow a rule of one thirds when thinking about costs and profit:
                </p>
                <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px;">
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  ⅓ =
                  <strong>
                   manufacturing costs
                  </strong>
                  (e.g., ingredients, production, labor)
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  ⅓ =
                  <strong>
                   distribution costs
                  </strong>
                  (e.g., grocery store
                  <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                   <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                    slotting and listing fees
                   </u>
                  </a>
                  )
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  ⅓ =
                  <strong>
                   retail profit
                  </strong>
                 </li>
                </ul>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 But going the D2C route, Nerdy Nuts could avoid paying for distribution and reduce the retail price of its products.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 As a result, the company’s unit economics were better: A jar of Nerdy Nuts
                 <strong>
                  retailed for $11.99
                 </strong>
                 and
                 <strong>
                  cost ~$5
                 </strong>
                 to make, a gross margin of
                 <strong>
                  ~60%
                 </strong>
                 before other expenses.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Higher order volume soon allowed them to buy in bulk and shave down costs even more.
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fpbcosts_20201017061906.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 By the end of 2019, the couple had netted
                 <strong>
                  ~$60k
                 </strong>
                 in sales.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 As the business gained steam, Mount and Peterson grew a little apprehensive about the pace of acceleration. What was only intended to be a hobby was ballooning into a full-time job.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Mount decided to just keep things fun and focus on storytelling.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 On the Nerdy Nuts site, Mount and Peterson focused on whimsy, listing a make-believe product called
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   Unicorn Dust
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 for $777.77. They went into a “heavy development period,” inventing and testing new flavors, like butterscotch, marshmallow, and toffee.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Throughout most of early 2020, Nerdy Nuts hummed along at
                 <strong>
                  ~$8k/month
                 </strong>
                 in steady sales, buoyed, in part, by a wave of pandemic-related
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   peanut butter panic-buying
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 .
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 But they never could’ve anticipated what the next few months had in store.
                </p>
                <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 8px;">
                 <strong>
                  The TikTok explosion
                 </strong>
                </h4>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 In June 2020, Mount decided to test out peanut butter “
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   product drops
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 .”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “Supreme clothing, or [Adidas] Yeezy sneakers, have these limited edition drops all the time,” says Mount. “I thought, ‘Why not do the same thing for peanut butter flavors?’”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Nerdy Nuts dropped 3 new flavors — Monster Cookie, Oreo Cookie, and Circus Cookie — and turned to Instagram to market them.
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fflavors_20201017061958.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Nerdy Nuts product drops (Craig Mount)
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Mount got
                 <strong>
                  18 influencers
                 </strong>
                 to peddle the peanut butter, but soon found them to be difficult to work with.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “Once an Instagram influencer hits 10k followers, they think they’re some kid of celebrity,” he says. “They have price sheets and agents. They demand monthly retainers. They send you these BS proposals, promising x number of impressions.”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 The drops were popular and boosted Nerdy Nuts’ sales to
                 <strong>
                  $27k
                 </strong>
                 for the month of June. But only a fraction of those sales (
                 <strong>
                  107 jars
                 </strong>
                 ) came from the Instagram influencers.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Peterson had a suggestion: Why not try TikTok influencers instead?
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 The couple reached out to two TikTokers:
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   Ali Grace Morsell
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 and
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   Hailey Peters
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 , both of whom had ~500k followers at the time.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “It was a totally different response,” says Mount. “They were like, ‘OMG, you want to send me
                 <em>
                  free
                 </em>
                 peanut butter?!’ They were just so flabbergasted that anyone would want to send them something for free.”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Astonishingly,
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   videos
                  </u>
                 </a>
                 posted by the TikTokers generated millions of views, resulting in
                 <strong>
                  5,947 sales
                 </strong>
                 , and setting off a snowball effect.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Nerdy Nuts sales ballooned to
                 <strong>
                  $165.2k for the month of July.
                 </strong>
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Mount shared a
                 <strong>
                  10%
                 </strong>
                 cut with the influencers — an amount that surpassed Morsell’s husband’s military check.
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ftexts_20201017062131.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Texts exchanged between Mount and Morsell (Craig Mount)
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Mount acknowledges that TikTok isn’t some magic bullet. Other food products — a candy company and a BBQ joint — tried their luck with the same influencers and didn’t see the same results.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 But he’s still bullish on the possibilities of the platform.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “I can’t stress this enough: People are sleeping on TikTok,” says Mount. “People think it’s just a place where kids do stupid dances, but it’s really not. These influencers made the Fox News sales look like a joke.”
                </p>
                <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 8px;">
                 <strong>
                  The scarcity ‘feedback loop’
                 </strong>
                </h4>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 This explosion in sales upended Nerdy Nuts’ entire operation. Already facing a backlog, Mount and Peterson scrambled to expand:
                </p>
                <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px;">
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  They bought
                  <strong>
                   17
                  </strong>
                  more PN1 peanut grinders.
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  They hired a part-time staff of
                  <strong>
                   25
                  </strong>
                  people.
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  They took over the lease at the kitchen they were sharing.
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  They paid someone from O’Dang Hummus
                  <strong>
                   $9k
                  </strong>
                  to “deconstruct” their product line and optimize production to 4k jars per day.
                 </li>
                </ul>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 The stress that came with this hockey stick growth was overwhelming.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “We had a very sweet setup before — a balanced lifestyle,” says Mount. “Then, suddenly, it’s just thousands of angry emails, and trying to keep everyone happy.”
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fsuit_20201017062159.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 One thing that Mount and Peterson did to relieve dress: spend $8k on a full-body mascot, produced by the same company that makes them for NFL teams.
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 This led Nerdy Nuts to make its next crucial decision: It closed its site and
                 <strong>
                  only opened up sales one day per week
                 </strong>
                 .
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “From a logistics standpoint, selling out was the worst thing that could’ve happened,” says Mount. “But from a marketing standpoint, it was the best thing ever.”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Mount found that selling out created a lucrative “feedback loop”:
                </p>
                <ol style="font-size: 16px;">
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  It created
                  <strong>
                   an illusion of scarcity
                  </strong>
                  for those who
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   didn’t
                  </u>
                  get a jar.
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  It made people who
                  <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                   did
                  </u>
                  get a jar
                  <strong>
                   feel exceptionally special
                  </strong>
                  .
                 </li>
                </ol>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 When Nerdy Nuts opened the site on that first Sunday, they made
                 <strong>
                  $80k
                 </strong>
                 in sales and had to shut it down again after just 2 minutes.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Demand swamped supply, and customers began to grow irate.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “People were calling me begging for peanut butter,” says Mount. “They’d say, ‘My family member just died and I NEED this,’ or ‘All I wanted in life was to share a jar with my newborn niece!’”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Thousands of emails and Facebook comments poured in — some demanding that Mount and Peterson “get back in the kitchen and make more peanut butter.”
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Fmore_20201017062240.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Peterson with yet another huge order of supplies (Craig Mount)
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 On eBay, an aftermarket sprouted up, with jars going for $40 a pop. Customers sent Mount photos of themselves sitting on their laptops every Sunday, waiting for the shop to open.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “People have told me that getting a jar of Nerdy Nuts is like getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert,” says Mount.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 The hype came with dividends: In August, Nerdy Nuts topped
                 <strong>
                  $505,862 in sales
                 </strong>
                 — a 20x increase from just a few months prior.
                </p>
                <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 8px;">
                 <strong>
                  Growing pains
                 </strong>
                </h4>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Ascending to $500k in sales in a matter of months may sound like a dream scenario. But Mount says the growth has put the company in a precarious position.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 To fully capitalize on his newfound success, Mount has had to form instantaneous partnerships with outside manufacturers and co-packers.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 “Insane growth puts you into bad relationships and shotgun weddings,” says Mount. “You have to trust people you have no time to properly evaluate.”
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 They’ve also faced several pandemic-specific challenges:
                </p>
                <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px;">
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  The nation’s largest peanut butter company, Jif, cleaned out the entire 16 oz. peanut butter jar supply, causing a shortage.
                 </li>
                 <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                  Many peanut producers are
                  <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
                   <u style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none; underline: none;">
                    struggling
                   </u>
                  </a>
                  to meet increased demand.
                 </li>
                </ul>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 For the past few months, Mount has intentionally throttled his sales so he can catch up on backlogged orders.
                </p>
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 But the hype isn’t dying down: In September, Nerdy Nuts’ sales were
                 <strong>
                  $266k
                 </strong>
                 . October is on track to surpass that: One release alone — a “Cookies and Scream” flavor — netted the company
                 <strong>
                  $115k in one day
                 </strong>
                 , pushing its 2020 sales total over
                 <strong>
                  $1m
                 </strong>
                 .
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td>
                <a style="color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">
                 <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252F20x%2520growth_20201017062304.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLSJ9:1kXMCh:hklBFBZQRCoP4Lt1BF7F9wohu1XuldA6BC12NDutVt0" style="height: auto; max-width: 600px; padding-top: 10px; width: 100%;" width="600"/>
                </a>
                <p style="color: #5f696c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
                 Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
                </p>
               </td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
               <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
                <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
                 Mount acknowledges that Nerdy Nuts’ “problems” are a bit of a “tiny violin” — especially in the larger context of a pandemic that has left millions of Americans
                 <a style="-webkit-text-fill-color: #d62829; color: #d62829; text-decoration: none;">
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