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Good morning! It's Friday, November 3rd. Today, we are looking at ButcherBox, the direct-to-consumer meat delivery service that’s grown to $600M in annual revenue without VC funding!

THE FEATURE

ButcherBox– A Bootstrapped Journey to $600M in Revenue

You may have heard of ButcherBox before— they are the D2C meat delivery company that created a ton of buzz in 2020 for giving away free bacon for life to its subscribers!

Despite free bacon giveaways, the company is surprisingly profitable and reached $600M in annual revenue this year!

So, What’s the Business?

Mike Salguero was already a weathered entrepreneur by the time he founded his company ButcherBox. His first company was CustomMade.com, a business that connected consumers with custom craftsmen for everything from clothing to furniture. 

While the idea was great, the majority of the company was owned by venture capitalist firms who had different visions for success than he did. With shareholders making decisions against the company’s best interests, it ultimately failed. 

Shortly after CustomMade went belly up, Salguero’s wife developed a thyroid condition that required a grass-fed beef diet to reduce symptoms. Quality grass-fed beef felt impossible to come by for the Boston-based couple, leading Salguero to find livestock farmers and stock up on “trash bags” full of beef. 

It was through this struggle that Salguero’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked back in. If it was this hard for him to get fresh meat in Boston, he hypothesized that this was a shared experience across much of the United States. 

Learning from his past mistakes, Salguero launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2015 to raise $25K without VC funding. But Salguero didn’t just raise $25K. With tens of thousands of preorders, ButcherBox raised $210K in its first 30 days on Kickstarter. 

His original idea was for ButcherBox to be his side hustle that maintained a stable 1,000 subscribers. But the massive response from the Kickstarter community proved that the consumer demand was much greater than he’d ever hoped. 

With a mission to partner with humane, high-quality livestock farmers to deliver fresh meat to consumers, ButcherBox generated $275K in its first year. Since then, the company has seen unbelievable Y-o-Y growth, generating $5M in 2016, $31M in 2017, and $225M in 2019. 

There was a massive uptick in consumer demand for everything delivery during the pandemic, which is the reason for much of 2019’s spike in revenue. However, ButcherBox has retained those new subscribers and grown annual revenue to $600M+, while its competitors, like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, have seen record losses in the past two years.

How They Win: The Toyota Model

There are a variety of differences between ButcherBox and its competitors, but the one that matters most is vertical integration. 

Companies like Blue Apron have sought to in-house every aspect of their operations. This is a common tendency among startups backed by VCs, who encourage them to create a competitive moat around their business. 

This sounds great in theory but has some massive drawbacks in practice– think of the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none”. When companies like Blue Apron spread themself across multiple domains, the final product suffers as a single company can’t be an expert in food distribution, customer service, and software management. 

That’s why Salguero prided himself early on with what he calls the “Toyota Model”. Rather than trying to own the entire supply chain, ButcherBox outsources nearly every aspect of its operations to best-in-class specialists (even customer service). 

Salguero references Toyota because the Toyota Production System uses what is known as Lean Manufacturing– placing an emphasis on partnerships with high-quality suppliers rather than the capital-intensive demands of in-house production.

TOGETHER WITH PRIV

Meet the Team Redefining On-Demand Beauty and Wellness Services

What happens when two of the original beauty and wellness marketplace platforms join forces? You get Priv, a tech juggernaut that’s disrupting its $289B industry. 

And the merger between Priv and beGlammed is proving to be a winner. Led by the team that started those two original marketplaces, the combined company is hitting its stride. 

According to CEO Rebby Gregg, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with 25 years of experience, “With a presence in 32 U.S. markets and offering nine beauty and wellness services, we are strategically positioned to capitalize on evolving consumer expectations, which demand efficient service delivery direct to the client’s door, and we are enthusiastic about our potential for further expansion.” 

Priv has grown revenue by 400% since 2020, reaching profitability in 2022. But this success story is far from over. 

Now that the combined company has established itself as the go-to provider of on-demand beauty and wellness services, Priv’s rolling out an ambitious plan to scale massively. They’re ready to drive penetration in current markets,  launch in new markets, and unlock new revenue streams, including a new beauty e-commerce platform. 

Now Priv is opening up the opportunity for you to join its growth story by investing, giving you unique pre-IPO access to a fast-growing startup. Take advantage of this exciting opportunity and become a Priv shareholder today.

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Disclaimers

Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Priv Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.gopriv.com