This is an article by Forbes featuring Double Good’s evolution as a company. The highlights are the aspects of the transformation I was directly involved in. (Deeper case study available upon request).
Popcorn With A Purpose: Double Good's Mission To Help Kids
MeiMei Fox Contributor
ForbesWomen
NY Times Bestselling Author
-Forbes
Tim Heitmann is the Founder and CEO of Double Good, a purveyor of gourmet popcorn and good vibes. The company has undergone a lot of changes in the last year, such as altering its name and starting the Double Good Kids Foundation. Fifty percent of every online and corporate gifting order goes to the foundation, which provides education, equipment, and experience to kids with special needs.
Double Good has achieved 18 consecutive years of revenue growth, making the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America 11 years in a row and ranking in Inc.’s top 100 fastest growing food and beverage companies in the U.S. Even Warren Buffett is a fan, having written in a letter: “Tim, your popcorn is A+++. Take it from me, an expert.”
An innovative leader in product-based fundraising, Double Good has pioneered technology that makes it simple and easy to fundraise online. So far, they have helped kids raise more than $80 million to do what they love.
Designs by core product team (Anton German, Bos Alvertos and Others)
The company first began offering fundraising opportunities for kids and their sports teams in 2003. It wasn’t long after that Heitmann stopped selling to big box stores and started centering the company around fundraising. “Kids started sending us letters telling us how much it meant to them to play on a team and how the popcorn helped them pay for registration or buy new uniforms or get to the championships,” Heitmann says. “They told us that everyone who supported them loved the popcorn. These stories changed the way we looked at what we do. We wanted to do it for more kids.”
“ Why you do something is much more important than what you do, ” Heitmann says. “Sometimes you don’t need to change what you’re doing, but you may need to change what it means to you.” Double Good’s product, culture, and strategy is aligned with its purpose, Heitmann explains. “Creating joy and helping people — this mission is the foundation of everything we do.”
However, Heitmann didn’t always know this was the direction he and the company were headed. “There was never a grand vision,” he says. “For us, it was definitely an evolution – an evolution in awareness and discovery. As I learned more about what I wanted the company to be about, that’s where I steered the company. The thing that this company has done best is listened well to where it fits — where its product fits, the need it fills, where it’s best equipped to make those differences — and focused on those instead of doing anything to grow at any cost.”
Heitmann says that when what you do for work every day “is an expression of what you believe in, it doesn’t really feel like work. Time flies by, and things don’t seem so hard. It’s easier to be patient and maintain your composure when things work against you. The best is when others embrace and believe in the same things you do; that’s when the magic starts to happen.”
