Crumbs Cupcake Shop House owners Say They Don’t Regret Offering the Business

• The pair driving Crumbs Bake Shop stated they really don’t regret promoting it even even though it ultimately unsuccessful.
• Crumbs obtained so big, it was acquired by a holdings business for $66 million and went public in June 2011.
• The couple bought the Crumbs brand name again all over again seven yrs just after it went bankrupt.

When Jason and Mia Bauer bought their legendary Crumbs Bake Shop in 2011, they believed they ended up leaving it in fantastic fingers.

But two many years later on, the cupcake empire commenced to crumble, and sooner or later, Crumbs declared in July 2014 that it was closing all its stores and submitting for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

It was a sharp reversal for the New York-based cupcake shop that started in 2003 with a single retailer in Manhattan’s Upper West Aspect but went on to spawn a Y2K trend that spread around the globe.

The chain offered more than 75 flavors of cupcakes with distinctive toppings  — these types of as a Girls Scouts Slim Mints alternative.

Crumbs was eventually obtained by a holdings company for $66 million by means of hard cash and stock. The firm went community in June 2011.

But Crumbs —  which spawned 70 outlets in 2013 — was too aggressive with its growth plans. The breakneck velocity of advancement and steep levels of competition from other desserts eventually toppled the empire.

“We viewed from the sidelines as the small business suffered,” Jason told Insider.

While the few was unhappy the new group was not able to take Crumbs to a bigger amount, “I never consider there is certainly at any time been a instant of regret,” Mia told Insider.

“It was nevertheless quite much our child. We gave start to this organization. We grew it. We had been incredibly hooked up to it, and to see it go away soon after all of our tricky perform was not entertaining,” Jason additional.

The Bauers, who described them selves as spiritual individuals, also “think that factors occur for a explanation, so we moved on,” explained Jason.

The Bauers declined to reveal how particularly a lot they acquired from the sale.

Immediately after Crumb’s collapse, Jason commenced a actual estate brokerage that he operated for three decades. He then went on to do the job a corporate work at WeWork where by he was the worldwide head of area products and services. Although he did that, Mia elevated the kids.

Jason reported he enjoyed his WeWork stint, but their cupcake company was constantly at the back again of the couple’s minds.

The Bauers revived the Crumbs brand name by opportunity, and it charge all of $350

Crumbs came back again to the fore of Jason’s thoughts again about 2019, when WeWork begun imploding amid intensive scrutiny of its finances and management soon after the perform-sharing space filed for an IPO in August. 

But it was only in the course of a random search on the US Patent and Trademark Office environment in 2021 that he identified that Crumbs’ IP had been abandoned. He then utilized to consider in excess of the “Authentic Crumbs Bakeshop” brand in February 2021 for $350, according to a submitting from the US Patent and Trademark Business.

They have been fortunate this time. Jason explained they tried to buy the Crumbs brand name from Fischer Enterprises earlier when the expense business held the brand’s intellectual assets — but they had been unsuccessful.

Insider was not able to independently validate the past order offer.

Jason claimed he even now savored his occupation at WeWork at the time, so he didn’t pursue the issue or program any fundraisers to purchase the manufacturer back. “I also felt like, you know, it was highly-priced suitable for just an IP,” he included.

But as fate would have it, the Bauers managed to obtain the manufacturer a few years down the highway.

“The opportunity arrived again to us, it was meant to be,” he claimed. Jason finally left WeWork in 2021.

Now, he is running Crumbs with Mia once again. 

Other than cupcakes, Crumbs has expanded its assortment to consist of cookies.

The organization is now funded by the Bauers, as well as a spherical of funding from good friends and family. It has also just closed 1 spherical of seed funding, mentioned Jason. He declined to elaborate far more on the fundraising.

In spite of their previous knowledge, Bauers are not crafting off selling their company once more.

“No matter whether we promote it, whether we take it public, no matter if we continue to build it, we’re in it to build the brand,” claimed Jason of revived brand the few describe as becoming in its “infancy.”

“It could genuinely go in a million unique directions,” Mia additional.