At A Glance

Kevin Meyer's dedication to simplicity in operations and product is the cornerstone of his leadership at CrunchCup. By creating a product that’s easy to understand and a team that’s easy to manage, Kevin ensures that every step of the business—from manufacturing to marketing—is streamlined. Using social network advertisements, user-generated content, and customer support solutions like Yuma.ai and Gorgias is an example of his strategic approach to growing CrunchCup in the E-Commerce space.

Who is Kevin?

Meet Kevin Meyer, Co-founder of CrunchCup!

About The CrunchCup

What if you could eat your cereal on the go?

The CrunchCup does precisely that. With the product's dual-chambered, reusable, and dishwasher-safe tumbler, you can finally eat your cereal wherever you go and keep it crunchy. 

Kevin's Journey

The idea for The CrunchCup started as a fun pet project as an extension of Kevin's agency. At the time, he and his team managed small to medium-sized businesses, focusing on video content. One of Kevin’s close friends, (now Co-Founder of The CrunchCup) told him he had an idea to serve cereal from a food truck for college students, but the students would need an ergonomic way to hold the cereal without using both hands because they'd also be holding textbooks and book bags. Thus, the original idea of The CrunchCup was born.

By late 2018, the product idea was in the works, but it was only a discussion until then. Then, the budding team launched a Kickstarter to fund the product. The team found quick success for the product, and soon, Kevin realized that they were absolutely on to something due to outstanding advertising performance and viral organic growth. 

Kevin wondered if he and his business partner should take the product to the next level and put their focus towards growth as it garnered more traction on social media and Kickstarter. Eventually, in 2019, the team brought a product to market.

Crafting the Company

Before founding The CrunchCup, Kevin managed a 3D printing technology and additive manufacturing company. At the time, the business was one of the first companies to offer 3D printing as a service. In his position, Kevin learned that it's fun listening to clients' cool design ideas and working with them to bring their inventions to life through prototyping and product launches.

When his partner came up with the idea for The CrunchCup, Kevin wasn't sure if it would work, but his partner said, “give me til the end of the week, and I’ll have a working prototype mister!”. After seeing it in person, Kevin realized that it was a great idea. Immediately, Kevin and his partner went to work, creating different prototypes and asking for feedback from friends. Eventually, they concluded that the first prototype was the best to work with because it was simple. 

What's unique about The CrunchCup, Kevin says, is that there's essentially one hero product with a few supplemental upsells — that's it. Other businesses try to cover all the bases and push many products, which can be overwhelming for some customers.

The CrunchCup Team 

The CrunchCup team consists of just four people, including Kevin and his business partner, together they run their own B2B & DTC warehouse in the US, and have scaled internationally to the UK, CA and AU. Otherwise, the team hires offshore agents whenever they need extra help. Kevin prefers to hire temp agents based closer to home when the team has critical tasks to complete. 

From the very beginning of his business career, Kevin has been a power user of Upwork. As he created and worked on smaller brands, The CrunchCup was the one that eventually took off, and he created a group of MVP agents that help the team carry out miscellaneous tasks.

Shaping the Business Strategy

When the company was getting off the ground, Kevin remembers that because the idea was so unique, it could either rocket ship to success or fail miserably. Luckily, for The CrunchCup, Kickstarter's early supporters were able to drive the project's impact and contribute to its success. 

Over time, The CrunchCup's business growth strategy evolved. Initially, Kevin and his agency promoted the brand using simple Instagram carousels and static images, which worked very well. The highly produced ads worked for the brand for a while, but Kevin saw a vertical ad of the agency’s that performed better than the other ads that required more effort. Then, Kevin's team shifted to creating more native content when the UGC trend began to take off. 

Now, the company spends most of its time creating vertical format ad campaigns on Meta, TikTok shop campaigns, TikTok ads, and user-generated content.

Evolution of Customer Service

Although his business has a more straightforward product than other companies, Kevin says customer experience isn't always all sunshine and rainbows. For instance, during the holiday season, support tickets increase in volume, which can be difficult for a core team of three to manage.

The team has been able to scale up or down their support teams depending on the season and product demand. At peak times, the company's shipments may not get the final scan, go missing, or have massive delays. Kevin checks in to ensure that the customer feels heard and asks them how the company can continue to improve.

Kevin says it’s only possible to run such a small team by leveraging software to ensure every step of the process runs smoothly. It has helped them maintain productivity and reduce tasks so team members can focus on larger issues.

The team uses Yuma for its support CX team to reduce the number of hours they work. Although Kevin says Yuma won't automate a company's work, it can create if/then statements and track social media engagement sentiments. If the company has a large amount of negative feedback on Facebook, for instance, a team member can check the comments to see what the issue is. 

Promoting the Brand through Customer Word-of-Mouth

Kevin and his team use a platform called Bounty to incentivize customers to promote The CrunchCup's products. After they've made a purchase, customers can sign up for the app and get paid to post a video about the product on TikTok. 

Kevin is all about finding ways for the team to make the most impact using a resourceful Tech stack without spending too much money on software. In Bounty's case, Kevin is always glad when everything comes together.

Tech Stack

Gorgias + Yuma.ai — Customer Support Center powered by Yuma’s VERY good AI automations.

Wonderment — Keeps customers updated on important shipping information 

Slack — Helps the team communicate within various departments

Asana — Runs the company through the platform, is aesthetically pleasing and keeps everything running

Bounty — Incentivizes customers to post about the product on TikTok