How Cranky Granny's Built a $756K Cinnamon Roll Business and Took a $150K Deal

We are here in Austin, Texas at Cranky Granny's where she sells the best sweet rolls.

Originally started the business when I was like 14. I came out...

You started the business when you were 14? I thought this might be a small business, but her revenue numbers shocked me. What was your best revenue year?

Last year, we did about 756. What?

She's got big expansion plans, but where is she gonna get the money for that third location? Bet you have a pro form a put together and what it would cost to open. What would that be?

So that would be probably about a good

150,000. That's where I come in. If I like her vision and I love the product, I'll cut a check on the spot. Now does that feel too aggressive per location? Because I can give you three years, but my money will be a little more expensive.

See, I wouldn't want it to get more expensive.

Okay.

Hey, how are you? What's going on? How are doing today? I'm Nathan. Sianni. Sianni, really good to meet you.

Same here.

So this is your baby, My big baby. Yeah. Tell us about the business. What are you selling?

So we offer a variety of different cinnamon rolls. So you're not coming in here and just getting any old regular cinnamon roll. We have your peach cobbler, your cookies and cream, your banana puddings cookies, cookie butter banana crunch. So many different options. Inspiration behind the business is my actual granny. We got a picture of her right behind you guys too. So I remember going over to granny's house over in Philly growing up and having amazing time.

There's always delicious food, sweets, laughter, spades, things like that being played. Granny didn't create the recipe, but she definitely inspired the deliciousness I'm gonna be able to give to people.

Which one these is your best seller?

Our peach cobbler, banana pudding, and our cinna rolls are some of our most popular ones.

Okay.

And then one of the other ones that I really love is gonna be that brown butter cinnamon roll.

Brown butter.

So it has like this nice toasty nutty flavor to it. So it's like a step above our classic cinnamon roll.

I'm gonna do the brown butter.

Brown butter?

Because I felt you talking it up. What are you using by the way? You use toast, Yeah. You like toast? Yeah.

We like toast. Okay. We were with Shopify at first. We were doing like online sales like shipping and then we were also using their POS system, but we didn't have any KDS systems. And we were starting to grow a lot and getting slammed and doing the whole receipt thing wasn't going be good enough anymore.

What does KDS mean? Kitchen display system. Is that expensive to install all the hardware for that system or no?

To get the lines ran, that was about $2,500 then now we're also talking about the actual equipment cost. I think that was probably at least another $2,500 just for equipment. They still have your subscription fees and things like that that you have to pay the tolls. There's a percentage of each sale that comes out of that too.

But what percentage? Like two, 3% or more?

Yeah. Yeah. You can kind of negotiate it though.

I see. Are you a good negotiator?

I think so. Okay. My second time around, was my first time, you know, because I originally started the business when I was like 14. When I came out...

You started the business when you were 14?

I started... Yeah. So I came in with the concept when I was 14 back home in New Jersey. Then I came out here, was running out of somebody else's kitchen for a while, opened up our first location, and I wasn't that good of a negotiator yet. I didn't know But then as I kind of got kicked in the behind a couple of times, I started to know and grow and I think we're pretty good now.

What was the negotiation where you like you lost the most money?

I think it might have been when we were at like 4.5% credit card processing fees. Like, that's a lot. Like, it seems like a little bit, but 4.5% off of every single time a customer is coming to shop with you. That's a lot. Yeah. And I'll say we're well below that now.

Nice. I like that. Like that. Okay. Saw a loyalty program right before the screen. Do you have a lot of people on that program?

Yeah. So we have probably about 3,000 people on our SMS and about, I think the last time I looked at it was like 30,000 on our email. We send out a different text message every week and I really utilize our social media a lot.

What is your biggest social media channel? Instagram. Instagram.

So on Instagram, we have about 195,000 followers on Facebook. Yeah.

Did you pay for any of those or No.

All organic. And I take pride in that. Actually has some fresh cinnamon rolls coming out right now.

Alright. Alright.

So these rolls before any glaze or toppings added on top of them, before any cinnamon sugar or butter is added inside, you're looking at about 4.8 ounces of dough. We ordered the brown butter. So now we have our glazing and topping station right here. We're not baking everything in the morning. We're baking things throughout the day. So when you order a brown butter cinnamon roll, as he's doing right now, he's going to make it brown butter cinnamon roll.

You don't have to back that one. I'm going eat that right now. Can I test the product? Come on. All right.

So we work hard to make these every single day. So our dough glaze and toppings are all made in house and like I said, we have some raw one right here behind you. So, we're baking from open to close.

I know you're jealous. You can't taste this right now. You too, wish you could be. This is very, very good. This is $8 retail. What are your all in costs?

So for the cinnamon roll and packaging, we're looking at about $1.75. Now once we have to take in consideration labor and things of that nature too, we're looking at about $2.75. But then we're not also taking in consideration our rent, our lights, our pest control, whatever insurance and things of that nature we have. Like, for example, I have two locations. Mhmm. This is the newest one that we just opened three months ago, but we have another

one over in Pflugerville that's been open for three years. The rent is literally double at this location than what it is over there.

I mean, you're right next to a Target and a Subway. Mean, this is like prime real estate.

Yeah. Even with that, we're not paying for followers or anything like that, but sometimes we do run ads on social media And sometimes we could be running anywhere between a $60 ad a day to a $100 ad. We do have a lot of Facebook followers too, that's why we're comfortable with even running ads on Facebook. Yeah. So we have about 65 k on there, and we have 65,000 on TikTok.

Okay. So what's happening here? So walk us through it.

So right now, she already made the dough, and then we have to let the dough proof. Why is it red? So it's our red velvet dough. Everything that you will put in a red velvet cake, but in our cinnamon roll dough. Now what she's about to do is roll the butter in because we do brioche style cinnamon rolls, and then we're gonna let it sit overnight. And then tomorrow morning, everything's gonna get rolled out.

This is, like, very clean. A lot of brand new appliances. I see stainless steel everywhere.

Mhmm. This was not a cheap build out. Fortunately, we were able to kind of get grandfathered in with some of the equipment though. It used to be a cookie spot right before us, and they left a lot of equipment, which was a blessing. We had to get a whole lot of electrical work done. I think I did at least a good $10,000 worth of electrical alone in this location. We did order some new appliances and new

equipment and stuff like that too. It did cost me probably about a good $60,000 at first. That's I what thought it was going to cost. Then that quickly turned into about a good $85,000 We had to give at least a good month of training over at our other location. And that was a lot of money. So that's kind of

where that extra 20 came from. So how many full time employees does the business have today?

So I have about a good 14 employees right now. I have a couple that's here just seasonally. And then about a good six or seven of them are full time.

So this one, this location opened three months ago. $6,080,000 investment. Like, you just super rich or where did you get that money from?

No, no. Not at all.

Where does that come from?

So some of it came from savings. We also had like a founding members program where we gave people the opportunity to kind of donate money into helping us open up the location. We didn't receive a lot this time versus like the first time when we did it, but we still were able to use some of that money from there. Then we also took out a Toast Capital loan.

-How much was the Toast Capital loan

for -The Toast Capital loan, I believe I took that out for about 60,000. I'm actually like a week away from paying it all that. Let's go. And we actually took that loan out for from our Pflugerville POS toast. I see. Used that to find this location.

The Pflugerville one you said opened three years ago, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. And this one is three months ago. Yeah. But you said you launched this when you were 14 years old and you look like you're you're you don't look old, but you're definitely older than 17, right?

I'm 27 now.

Yeah, yeah. So what happened between 14 years old and 22 years old?

14, 18, doing market research and doing everything out of a house and an apartment. Moved here at 20... And now I started doing pop up shops. Sold out of our first pop up shop with, I think, like maybe 50 or 60 cinnamon rolls. And then I just kept on going.

What year was the first pop up shop? 2017. This is your first pop up shop. How did you already have a community built?

I mean, I just graduated out of high school and I've been selling candy and stuff like that since I was as young as like five. So I've, so essentially I've been growing a customer base for like, by that point, like ten years.

Wild. So, so how much money did you make at the first pop up shop?

Probably about $300 I'm going out to do these different pop up shops I'm and selling out super quick. I'm like, Oh yeah, I like this. And then we moved on out here. And then yeah, I was in somebody else's restaurant for about a good three, four months before I signed a lease to my first store, was over at The Domain. We were there for about sixteen, eighteen months, closed that down within somebody else's restaurant again, and then I got the location over in Pflugerville.

Okay.

And so we've been there for about three years now.

If you look at just your total revenue each year, what was your best revenue year?

Last year, we did about $7.56. What? Yes, about $7.56. That's insane. Yeah, we had some... And that was even with us only being open five days a week. We were like 28% profitable, I think.

Okay.

Somewhere in that area.

What do you do with all the profits?

Taxes. Yeah. Marketing. And then also, I had a decent amount of turnover last year too.

Are you a tough boss?

No. I feel like I'm a cool boss.

Do you think I could work for you? Yeah. But I'm a

be on your behind. I have the two locations right now, but that's not where I want to stop. At first, was like, okay, I want one location in every state. Then I moved to Texas, and I seen how big Texas was. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, I'm gonna need at least one in Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, different areas. So now my mindset has kind of changed, but I do still understand that Cranky Granny's is a destination space. You're coming to have an experience, not just eat a cinnamon roll.

Your Pflugerville location, you said opened three years ago. So that would've been in 2023? Yep. Okay. What was that like opening? What did it cost to open that shop?

It was probably around 40 to 50,000. But then it eventually got to a point where we were able to bring on some people. And then I wasn't in there all the time. And then it got to another point where I was able to have a manager and have some more people. And then I was at home twiddling my thumbs. I was like, I'm getting kind of bored. I'm like, you know what? I'm ready to open up another one.

How much sales did you do in the first year at the Pflugerville location?

I believe we did about 356,000. That second year, we did about $5.60. And then last year, $7.50.

What's driving the growth? Is it just your social media presence or is it the locations really good or?

Social media, word-of-mouth. Our best friends. I post just about every single day. Sometimes multiple times a day.

In 2026, how much revenue do you think you'll do in total?

Probably like 1.3, 1.4. And I don't put it exactly as that 1.5 because even with this location right now, yes, we're right here in the same parking lot as like a Target and Ulta and stuff like that, but a lot of people still don't know we're here.

We're shooting this about halfway through the year. How much have you already done this year in total sales?

About 560.

Okay. So if you're on track, you can reasonably hit 1.3.

Yeah.

Everything sounds so good so far. I mean, are crazy. Maybe you'll break a million here in the next couple of years. Take me back to a moment though where you said, oh my gosh. I don't know if I'm gonna make it through next month.

I learned very early on, you always make sure you pay your people and make sure you pay your landlord. There's been times where I literally had to survive off of my own personal credit cards because I couldn't pay myself on Cranky Granny's. Some of those moments did I want to quit and say I don't want to do this anymore? Yeah. Yeah. But I knew that I didn't put in all this work for no reason.

YouTube, how many of you guys you've run a business before and you had to skip your own paycheck because that's what it took to keep the thing going. Let us know in the comments below. What's the growth plan? How do you go from 1,300,000 this year in sales to 2,000,000 in 2027 and beyond?

Opening more locations. Like, I would love to say it's a brand new oven or it's a car or something like that to transport stuff. But honestly, it really boils down to opening up more locations.

Did you found the new location already?

So I have been looking. I'm in between, again, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Yep. We have been having a lot of success in all those different areas whenever we go to do a pop up. But honestly, just the same way Austin was able to give me the opportunity just so happened to be here. I need the opportunity to be in any one of those locations and I'm willing to go.

What makes the perfect location?

Perfect location is going to be something that's definitely second gen. We're not trying to do a whole lot of build out calls or anything like that.

I bet you have a pro form a put together on what it would cost to open. What would that be?

So that would be probably about

a good $150 Why so much? I mean, this only costs 60 k, the other one costs 40 k. Why 150 for the next one?

We had a decent amount of this equipment already in here. Now we have to talk about buying brand new equipment. We still have to do marketing. We still have to make sure the store is going to at least look like it's something you want to come into. And we want to be able to have something to lean on for the first like couple months. Because even just to run this alone is about a good 45,000. Just with this one location. I'm not even talking about both locations.

Fixed costs per month are about 45,000

to run this location.

Yeah. Yeah. So is that the biggest opportunity right now? 150 ks for a new location?

That would be the biggest opportunity.

Why do this show? Because this is the kind of stuff that I want to put money behind. Right. Do you have you obviously know how a debt works because you took the Toast Capital loan. Do you have any other equity partners or do you own 100%?

100%.

Okay. If I made you an offer for 150 ks, but said I want X percent of the business, in other words, you don't have to pay it back. It's not debt. Okay. Would you be open to an equity offer like that or no? You prefer a debt offer?

I probably prefer maybe a debt offer.

Every YouTube, everybody loves debt offers these days. Mr. Wonderful has taken over the world.

So now maybe I would change my mind if it was a thing where it's like, knew that, okay, we opened this third one is successful and now we can, I can count on you to be somebody to help me open up a fourth one? And now it's not just a thing where it's like, I'm just looking at everything from you, but now it's more so a partnership versus I'm just gonna keep on going and you're just gonna keep on profiting forever.

You you wouldn't be able to count on me as a partner in the business like you are every day, 9AM, 9PM. You could certainly count on me as just the money guy though. I mean, right? That's... I like to multiply money. Right? I like to... So... Yeah.

Go ahead. I'll say this and I'll say this is probably why some prefer the debt offer too. Does it come with just money or does it come with money and some type of networking as well? Because that's the most important piece too. Because for us, a lot of us can figure out how to get the money, but do we have the network to kind of help us with that that that other side of it too?

Yeah. Mean, when... Since we've done so many of these deals, I always think, okay, Ken, are there any other investments I've already made that could be a extra distribution channel for Sianni? So we've done deals at, food trucks or restaurants that don't sell anything sweet. This could be an interesting upsell for that kind of thing. It's effectively your pop up shop, but built in through the network we built here on the deal. So if I wasn't here, where would you get the 150 k to grow the business?

We're gonna be looking at savings, credit again, and then maybe another Toast Capital. Yeah. And that's been the way that I've been able to maintain 100% ownership.

I like anchoring is something you already understand. You know how Toast works. So what does, how do you pay back Toast? Is it a percent of monthly sales?

So they take 14% of our sales every single day.

Do you like that or you don't like that structure?

I kind of like it. Okay. Because I feel like it takes away me having to think about, oh, I have to go pay this bill when I already have everything else getting paid.

So if I made you an offer for $150,000 but came in slightly cheaper than Toast in terms of maybe I say 12% of daily sales instead of 14%. Is that something that would work for you? What about 11%? Well, we can certainly go back and forth on that daily percentage, but there's two things to negotiate. One is the take rate, the daily percent. The second is the total you owe me back. So with Toast, it was

60 k, but you owe back 77 k. For me, it'd be a 150 k and Whatever. Question mark. Why these deals can get complex is because I don't actually know how fast you'll scale the new location.

Right.

So if I'm taking a take rate on $0 well that's $0 if it's only on a new location, would you be open to a structure where that take rate is against the whole business, not just an individual location?

Yes, I will be open to that. Okay. Yeah, because honestly now that makes it a little bit easier on the business because now I'm looking at one, you get a chance to get paid back faster. And then two, it's kind of split amongst everything versus it's just taken from the one location.

All right. Well, should I make an offer then?

Make an offer.

And 150 ks is the right amount? Ks. How long do you think it would take you to pay me back the 150 ks if you're paying me 12% of daily sales?

Let's see $150,000 Let's divide that by 24. Let's do 24 a month. And then we're going to divide that by three. So that's looking at about $2,083 a month.

A month from each location.

From each location. Yep.

To pay me back 150, but then I have to make money on my money. Right? Right. So the question question is how much above the $1.50? 150 k. Okay. If pay me back in the first twelve months, you pay me back 1.2 x.

So about a 180,000, that looks like that would be basically like the Toast Capital loan too.

If my money's out with you longer, I need to make more. Do a 100,000 times 1.4 x.

We're looking at overall $87.50

a month. Now does that feel too aggressive per location? Because I can give you three years, but my money will be a little more expensive.

See, I wouldn't want it to get more expensive.

Okay. It's more dollar cost for you, but it's much easier on your cash flows.

So if anything, I'd probably still be looking at that twenty four months.

Okay. So you prefer that?

We'll just be more aggressive with it.

So the deal you like a $150,000 paid back over twenty four months until I made back 1.4 x my money?

Yep.

Does that deal work? Yeah. That sounds good to me. Do we have a deal?

We got a deal.

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