Nuts.com: Jeff Braverman. From Corner Store to Snacktime Powerhouse
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
This episode of "How I Built This" features Jeff Braverman, who transformed his family's struggling Newark Nut Company into nuts.com, a $100M+ direct-to-consumer empire. Starting with a dusty storefront doing $1M in sales, Jeff left his high-paying finance job at Blackstone in 2003 to modernize the century-old business through e-commerce and Google AdWords. (30:00)
- Key themes include digital transformation of traditional family businesses, the power of early-mover advantage in online advertising, creative marketing stunts, and maintaining family ownership while scaling to massive success
Speakers
Jeff Braverman
Jeff Braverman is the Chairman of nuts.com, having transformed his grandfather's Newark Nut Company from a $1M struggling retail business into a $100M+ direct-to-consumer operation. He left a lucrative finance career at Blackstone in 2003 to join the family business, becoming CEO and leading the company's digital transformation before stepping back to focus on strategy, culture, and M&A in 2023.
Guy Raz
Guy Raz is the host and creator of "How I Built This," one of the most popular business podcasts globally. He's an award-winning journalist and former NPR correspondent who has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and founders about their journey to success.
Key Takeaways
Seize First-Mover Advantage in Emerging Platforms
Jeff recognized the potential of Google AdWords early in 2003 when most businesses weren't leveraging paid search effectively. (30:00) He hired Andrew Goodman, who wrote one of the first books about Google AdWords, and went from spending $3 a day to $100 a day on advertising. This 10x increase in ad spend immediately resulted in 10x more orders, jumping from 3 orders per day to 30 overnight on December 4, 2003. The lesson here is that being among the first to master new marketing channels can provide exponential returns before competition intensifies and costs rise.
Turn Crisis Into Opportunity Through Bold Action
When CBS was flooded with individual peanut orders from Jericho TV show fans protesting the show's cancellation, Jeff saw an opportunity rather than a problem. (42:00) Instead of canceling the strange orders like his cousin suggested, Jeff created a "Save Jericho" campaign that collected $40,000 and shipped 40,000 pounds of peanuts to CBS. This stunt generated massive press coverage including features in The New York Times and CNN, crashed their servers from traffic, and provided valuable SEO backlinks when Jeff redirected the campaign page to their main site afterward.
Demand Full Authority When Taking on Family Business Challenges
When Jeff told his father and uncle he wanted to join the struggling family business, they literally said "you're nuts" since he was making more money than both of them combined at Blackstone. (23:00) However, Jeff made it clear that he needed "the keys to the store" and full decision-making authority to deliver results. This meant being able to make tough calls like closing unprofitable Saturday retail hours and investing heavily in online advertising, even when family members were nervous about the changes.
Focus on High-Value Customers by Creating Intentional Friction
Rather than following the common strategy of removing all barriers to purchase, Jeff intentionally used shipping charges as a profit center and customer filter. (58:00) Before Amazon changed customer expectations, nuts.com charged $4.99 for shipping even when actual costs were only $3.99. Jeff discovered that customers complaining about shipping fees were typically buying $2.99 bags of sunflower seeds - unprofitable orders that would drain resources. By maintaining shipping charges, they attracted customers willing to place larger, more profitable orders.
Build Business-to-Business Revenue Streams for Sustainable Growth
While direct-to-consumer sales drove initial growth, Jeff discovered that B2B customers provided higher lifetime value and better margins when factoring in all costs. (66:00) The company accidentally found significant market share among microbreweries needing specialty ingredients like toasted coconut for flavored beers, and office customers who regularly reordered snacks. These B2B relationships became 15-25% of revenue and proved more resilient during market changes, providing crucial stability when COVID shut down offices but individual orders surged.
Statistics & Facts
- Jeff increased Google AdWords spending from $3 per day to $100 per day on December 4, 2003, resulting in an immediate 10x increase in orders from 3 per day to 30 per day. (31:00)
- The Jericho peanut protest campaign collected $40,000 in donations and shipped 40,000 pounds of peanuts to CBS, generating massive press coverage across major outlets including The New York Times and CNN. (42:00)
- During the worst day of COVID in April 2020, 70% of nuts.com's manufacturing workforce called out sick or refused to come to work, forcing Jeff to give a 30-minute speech in Spanish to convince remaining employees to stay. (68:36)
