In Jersey City, New Jersey, Bang Cookies, founded by George Kuan, has all of the ingredients of a successful business: delicious and decadent organic cookies and branding basically built for social media.
"I still remember that day, when we made our first batch," Kuan, 37, tells CNBC Make It. "It was the summertime, and it was so hot in the kitchen that no joke, I was in my underwear, making the first batch in my apartment."
In 2015, his small cookie business garnered attention — and a bit of backlash — at the local farmer's market for its provocative name: Bang Me Cookies. But that was all part of the plan, Kuan reveals.
"It was just to get people to notice our company name, so that it will pique their interest, and actually have them try the product. And that worked, it actually got customers to come to our booth and try the actual cookies," Kuan says. "And then, when parents started complaining at farmers markets like 'oh this is kind of inappropriate, [but] we love your product,' we already had a transition name to Bang Cookies."
Kuan is a health junkie, so fresh ingredients are a priority for him, like organic milk and eggs and Celtic sea salt harvested from the coastal areas of France. Some of Kuan's cookies even come with a boozy bang; there are several alcohol-infused cookies, like the Bourbon Walnut Toffee cookie and Cinnamon Whiskey Crackle chocolate cookie.
Bang says its grown revenue by 100 percent from 2016 to 2017 is a profitable company with no debt.
"If you told me about like 10 years ago that I would have my own organic cookie company ... I would have probably laughed, " Kuan says.
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