As a younger teen, Drew Davis obtained actually into scorching sauce.
Davis, who has cerebral palsy, weighed 300 kilos at age 14, and medical doctors stated he’d be bedridden by 18 if he did not make a significant lifestyle change. The low-calorie condiment, together with different dietary changes, helped him lose 150 kilos over the course of the 12 months.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Crippling Sizzling Sauce. Drew Davis.
The next 12 months, Davis needed to end a college project — and his scorching sauce passion got here into play once more. ”It was two days earlier than it was due,” Davis tells Entrepreneur, “so I appeared down, and I am like, Huh, I like making enjoyable of myself, and I like scorching sauce. Let’s do Crippling Sizzling Sauce.“
Davis’s business idea was about far more than the product itself, although: On a mission to encourage and help the disabled neighborhood, Davis dedicated to donating 5% of all gross sales to cerebral palsy analysis.
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Davis wrote up his business plan and offered it, satisfied that he’d obtain 100% on the project. However he obtained an 82%, or a B-. When he requested his trainer why, he was informed it was a “good concept” — however “unrealistic.” As a substitute of letting the suggestions deter him, Davis simply used it as motivation.
Utilizing $3,000 he’d saved up, Davis launched Crippling Hot Sauce in 2023 out of his mother and father’ kitchen in small-town Missouri. He was 18 years previous.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Crippling Sizzling Sauce
“We’re on a mission to indicate that irrespective of your scenario, something is feasible.”
Two years later, the model has offered greater than 500,000 bottles, generated $2 million in 2024 and is on monitor for $5 million in 2025. It is obtainable in over 500 retail shops and has additionally gone viral on social media, racking up tens of tens of millions of views — all whereas staying true to its unique mission and donating 5% of its earnings to cerebral palsy analysis.
“We’re on a mission to indicate that irrespective of your scenario, something is feasible,” Davis says. “[We’re] rewriting folks’s perceptions across the disabled neighborhood via humor and breaking down stereotypes.”
Nevertheless, like all young entrepreneurs, Davis needed to take care of some ups and downs on his journey to success.
Davis put his preliminary $3,000 funding to good use. The cash funded a trademark, well being allow and pageant charges. A Google search helped him discover a scorching sauce base recipe, which he tweaked to make his personal flavors.
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“Our humor is how we get via a number of issues in life.”
Leaning into his unique imaginative and prescient for daring, humorous branding, Davis first launched Only for the Parking (Gentle), Limping (Medium) and Crippling Agony (Sizzling). Now, the model boasts three further flavors: Life’s a Seaside (Gentle), Particular Remedy (Medium) and Ghost Pepper Palsy (Hotter).
“Rising up, the No. 1 factor all my buddies that had disabilities and I had in frequent was our humor,” Davis says. “[But for people who] aren’t in the neighborhood, it was at all times this factor that you simply could not joke about as a result of they did not need to harm any person’s emotions. We’d like folks to know that we do not have to be babied. The disabled neighborhood makes jokes identical to you. Our humor is how we get via a number of issues in life.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Crippling Sizzling Sauce
At launch, Crippling Sizzling Sauce offered out to household and buddies inside 35 minutes, and Davis was “hooked.” He made one other batch the subsequent week and landed his first business consumer, an area butcher store.
Davis notes that growing a brand requires a number of “boots on the bottom” efforts. Happily, he employed his greatest pal from third grade to assist him in that facet. Though Davis says not with the ability to do the bodily work was difficult at occasions, he by no means let it cease his enterprise’s progress. Crippling Sizzling Sauce constructed on its momentum at festivals to get into its first massive regional grocery retailer.
Earned media and social media have additionally been recreation changers for the younger model, Davis says. The model’s story took off on TikTok organically — a significant advertising push that required zero capital. The large attain has helped tens of millions of individuals join with the model and its mission, solidifying Crippling Sizzling Sauce’s seven-figure standing.
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Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Crippling Sizzling Sauce
“Life is brief, and when your time is up, you do not need to have any regrets.”
As Davis appears to the way forward for Crippling Sizzling Sauce, he is excited to see how rising his platform continues to foster new connections and amplify inspiring tales throughout the disabled neighborhood.
“ I need my platform to be a spot the place folks can get impressed and motivated and never down about their scenario,” Davis says. “It may be simple for that to occur irrespective of in case you are previous, younger, irrespective of your race. [Hopefully] having a teen that’s disabled have [this] platform will resonate with underdogs.”
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For different young entrepreneurs who need to chase massive desires and begin companies of their very own, Davis has some succinct however indispensable recommendation: “Simply exit and do it.”
”If you’re younger is the time to take all the chance on the planet,” Davis says. “I began with $3,000. You can do it with $100. You have got a approach higher likelihood with going on the market and attempting to realize your desires than simply sitting on the sidelines and hoping your desires come to you. Life is brief, and when your time is up, you do not need to have any regrets.”
This text is a part of our ongoing Younger Entrepreneur® collection highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of being a younger enterprise proprietor.
