Kodiak Cakes is a food and drink brand founded in Park City, Utah, in 1982.
Kodiak Cakes was bankrolled by a pickup truck. Jon Clark flipped one for a $1,400 profit, and his brother Joel figured that would "get us in business." Jon had eaten pancakes four times a day for six months, turning their mother's whole grain pancakes into a mix. Her father made them first. The name came from a fishing trip to Kodiak, Alaska, and early bags went to gift shops in Park City, where the company is still run.
The brand dates itself to 1982, when eight-year-old Joel sold the mix from a red wagon in paper lunch sacks. Joel took the business over in 1997 and kept it alive through a day job and an Oxford MBA. "So many times I almost quit," he told Entrepreneur.
He hired Cameron Smith through the University of Utah's career office in 2009, and in 2014 the two walked away from Shark Tank without a deal. Joel's stated goal was to become "the best deal the Sharks ever missed."
Private equity firm L Catterton has held a majority stake since 2021, and a co-packer makes the mixes. By 2019 sales were just under $160 million. The year Joel took over, they were $29,000.
Kodiak Cakes says that from June to September 2014 its mix outsold Aunt Jemima at Target by 20 percent.
Just add water and microwave. I ate the chocolate brownie ones almost every morning for a year.
Alex
