This Triangle company was named Inc.’s fastest-growing in NC for second year in a row
Nugget, the North Carolina maker of a cult favorite couch for children, can barely keep its products in stock, they are so in demand.
Every time it drops a new color release of its signature product, a couch that can be re-arranged into a variety of shapes and uses, thousands of parents queue up online — often leading to them selling out in minutes.
That interest has caused the company to grow from a two-person startup founded by UNC-Chapel Hill students in 2014 to a full-fledged manufacturing operation in Butner, about 17 miles north of Durham.
And for the second year in a row, Nugget ranks as the fastest-growing private company in North Carolina, according to Inc. Magazine’s annual list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the U.S.
Nugget ranks 29th overall in the rankings, reporting its revenue had surged 9,624% over the past three years.
Nearly 130 other North Carolina companies made the list, including Pendo, a Raleigh-based software startup that raised $150 million from investors last month.
Success of Nugget
Nugget, co-founded by David Baron, Ryan Cocca and Hannah Fussell, has done all of its growth without bringing on any investors, thought it did raise money via a crowdfunding campaign in 2015.
Since then, it has outgrown manufacturing space in Durham and Hillsborough before opening its new facility in Butner this year, where it employs around 80 people.
Last Christmas season, it had to institute a lottery system to deal with the long list of people willing to pay the $229 at which the couches start. More than 100,000 people signed up for a chance to buy around 40,000 units, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Cocca, Nugget’s chief marketing officer, said the growth Nugget has seen over the past two years proves the company isn’t a “flash in the pan.”
“We’ve focused on doing one thing really well for years now, and I think some people expected — especially after 2020 — that eventually the excitement would die down,” Cocca told The News & Observer. “But year after year, it just doesn’t. That’s a testament to our manufacturing and engineering teams keeping the factory running, our marketing and product teams keeping fans engaged, our N.C.-based suppliers maintaining quality and treating us like family, and a ton of other people in-between.”
Cocca said he still sees a lot of room for Nugget to grow in the coming years.
“We can’t grow at this rate forever — you can’t scale furniture like software — but we see a ton of room to explore if we keep leaning into our mission of ‘growing imaginations’ through playful, well-designed products for the home, and doing it in a thoughtful way.
“We still have so many big dreams for our products, our content and our approach to business in the years to come. It won’t all happen at once, but we’re playing the long game.”
Meanwhile, Pendo ranked 571st overall, and reported a three-year revenue growth of 846%.
Pendo told The News & Observer last month that it has a valuation of $2.6 billion, making it the third most valuable startup in North Carolina. It also reported surpassing $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
Pendo could potentially file for an initial public offering as soon as next year, Pendo CEO Todd Olson said in an interview.
Fastest-growing private companies in North Carolina
The following companies were considered the 5 fastest-growing private companies in North Carolina over the past three years, according to Inc. Magazine:
- Nugget, manufacturing company based in Butner (3-year revenue growth of 9,624%)
- Pine Gate Renewables, a solar energy company based in Asheville (8,209%)
- Textile Based Delivery, a Conover-based maker of compression fabric (6,684%)
- QC Kintex, a Charlotte-based chain of joint-pain clinics (5,873%)
- Carewell, an adult-care supplies e-commerce company based in Charlotte (5,162%)
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "This Triangle company was named Inc.’s fastest-growing in NC for second year in a row."
