As a younger teen, Drew Davis bought actually into scorching sauce.
Davis, who has cerebral palsy, weighed 300 kilos at age 14, and docs stated he’d be bedridden by 18 if he did not make a serious 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 faculty task — 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 rather more than the product itself, although: On a mission to encourage and assist the disabled group, 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 task. However he bought an 82%, or a B-. When he requested his instructor why, he was advised it was a “good concept” — however “unrealistic.” As an alternative 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 He was 18 years outdated.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Crippling Sizzling Sauce
“We’re on a mission to indicate that regardless of your state of affairs, something is feasible.”
Two years later, the model has offered greater than 500,000 bottles, generated $2 million in 2024 and is on observe 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 regardless of your state of affairs, something is feasible,” Davis says. “[We’re] rewriting folks’s perceptions across the disabled group by means of 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 by means of 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 mates that had disabilities and I had in widespread was our humor,” Davis says. “[But for people who] aren’t in the neighborhood, it was all the time this factor that you just could not joke about as a result of they did not need to harm any person’s emotions. We want folks to know that we do not have to be babied. The disabled group makes jokes similar to you. Our humor is how we get by means of a number of issues in life.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Crippling Sizzling Sauce
At launch, Crippling Sizzling Sauce offered out to household and mates inside 35 minutes, and Davis was “hooked.” He made one other batch the following week and landed his first industrial consumer, a neighborhood butcher store.
Davis notes that growing a brand requires a number of “boots on the bottom” efforts. Luckily, he employed his finest buddy from third grade to assist him in that side. 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 large 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 serious advertising and marketing push that required zero capital. The vast 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 group.
“ I need my platform to be a spot the place folks can get impressed and motivated and never down about their state of affairs,” Davis says. “It may be straightforward for that to occur regardless of in case you are outdated, younger, regardless of your race. [Hopefully] having a teenager that’s disabled have [this] platform will resonate with underdogs.”
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For different young entrepreneurs who need to chase large desires and begin companies of their very own, Davis has some succinct however indispensable recommendation: “Simply exit and do it.”
”Once you’re younger is the time to take all the danger on the earth,” Davis says. “I began with $3,000. You could possibly do it with $100. You will have a means higher likelihood with going on the market and attempting to attain 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.
