Made In grew by selling to chefs first, then home cooks.
Restaurants were 5% of its sales in 2021 and far more of its marketing. Sales grew 5x in 2020 and 52% from 2024 to 2025.
BLOOM10X did not work with Made In. This breakdown uses public sources only, linked below.
- 2017Founded by a restaurant-supply family
- 2019$5M seed round
- 2020Sales grow 5x
- Mar 20242,000+ restaurants, 47 James Beard semifinalists
- May 2026Cast iron launches in Williams-Sonoma
- Nov 2026Its site claims 4,000+ restaurants
A small channel with a big reach.
The chef flywheel
Where it sells
Five plays behind the growth.
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Sell to chefs as real customers
Co-founder Jake Kalick says chefs come on as customers, “not paid influencers”. By early 2024 Made In was in 2,000+ restaurants across 17 countries and all 50 states, including 100+ Michelin-starred ones (Forbes, Mar 2024).
Its industry page offers trade pricing, no order minimums and a dedicated account manager.
Copy this: give your pro buyers their own pricing page and a person to email. Every pro account becomes proof you can show. Shopify development →
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Pick chefs by city, not by followers
“Chefs are the new athlete” is the internal mantra, says CEO Chip Malt, but it’s hyper-regional: Fermín Núñez in Austin, Nancy Silverton in LA (Modern Retail, Oct 2021).
Copy this: pick creators who are famous in the cities where your orders cluster. Creator seeding →
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Run a studio, not a shoot
Made In Studio in Austin films chefs teaching recipes and techniques. Kalick: more chef content means more buyers and more chefs who want in (Forbes). The YouTube channel now has 723 videos.
Copy this: film your best customers using the product at work, every month, and cut the ads from that footage. Creative →
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Let the pros design the product
Nancy Silverton, a customer, designed its bread knife. Tom Colicchio joined the advisory board and invested in the seed round (Forbes).
Copy this: co-design one product with a known customer and put their name on the page.
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Enter retail with a new line, not old stock
Made In talked to Williams-Sonoma for years and waited until it was “ready for wholesale”. Its new cast iron launched there exclusively in May 2026, weeks before its own site (Modern Retail, May 2026).
Copy this: open a big retailer with a launch only they have, as Caraway and Our Place did with exclusive colors.
The frying pan page, annotated.
- 1Proof above the name4.8 stars from 9,771 reviews, under a “Ready to ship” tag.
- 2The price is the entry size$99 is the 6" pan, “cooking for one”.
- 3Sets as a toggle“Save up to $118” sits beside Pan Only.
- 4Smallest size first6" is preselected, so the first price seen is the lowest.
- 5A care add-onA $49 stainless cleaning set, one checkbox.
- 6Price in the button“Add to Cart | $99”, with Afterpay at $24.75 × 4 above it.
- 7Three promisesFree shipping over $99, a 60-day trial, a lifetime warranty.
Our math on the page
Around the product page
“What are you shopping for?”
- Four answers: upgrading, a gift, healthier cooking, other.
- The same popup opens on the homepage and the quiz page.
- Fine print: the discount needs a first full-price order of $149+.
“Cookware Built for Service”
- Trade pricing, no order minimums, a dedicated account manager.
- A reply within one business day; most orders ship within seven.
- Names Alinea, Mother Wolf and n/naka; claims 4,000+ restaurants.
“Order by 11/20 for Thanksgiving delivery”
- A live countdown in the top bar of the product and industry pages.
- Most of its revenue lands in the fourth quarter (Modern Retail).
- The top bar also links a cookware quiz.
Copy this on your product page
- Set free shipping at your hero’s entry price, so the default order qualifies. Conversion
- Ask one question in the popup and tag the answer in your email tool. Retention
- Put a care or refill add-on one checkbox from the button. Raise AOV
- Run a delivery-date countdown in Q4 instead of a bigger discount.
About 250 live ads, chef proof inside.
“This is my favorite pan of all time”
Rafifronz with Made In, on the saucier, started Nov 2, 2026.
See the ad →“Most-requested by our Michelin-starred restaurant customers”
The saucier in limited antique brass.
See the ad →Active US ads matching madeincookware.com, Meta Ad Library, Nov 10, 2026. “About 250” is Meta’s estimate. Of the first 9: 3 say the last batch sold out, 2 lead with chefs, 2 run from creators’ handles.
How a creator saucier ad is built.
- 1The creator’s name“Rafifronz with Made In Cookware”.
- 2A cooking question“Did you know you could make creamy pasta without heavy cream?”
- 3The product does the trickThe saucier’s rounded base is the reason the recipe works.
- 4A personal headline“This is my favorite pan of all time”, then “Free and fast shipping”, linked to the 3-quart saucier.
Our wireframe, built from ad 2129727471003431 in the Meta Ad Library (Nov 10, 2026). Not a copy of the ad.
Three Made In videos.
“Chefs are the new athlete.”
“The more content we create with chefs, the more customers want to buy our products and the more chefs want to work with us.”
Read it with three caveats.
- The family business. Kalick’s family has sold restaurant supplies for 100+ years (Forbes). Few founders walk into kitchens with that trust.
- Stores were tested and closed. Two Austin pop-ups ran with chef events and engraving, then shut. Retail came later, through partners.
- One quarter carries the year. Most revenue lands in Q4, so inventory and cash must be ready by October.
- What we’d change: the restaurant count reads 2,000+ in the press, 3,000+ on YouTube and 4,000+ on the site. Pick one number and date it.
Six moves for a $1M–$10M brand.
- Open a trade or pro pricing page and count your pro accounts. Shopify development
- Pick creators where your orders cluster, not by follower count. Creator seeding
- Film pro customers monthly and cut ads from the footage. Creative
- Run those cuts as partnership ads from their handles. Partnership ads guide
- Plan Q4 creative volume before September. Creative volume calculator
- Check margin before a retailer launch. Contribution margin calculator
Where every number comes from.
- Cale Guthrie Weissman, “‘Chefs are the new athlete’: Made In’s Chip Malt on how the cookware brand taps culinary influencers,” Modern Retail, Oct 21, 2021. modernretail.co
- Pamela N. Danziger, “Made In Cookware’s Growth Flywheel Extends From Professional Chefs To Home Cooks,” Forbes (contributor), Mar 6, 2024. forbes.com
- Anna Hensel, “Made In uses its cast iron launch to land in Williams-Sonoma,” Modern Retail, May 11, 2026. modernretail.co
- Made In, Stainless Clad Frying Pan page, homepage popup and Made In for Hospitality page, viewed on mobile Nov 10, 2026. madeincookware.com/products/stainless-steel-frying-pan and madeincookware.com/industry/restaurant-supply
- Meta Ad Library, active US ads matching madeincookware.com, viewed Nov 10, 2026. facebook.com/ads/library
- Made In, official YouTube channel (@MadeInCookware), videos dated Sep 18, 2025 to Jun 28, 2026; view counts read Nov 10, 2026. youtube.com/@MadeInCookware
