Delivering at 2:00 in the morning has the sense of I'm an adult, I'm free. I can do whatever I want. Capturing that real emotional connection we have with our insomniacs was really relevant to college. One cold winter night, a college student wanted a late night snack delivered, but he didn't want pizza, fries or a burger. He wanted a warm cookie. I just thought a warm cookie worked. It was a craving that I was looking for, and it was clear that it was. It was something that resonated with others. That craving has become a company that brought in over $200 million in 2023. Insomnia cookies, a late night cookie delivery business, was started in Seth Berkowitz's college kitchen in 2002, and now has more than 260 locations in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. There are three numbers to look out for in this story. $150, the amount Seth spent on initial baking supplies. $10,000, the profit Seth saw after his first semester selling cookies. And $140 million, the amount Krispy Kreme Doughnuts paid to acquire a majority stake of Insomnia Cookies in 2018. Here's how Insomnia Cookies went from a college side hustle to an international success. Seth Berkowitz grew up in Rockland County, New York. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied economics and history. By his sophomore year, he was living off campus with friends. We played video games late into the night. We would order food constantly. It was winter night in 2002, and I opened the door and the Papa John's delivery guy was there, and he handed me the pizza and I walked into the living room and I, like, slammed the pizza on the table. And my friends were like, what's wrong? And I said, I just can't have the same delivery every single night. Like, I want something that's sweet and comforting and craveable. And they said, well, go walk over to the grocery store to Wawa. And I looked outside and it was snowing and I said, man, it would be just so interesting if somebody could deliver something warm and delicious and comforting and sweet. That's something warm and sweet would be a cookie. Seth then began formulating the idea for a business that would deliver warm and fresh cookies until 2 a.m.. Seth's first step was buying $150 worth of baking ingredients. He spent the summer after his sophomore year figuring out recipes for classic cookies and brownies. Friends gave feedback, and his wife, who he was dating at the time, came up with a business name. She struggled with sleep a little bit and still does, and she said, I got it Insomniac Cookies. And I was like, no, it seems like too many C's. And she's like, Insomnia Cookies. I said, nailed it. It just really spoke to the late night hours. By the start of his junior year in 2002, he was ready to bake and deliver Insomnia cookies, all from his college house. I was going to give myself a semester or two to see if Insomnia Cookies was going to be a success or not. Insomnia cookies offered flavors like Classic Chunk, Mint chocolate, Peanut Butter, Oatmeal raisin, and M&M cookies. Customers could also make customizable cookies with different flavor profiles. A classic cookie was $0.89 and additional toppings were $0.25. I had access to the dorms, so I'd go literally to the top floor of the high rise buildings, and I would put up these yellow and blue fliers. I'd also stand in the middle of campus and hand out cookies. So it was just the guy with the tray of cookies in the middle of campus that got the buzz started. Seth also brought cookies to dorms and sold them door to door. Customers could call Seth's phone to order the cookies, which he would deliver himself. It really wasn't that popular initially. It took until the school newspaper wrote an article about me and they put me on the front page. It was me and this backwards baseball cap and a hand mixer. Insomnia went from receiving three orders a night to 80. And it was still just me as the delivery person. That's just the whole business kind of exploded from there and created enough profitability to keep growing. According to Seth, at the end of that semester, he made $10,000 from baking and delivering Insomnia cookies. I remember putting it all together and being like, all right, great, let's run this one again. Right? There's enough money here to try a second semester of this. In the next semester of business, Seth created a site for Insomnia Cookies, where customers could place their orders. After his morning class is finished, he would pick up more supplies before lunch and prep cookie dough. His afternoons were spent with more classes and checking on orders through his cell phone and the website. But there was nights where I'd be delivering, I'd have to leave cookies in the oven and hope I can get back in time before they burned while taking an order. So the logistical elements were pretty complicated, to say the least. Seth continued Insomnia Cookies throughout his senior year. He was averaging about 50 orders a night, which became too much for his small residential kitchen. He moved production to a commissary kitchen off campus and hired some friends. Seth brought on co-founder Jared Barnett to help him run the business. That's when Seth saw an opportunity for Insomnia to keep growing. In the early days, it was clear access, convenience, delivery was really powerful. People loved the product, but getting the brand name out there, it was hard to reach everybody from a ghost kitchen in 2003 2004. Initially it was just delivery to UPenn's campus. Then I delivered to Drexel's campus. This gave us access to the Temple University campus and some other areas in Center City. After proving Insomnia cookies could handle these new delivery zones, Seth set a goal to open more stores outside of Philadelphia. I did not have any growth capital, right? I didn't have an ability to add more campuses to expand the insomnia service, to accelerate delivery or really improve the system very much. And so I raised some money from a group of angel investors, and that gave me enough capital to add 2 or 3 more stores. Right after I graduated college. Seth added the $10,000 profit from his first semester to the funds from his investors. A week before he graduated, he signed the lease for the very first Insomnia Cookie store in Syracuse, New York. That location opened up in December of 2004. Like right before Christmas break hit, we did a bit of a kind of an early test there, and it really launched full time in 2005. Insomnia was on track to open two more stores that same year. Seth says it was strategic to keep the first few locations near college campuses. In 2006, co-founder Jared resigned, selling his equity interest in Insomnia Cookies to Seth. However, Jared was still entitled to 5% of all Insomnia economic benefits if there were to be liquidation. The company kept moving and Insomnia expanded its menu offerings for the first time. That same year, new deluxe flavors and ice cream sandwiches were added to the menu. Seth experimented with selling cookies off of food trucks in various locations. He also spent almost every week traveling across the country to find new markets to open storefronts. Seth funneled all profits into expanding the business across the country, but still struggled to boost sales enough to turn a profit in the wake of the financial crisis. 2009 was one of the hardest years for Insomnia. Seth downsized the Insomnia Cookies corporate team, leaving only himself and a finance associate. Seth had to take on a lot of the work himself again. I remember I called my wife and I said, how did I get here? Like, I'm literally peddling cookies throughout the country at like 2:00 in the morning. I'm lugging dough to Syracuse, New York every week and down to Philly and fixing generators and like, what is this? How did I end up here? And she said, you believe in this. People love what you sell. I'll tell you for that one moment, I wasn't sure. She kind of flipped, flipped me over back to a believer. Even through the financial woes, Seth pushed Insomnia forward. The company eventually opened its 22nd store in Kent, Ohio, in 2012, and Seth built back out Insomnia's corporate team. And it was the first time we'd ever built a store from our own internal cash flow. So from 2012 to 2018, we opened up 125 stores. It was the fastest growth we'd ever had. The business was humming. I'll give a lot of credit to the iPhone. There was just this connection to app culture and and late night offerings and convenience, and so it really propelled us forward. In 2018, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts bought a majority stake in Insomnia for approximately $140 million. This resulted in a lawsuit from former co-founder Jared, who claimed he was never paid for the 5% non-voting interest proceeds from the sale. The case ended with Seth reportedly paying Jared $3.5 million. After the Krispy Kreme acquisition, two more funding rounds raised about $4.5 million for Insomnia Cookies to keep growing. In 2023, Krispy Kreme announced plans to sell Insomnia Cookies. Insomnia still remains under Krispy Kreme to date. Today, Insomnia Cookies operates more than 260 stores across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The company ended 2023, bringing in over $200 million, with cookies now ranging in price from 250 to $5.45 each. I take a lot of pride in seeing the growth around me. I take a lot of pride in seeing insomniacs enjoying our product. What are you having? What are you eating? M&M! Insomnia cookies has an expansive menu of its traditional and deluxe cookies along with vegan cookies, cookie cakes, brownies, ice cream, and frostings. The cookie chain continues to deliver late, with some locations open until 3 a.m.. Seeing this after 20 years, I'm so grateful for the journey. I really can't thank enough people for enabling this, for making it happen, and for supporting me and a crazy man's journey. Insomnia's latest milestone came in 2024 with the grand opening of its headquarters in downtown Philadelphia. That warm, delicious moment is really working for us, so the goal is to just keep going.