In Good Company
Any time the story of Nugget’s first decade is told — whether now, or 10 years from now — the highlights will be easy and obvious to reel off.
They will include, of course, the happy accident when our Kickstarter sofa project, billed as “the easiest couch ever,” turned out to actually be the most imaginative, entertaining, creativity-boosting plaything in the home. And how, in the years after that, the Nugget would launch a whole new “play couch” industry, with a gradual and then rapid explosion of similar products around the world.
The highlights and milestones would also include figuring out how to evolve from shipping 25 Nuggets a day to several thousand a day; fulfilling orders during unprecedented demand in 2020 with a small-but-mighty team; opening up our own state-of-the-art factory and HQ; the designation for two years in a row as America’s fastest-growing manufacturing company; collaborations with household names like Sesame Street, Hello Kitty, and Disney; and sponsoring a massive STEAM exhibit at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, NC. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention how excited we got about the time our company was used as a limerick answer on NPR’s Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
Members of Team GG pose at Marbles Kids Museum in front of the sign for “imagiFAB” — the multi-exhibit STEAM space sponsored by Nugget that opened in 2022.
As easy as it’d be to recite these defining Nugget moments, it’d be even easier to fall into the trap of thinking we did them alone. The truth is, we had help — a lot of it.
Customers, Community Partners, & Team GG
From day one, our customers have been fans not just of the Nugget, but champions of the Nuggetverse at large: telling friends about us, coming to our events, even inviting us into their homes, or venturing out to our factories for photoshoots (and allowing their kids to serve as our earliest models). All these years later, we’ll never know exactly what they saw in our humble company with the funny name and young, scrappy team. Maybe they shared our belief that kids are the most creative people on Earth, and that was enough to believe in us, too.
Raffling off prizes — including Nuggets and Cover Sets — at the first big, in-person event we ever put on in Durham, NC, in the summer of 2019. We threw the “Family-Friendly, End-Of-Summer Bash” to mark the release of our Beanstalk color, and to celebrate the local families who had gotten us to that point.
Year after year, we sought out partnerships from community organizations that allowed us to become the kind of business we wanted to be, one defined as much by how we work as by what we sell. The “Assembled In NC” emblem stamped onto every Big Orange Box is more than a throwaway line — it’s a reminder of the place we’re from and call home, and the relationships and responsibilities that come with being part of a community.
We've had the honor of partnering with children's museums, as well as local and regional nonprofits in Black maternal health, Latino mental health, Down syndrome advocacy, civil rights, and more. These groups didn’t just treat us as a conventional corporate sponsor — they cheered us on, supported us, pushed us to be better, and as a result, we've benefited in ways we never imagined or expected.
Nugget friend, model, and Gigi’s Playhouse ambassador Kendall Geer poses with friends at Gigi’s new location in Cary, NC. We teamed up with Gigi’s — a Down Syndrome advocacy org — for a Cover Club fundraiser, alongside a short documentary about Kendall and his family, in April 2022.
And of course, we owe our success most of all to a group that continues to grow every year — the Nugget team itself! From our engineers to our marketers, our production line to our product development team — everyone at Nugget plays a critical role in making sure every play couch is Certified Nuggety™ and ready to grow imaginations.
Approximately 1/10th of Team GG at a company event, posing for a photo mimicking the famous “Lunch atop a skyscraper” photo taken in New York City in 1932.
In short, Nugget is the company it is because of the company we’ve kept. So over the next 12 months, as we recognize and celebrate breaking into the double-digits with our 10th year (yes, in true childlike spirit, we’re celebrating turning almost 10 years old), we’re putting the spotlight less on how far we’ve come, and more on the people who helped us get there.
Our customers and early supporters, our community partners, and the Nugget team are at the heart of everything we’ve achieved since 2014, and they’ll be at the heart of everything we do next — especially as we celebrate over the coming year. Get ready: We’ve got tons of things planned to say “thank you,” like special Nugget colors, team appreciation events, and community celebrations. The run-up to our 10th birthday should feel like your party, too. If you’re reading this, you’ve earned it.
Stay tuned, and keep on playing on.
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Ryan Cocca is co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Nugget.