Hooray Foods
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Hooray Foods was a San Francisco-based plant-based bacon company founded in 2019 by CEO Sri Artham. Its meat-free bacon — made from coconut oil, rice flour, mushrooms and beetroot, with zero cholesterol — launched on World Vegan Day 2020 with a mission to save animals from the food system, one pig at a time. It achieved national distribution in more than 1,000 retail locations including Whole Foods and Wegmans, plus restaurant partnerships, and sold five million strips of Hooray Bacon. It raised about $4 million in seed funding.
02 / Hooray Foods FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors
Hooray Foods stated economics of running the company did not match revenue and it could not continue producing for sale; a 2023 Wefunder campaign targeted $500k but raised only ~$100k, leaving the plant-based bacon maker unable to fund ongoing operations.
Company stated the economics of running a company of this size did not match revenue.
Wefunder crowdfunding aimed at $500k raised only about $100k per SF Business Times via SFGATE.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Product or service closed
On 7 Sep 2023 Hooray Foods announced on Instagram/Facebook it would cease business operations and could not continue producing product for sale after four years.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Founded in 2019 in San Francisco by CEO Sri Artham; launched plant-based bacon on World Vegan Day 2020.
- 02
Reached national distribution in 1,000+ retail locations and restaurant partnerships; sold five million strips.
- 03
Raised about $4 million in seed funding; ran a January 2023 WeFunder crowdfunding campaign that fell short.
- 04
Ceased operations in September 2023: the economics of running a company of this size did not match revenue amid a slump in the plant-based meat category.
- 05
No reliable realized loss figure was disclosed.