How this 18x Inc. 5000 honoree uses tech and popcorn to revolutionize fundraising

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: From the Ground Up
Host: Inc. Magazine
Episode Title: How this 18x Inc. 5000 honoree uses tech and popcorn to revolutionize fundraising
Date: October 31, 2025
Guest: Tim Heitman, Founder and CEO of DoubleGood

This episode delves into the extraordinary entrepreneurial journey of Tim Heitman, the founder of DoubleGood and recipient of the Glenfiddich Legacy Award. Tim shares how he transformed a struggling snack business into an innovative, technology-driven fundraising powerhouse that has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list eighteen times. The conversation covers pivotal moments, the role of technology, cultural shifts, and the company’s lasting impact on community fundraising.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. DoubleGood’s Origins and Early Evolution

• Started in 1998, after college
  Tim describes launching DoubleGood as an evolution of an earlier college business:

  • Food distribution background (02:00): Distributed subs, salads, and sandwiches to stores.
  • Sold his first business for a “small but profitable” deal (02:21).

• Sweat equity over capital

  • Startup roots: “DoubleGood was started on sweat equity and not a whole lot of capital.” (02:29)

2. The DoubleGood Fundraising Model

• Platform for youth and community fundraising
  • What is DoubleGood? “DoubleGood is a consumer tech company, and more specifically, a fundraising company... youth organizations, sports teams, schools, nonprofits... sell our really, really good popcorn, and they raise a lot of money with very little effort.” (02:45)
  • Complete customer experience: “We do the manufacturing and the distribution and the technology. And so we're really looking to control every aspect...” (03:04)

3. Pivotal Moment: Focusing on Impact and Joy

• “All In” on Fundraising (03:29 – 05:50)
  • The original business was split among several channels (corporate gifting, e-commerce, wholesale), but fundraising was the only one that consistently felt right.
  • Turning point: Reading a heartfelt thank-you letter from a student shifted Tim’s focus:

    “Thank you for having your [Popcorn Palace] fundraising program. I was able to raise $300 and go from Seattle, Washington, to Washington, D.C., for my band competition... P.S. can you send my 5th grade class free popcorn?” (04:20)

  • “It was just, we’re going all in on this.” (05:05)
  • Decision to pivot away from wholesale and direct all efforts into fundraising, despite industry challenges and internal doubts.

4. Branding and Product Innovation

• Branding, trademarks, and playful product design
  • Fun branding and trademarked flavor names bolster company personality and customer experience (06:08 – 07:21).
  • The company changed its name to DoubleGood and reimagined its identity for a joyous, memorable connection with users.

5. Building and Leveraging Technology

• Investing in a proprietary tech platform

  • No tech people pre-2014: “Before 2014, we had no technical people in the organization. I was the most technical person... which isn't saying a lot.” (07:26)
  • Building for the future: Recognized need to develop “a core competency of building and creating technology” internally to solve issues with handling money, paperwork, and product logistics (07:40).

• COVID-19: Inflection Point for Virtual Fundraising

  • The pandemic forced DoubleGood to pivot to virtual fundraising, leveraging the platform built over five years:

    “We had built this digital platform... just at the end of June in 2020, and it never stopped... You spend your whole, 15 years trying to figure out how to grow a business, and now it's coming in so fast you can't handle it.” (08:14)

6. Sustaining Exponential Growth

• Doubling revenue and scaling challenges (09:03 – 09:48)
  • Jumped from $125 million to $283 million in four years.
  • Leadership and staffing demands changed dramatically:

    “When you grow that fast and you don't have the infrastructure to help grow people, you outgrow your people really quickly … We've had to re-up our leadership team a couple of times...” (09:23)

7. Defining Legacy and Impact

• Purpose over profit: Creating lasting impact
  • Tim frames his role as a long-term steward, not simply a company owner:

    “I don't look at myself first as a founder or owner. I look at myself as a steward for the business because I want the business to last a long time... DoubleGood runs on impact. And success to us is impact. It's not an exit.” (09:50)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On early company funding:

  “DoubleGood was started on sweat equity and not a whole lot of capital.” — Tim Heitman (02:29)

• On the pivotal fundraising letter:

  “Thank you for having your fundraising program. I was able to raise $300 and go from Seattle, Washington, to Washington, D.C., for my band competition.” — Student letter, relayed by Tim Heitman (04:20)

• On company-wide giving:

  “We were not just going to offer 50% to our fundraising program, we were going to offer 50% to all of our channels.” — Tim Heitman (06:14)

• On the tech pivot and COVID:

  “You spend your whole, 15 years trying to figure out how to grow a business, and now it's coming in so fast you can't handle it.” — Tim Heitman (08:24)

• On legacy and stewardship:

  “I look at myself as a steward for the business because I want the business to last a long time... DoubleGood runs on impact. And success to us is impact. It's not an exit.” — Tim Heitman (09:50)

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Key Timestamps

• [01:05] Introduction of Tim Heitman and DoubleGood’s Inc. 5000 legacy
• [02:45] Explanation of the DoubleGood fundraising model
• [03:29 – 05:50] Pivotal story: shifting from wholesale to focus on fundraising
• [06:08] Emphasis on joy, culture shift, and company-wide 50% giving
• [07:21] Investment in internal technology team and platform
• [08:14] Virtual fundraising acceleration during COVID-19
• [09:23] Growing pains: scaling leadership for rapid business growth
• [09:50] Tim Heitman’s philosophy on legacy and stewardship

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Episode Takeaways

• Perseverance, adaptability, and aligning purpose with product can reshape a business even after a decade.
• Technology is critical for modernizing legacy fundraising methods and enables resilience in the face of unexpected crises like COVID-19.
• Leadership must evolve alongside company growth; maintaining impact as the core metric fortifies long-term success.
• The story of DoubleGood is a testament to putting community and customer impact at the center of entrepreneurial ambition, and to building a legacy defined by joy, innovation, and service.

Transcript

[A]

Hi, listeners. I'm Josh Christensen, executive producer of from the Ground Up. Today we have a special segment brought to you by inc. In collaboration with our partners at Glenfiddich single malt scotch whiskey. This year at the Inc. 5000 gala, Glen Fiddick presented the legacy award to Tim heitman, founder of DoubleGood. This award recognizes a trailblazer, an individual who has graced the Inc. 5000 list multiple times, embodying the spirit of innovation, boldness, and a relentless drive to defy the ordinary. Much like Glenfiddich, a brand that has pushed the boundaries of excellent throughout its 130 year history to become the world's most awarded single malt scotch whiskey, Tim Heitman exemplifies the courage and brilliance it takes to redefine industries and elevate the game. Inc. Editor in chief Mike Hoffman spoke with Tim Heitman about his remarkable journey, the legacy he has built, and the honor of being presented this award sponsored by Glen Fiddick. Here's the captivating conversation. Enjoy and be inspired.

[B]

I'm Mike Hoffman, Aaron Chief of Inc. And we're here with DoubleGood CEO Tim Heitman, who is celebrating not his first, not his second, not his third, but his 18th time on the Inc. 5000 as an honoree. So congratulations, Tim, and welcome.

[C]

Yeah, thank you, Mike. Really good to be here.

[B]

So 18 times on the inc. 5000. Take us back. Like, when did you start this company?

[C]

So started this company in 1998. And prior to that being in college and Getting Inc. Magazine, I always thought it'd be cool to be on the list at some point, and it was a little helpful going to 5,000. But 2007 was the first year we were on the list.

[B]

And so did you start this, like, right out of college or soon after college?

[C]

Yeah, a couple of years. I had a business right out of college, and then when I was in my mid-20s, started this company.

[B]

Well, let me double click on that. What was the. The first company?

[C]

Yeah, the first company I started actually in college, and it was a food distribution business.

[B]

So a precursor.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. And I basically distributed subs and salads and sandwiches to convenience stores and grocery stores and did that for three years and was faced with going into manufacturing and manufacturing our own product because we had a manufacturer and just chose to sell it instead and enter something else.

[B]

And was the deal a good deal for that first sale? Small deal. Good deal.

[C]

It was a very small deal. Small but profitable. And more than anything, I learned a lot.

[B]

And it gave you the capital to Start doublegood.

[C]

I don't know if it gave me that much. No. DoubleGood was started on sweat equity and not a whole lot of capital. Yeah.

[B]

Well, for folks who may be unfamiliar with the company, tell us what doublegood is and who you serve, who your client base is and what those early days were like.

[C]

DoubleGood is a consumer tech company, and more specifically, a fundraising company. And so we allow youth organizations, sports teams, schools, nonprofits. They come on our platform and they sell our really, really good popcorn, and they raise a lot of money with very little effort. And what makes us unique is that we have. We do the manufacturing and the distribution and the technology. And so we're really looking to control every aspect of the customer experience so that they can have this really incredible experience.

[B]

And so this is sort of like a modern take on Girl Scout cookies or a modern take on Newman's Own. How did you come up with it? How did you get interested in this notion of, like, let's help groups raise funds?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. So doublegood is really an evolution and with many, many key points. And I think that in the very early days, it was just trying to figure out how to grow a business. And we tried a lot of different things. I mean, we were doing corporate gifting was the first thing we did. And then it was late 90s, E commerce was turned. We did E Commerce, started to do what we called wholesale business and sell. I went on qvc and I did that for many years. And the last thing that we started was fundraising. And it was the first thing that wasn't so hard. And it was only about 10% of our business. I mean, the wholesale stuff was over 50%. And the really pivotal moment was I was getting frustrated with this because we were about creating joy and we weren't really doing it. The whole going through distribution channels and sitting on shelves, it wasn't. Our product wasn't the same if we made it and shipped it directly. And so was getting frustrated. And I had this call from a buyer at Costco, and she was pretty frustrated with me and deservedly so. And I was frustrated, too. And I got off the phone and there's a stack of mail on my desk and there's a letter, and it had, like, different colored writing. And I picked it up, and it was once something like, Dear Mr. Heitman, thank you for having your. We were called Popcorn palace at the time. Popcorn palace fundraising program. And I was able to raise $300 and go from Seattle, Washington, Washington, dance DC for my band competition. Thank you so much. I love Popcorn Palace. And P.S. can you send my 5th grade class free popcorn? And I sat there and I laughed. And I was thinking, all right, these buyers and all this frustration and not really doing what the purpose of the company is, and then helping kids do what they love to do. And it was just, we're going all in on this. And in the next few days, had decided we were going to exit all that wholesale business and we were going to go into this. We didn't do it right away. It took five years and slowly started letting them go. As we grew up the fundraising channel and I got in, I started to understand the industry and started to understand the customer and realized there was very little innovation there and thought it was not only a great fit for our product, but a great opportunity to innovate and bring value to the customers.

[B]

Can you talk about the sort of sense of joy and how that came from one of the kids who was selling your product and raising funds that way? Also, the product itself is sort of a fun, playful. You've got lots of interesting branding. Can you talk about that for a moment?

[C]

So about Was this, maybe 2016, we went from having all these channels to really being. Our culture was about fundraising. And so made a decision that we were not just going to offer 50% to our fundraising program, we were going to offer 50% to all of our channels.

[B]

Did you doubt yourself? Did your team doubt you or not you? But the vision?

[C]

No. I think that speaking for myself, yeah, I remember thinking, oh, my God, what did we just do? I thought that I could write a book on how to ruin a company in three months.

[B]

What was the first sign that, okay, we're through the painful period and we're beginning to see not just traction with this idea, but in fact, it's a new engine of growth.

[C]

You know, there's a lot of things coming together there. There was the business model, there was the change in the name and all the branding, and if you look at the packaging, all these flavor names and packaging, they're all trademarked and IP for us, and all the designs are unique. So there's all that, and then there's the technology. And I think that we started building the technology in 2014.

[B]

So you're a snack company with a technology platform underneath it, and that becomes more and more important, right?

[C]

Yeah. Before 2014, we had no technical people in the organization. I was the most technical person in the organization, which isn't saying a lot. But then realized that if we were going to solve these big problems in the Marketplace that I saw, which was the handling of money, the handling of paperwork and handling a product. This was going to be an iterative approach. It wasn't something we could outsource. So we needed to create a core competency of building and creating technology. That business at the time was about a $20 million business at the time, it was growing every year and we were building the technology for many years. But I think the time that it really shifted was, you know, we went into Covid and like a lot of people, we had a big drop to our business. The in person fundraising dried up. You know, we were down 50% in the first couple months, but then we had been building this technology for five years and it was an inflection point where you couldn't fundraise in person. And we had this digital platform that we were building and we were iterating on and we really understood the marketplace and we started referring to it as virtual fundraising. And it picked up just at the end of June in 2020, and it never stopped. You spend your whole, you know, 15 years trying to figure out 20 years trying to figure out how to grow a business, and now it's coming in so fast you can't handle it. Managing that, managing slowing down growth without killing the momentum in the brand while you're scaling up the business was the biggest challenge and we needed everyone together to help to figure that out. That was the big challeng.

[B]

So, you know, it's 20, 21, you're on the list maybe for 14, 15 times. Fast forward, you've now made the list 18 times and you have jumped from 125 million up to 283 million. Sounds like closing in on 300 million. You've doubled and then some. What has changed at the company in these last four years?

[C]

Yeah, so probably the biggest thing that's changed is, you know, when you grow that fast and you don't have the infrastructure to help grow people, you outgrow your people really quickly. And that's been one of the unfortunate things. I've had to re up our leadership team a couple of times during that time period. And I think the biggest thing that's changed is we got a really incredible executive leadership team.

[B]

Do you think about your legacy?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I do, I do. I think about, you know, it comes to legacy, I don't look at myself first as a founder or owner. I look at myself as a steward for the business because I want the business to last a long time. I want it to outlast me. I want to outlast everyone in the company and last over 100 years. And, you know, why is that important? It's important because doublegood runs on impact. And success to us is impact. It's not an exit. And. And the longer we last, the more impact we'll make.

[B]

Well, Tim Heitman, founder and CEO of Double Good, congratulations on being the recipient of this year's Glen Fiddick Legacy Award at the Inc. 5000.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

Mike.

[C]

Panoply.