From TikTok reels to ₹81 crore: How two Gen Z friends built a pickle brand

Two friends who started by sharing pickle videos on TikTok have now turned the idea into a Los Angeles-based food startup valued at around ₹81 crore.

Leah Marcus, 26, and Yasaman Bakhtiar, 27, met while studying at the University of Southern California and graduated in 2022. In 2023, they started sending each other pickle-related TikTok clips almost daily, riding a wider online trend around pickles and snack content. That shared habit soon became a business idea, and by summer 2023 both quit their jobs to focus full-time on building a consumer food brand.

Launching Hot Girl Pickles

The duo founded Good Girl Snacks and launched its first product, Hot Girl Pickles, in February 2024. They began with a direct-to-consumer model, selling through their own website and testing flavours and packaging with early buyers. According to a CNBC Make It report, the startup raised an amount from friends and family in the initial phase before pursuing institutional capital.

Retail push and funding

Good Girl Snacks later applied to list its pickles with major US retailers, securing approvals from Whole Foods Market and premium grocer Erewhon in 2025. This move shifted the brand from purely online sales to wide offline availability, boosting visibility and distribution.

The company subsequently raised $3 million in a seed funding round, taking its valuation to $8.5 million (around ₹81.4-81.6 crore), as per CNBC Make It report.

MUST READ: From ₹18 lakh debt to ₹2 crore: How Anushka and Virat's chole bhature order changed a restaurant's fate

Marcus and Bakhtiar have said they plan to expand beyond pickles into additional snack categories, using the same social-media-led branding and community-focused approach that helped them grow quickly.

Social media remains central to Good Girl Snacks; the brand currently has around 180,000 Instagram followers. While the startup’s valuation and funding are public, Good Girl Snacks has not disclosed detailed revenue or profitability figures.