Pipcorn - Our Story

Our Story

It's a family affair!

Pipcorn was born in 2012, when Jeff Martin was helping his sister, Jen move apartments. With everything packed up except a bag of tiny heirloom popcorn kernels that Jen found in the Chicago health food store where she worked, they popped batch after batch of the most delicious popcorn they’d ever had! They liked this one so much, they tracked down the Indiana farmer who grew it from his family’s heirloom seed stock. Together with Jeff’s wife, Teresa, they created a new company, Pipsnacks™.

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We are proud to be a women-owned, minority-owned, family business, and this is our eight year story condensed into some major and minor milestones. The biggest takeaway? We are unbelievably grateful to be here and we love snacks, especially ones made with heirloom corn!

The Idea

We found the most amazing heirloom popcorn kernels around. They tasted better than any popcorn we'd ever had: they were crunchy, light and tasted like real corn! So we decided to pop 'em and name them Pip!  They continue to exceed our greatest expectations! 

April 2012

The Launch

Pipcorn launched at Smorgasburg in Brooklyn, NY. We hand-stamped bags and popped in our mom's spaghetti pot! 

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November 2012

OMG (The O stands for Oprah)

After finding us at an outdoor market, Pipcorn was picked as one of Oprah's Favorite Things! (We were then picked 3 more times!)

May 2013

Building the Brand

We got into our first retailers, including our home region of Whole Foods Market! From there we sampled our butts off in store and at local events! 

November 2014

We're Going to Need a Bigger Boat

We pitched to the sharks on ABC's Shark Tank and got a deal with Barbara Corcoran! 

January 2016

National!

Pipcorn was rolled out nationally to all Whole Foods Markets!

January 2017

Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!

Launched three new flavors and went to Death Valley to pop popcorn using the SUN!

December 2018

REFRESH

We decided our little brown bags needed a little more UMPF. So we kept the kraft and added a little, ok a lot of color! 

August 2019

New Snacks

We started this snack journey on a mission to recreate the snacks we love, so 7 years later we decided our heirloom popcorn needed some company! We introduced Heirloom Cheese Balls and Heirloom Corn Dippers

April 2020

Pipcorn Crackers!

We are upcycling!

We had a lot of finely ground corn flour leftover from making cheese balls, and since we couldn't use it any of our other snacks, we decided to make a new one! We experimented in the kitchen and upcycled it into delicious bite-sized Heirloom Crackers!

June 2020

Canada, Eh!

We're international!

Pipcorn hit shelves in Loblaws and Whole Foods Market stores in Canada!

September 2020

Heirloom Crunchies!

Are they curls? Are they puffs? No, they're Heirloom Crunchies! They’re sort of like mini cheese curls, but crunchier (naturally), with an irresistible texture thanks to our signature heirloom corn.

November 2020

White Cheddar

More cheese, please!

You asked, and we listened! We added White Cheddar to our line of Cheese Balls!

February 2021

Shark Tank Update!

Back in the tank!

Shark Tank featured us in an update segment with Barbara Corcoran about all the ways we kept hustling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Today

Head to our social media to see all the latest updates on Pipcorn! We are grateful to our team, our customers, our buyers, our family and friends, and everyone who helped us get here!

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We are a family business who started with a kernel of an idea: We called it Pip, and it continues to exceed our greatest expectations. 

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