Most upstart companies prepping a new product launch would probably not be thrilled to receive a cease and desist letter from an established giant of their field. But as is readily apparent from its insane packaging (not to mention its insane name), the gummy candy purveyor Rotten is not most companies.
Last May, founder and CEO Michael Fisher had his signature gummy worms on hand at the industry’s Sweets & Snacks Expo—and a flyer for a new product: Rotten’s Gummy Cruncheez, which launch today and bear resemblance to Nerds’s uber-popular Gummy Clusters.
“Nerds and their parent company Ferrara got wind of the product, took a photo of the flyer we had up, and soon after the Expo sent us a legal letter in efforts for us to halt production,” Fisher says, adding that, sure, it was a bit terrifying—but it was ultimately validating. “Getting a letter like that so soon after from Ferrara and from Nerds actually gave us a lot of confidence that we might be onto something pretty big here.”
Nerds has every right to be protective. After all, as Inc. reported in October, those cult-fave Gummy Clusters beloved by Kylie Jenner and others made hundreds of millions of dollars last year.
Can a new brand focused on healthier ingredients and utterly wild throwback design get in on the action and take on Big Gummy?
CANDY, IN MODERATION
According to Rotten’s website, its candy was developed in a lab by “the infamous Dr. Rotten” (see here)—so when I scheduled an interview with Fisher, I was expecting an eccentric on-brand variant of just that. But in lieu of a shock of gray hair and a general sense of deranged zeal, Fisher showed up rather clean cut and mild-mannered.
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved gummy candy, particularly sour gummies,” he says. “When I started Rotten, one of my best friends from freshman year in college reached out and was like, ‘Ah, this makes so much sense, because you would always have those in your dorm room.’”
That dorm room was at Stanford, where Fisher earned a degree in management science and engineering—and where he says everyone was creating some sort of startup. After Stanford, he was a 2019 fellow at Venture for America, a nonprofit that connects young grads with emergent businesses, in his case, the online caregiver supply shop Carewell in Charlotte, NC.
“[It] was a super exciting opportunity for me to think about entrepreneurship outside of the context of Palo Alto and Stanford, and really get out of that bubble,” he says. “I just had the most fun I’d ever had doing anything, building that. And I knew I wanted to be able to do that for myself and build my own brand.”
Fisher had been cutting soda and sugar out of his diet, but missed eating candy on road trips or while watching TV late at night. He tried some zero-sugar and low-sugar gummy alternatives, and was not a fan. He saw a gap in the market for a gummy that was healthier than what was in stores, but didn’t feel like it was sacrificing taste or texture to do so. Soon, he found himself attempting to make his own.
“That really started my journey,” he says. “Quickly I learned that I was not going to be making this product at home by myself. Gummies are incredibly technical.”
Fisher found a food science partner mid-2021 to help with the R&D, and they developed a line of regular and sour gummy worms using fruit juices, fruit powders and allulose—a non-artificial alternative to sugar found in figs and raisins that’s nearly as sweet, but with far fewer calories.
“The way that we’ve developed our product is . . . to try to be kind of about moderation,” Fisher says. “You won’t see us come out with zero-sugar products. You won’t see us come out with a product that only has one gram of sugar. And that’s very intentional.”
CREEPY CRAWLERS AND GARBAGE PAIL KIDS
When you eat Rotten’s products, they don’t taste like “diet candy” or a health-food alternative. They taste like . . . candy. But here’s the ingenious thing: Given his healthier take on the product, Fisher knew he had to compensate for it with the packaging design. And marketing. And name.
“Candy is all about indulgence and this kind of release from the mundane,” he says. “Oftentimes, things that are very healthy don’t deliver on those. And so [I] really wanted to build a brand that felt super fun and exciting and nostalgic.”
His goal was to create a product ecosystem that felt like it could have its own show on Adult Swim. So, he developed the Dr. Rotten backstory, along with an associated mythology to the candy. He leaned on imagery that would have felt at home in the ’80s/’90s universe of Garbage Pail Kids and Creepy Crawlers—a subset of the omnipresent era that has somehow not been plumbed as deeply as the rest of it.
And then there’s the name. Yes, people tried to fight him on it. But he was a fan of Liquid Death, which was taking off around the time he moved to Los Angeles. He liked that they had a strong identity and brand positioning.
“To this day, we get comments on our posts or ads of people saying, ‘Naming a food company Rotten is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of,’” he says. “Ultimately, we just keep the mindset of, ‘We’re not going to be for everyone, and that’s okay.’ And at the end of the day, if you hate us and you remember us, that’s a lot more than a lot of other brands are getting.”
As a market test, Fisher (who to this day is Rotten’s only full-time employee) launched a Kickstarter in the fall of 2021. He hit his $10,000 goal in four hours, and the project was more than 320% funded by the fifth day. His backers soon became R&D partners who offered feedback and helped iterate and develop the gummies alongside Rotten.
In the wake of extensive testing and refinement, the brand formally launched online in October 2023. Today, a rep for Rotten says it’s in more than 1,000 stores—from Zumiez to Safeway to Sprouts to Hy-Vee—and has sold more than 1 million units.
Which brings us back to those Gummy Cruncheez.
Like Rotten’s flagship worms, they’re free from any artificial elements or dyes, and Fisher says they have 60% less sugar than Nerds’ offering, thanks to ingredients like chicory root fiber, monk fruit, and allulose. True to Fisher’s palette, there is also a sour option, something the market currently lacks.
His biggest focus for 2025?
“My vision for Rotten is it’s available wherever you’re buying candy, which is everywhere,” he says. “Ultimately, most candy purchases are impulsive and happening in store—and so expanding in retail is our main goal this year.”
One legal letter from Big Gummy was encouraging fodder. Does he foresee a second?
“I hope not,” he says with a laugh.
