Crumbl is the cookie chain that seems to be everywhere except on Sundays. Since 2017 the privately held dessert franchise, based in Lindon, Utah, has grown into a business of nearly 1,100 stores,[1] one that reporting valued at close to $2 billion when a sale was explored in early 2025.[2] It also closes every location on Sundays, a practice the company frames around giving its bakers time to rest with family, even as it is widely linked to the Latter-day Saint background of its founders.[3][8] Because Crumbl is private and closely held, the record examined here is the company's and its founders', and there is little political paper trail to examine.
- Crumbl's CEO is a Canadian eighth-grade dropout who ran mobile product at Ancestry.
- Crumbl's Sunday closures and coffee-free menu are widely tied to its founders' Latter-day Saint faith.
- Crumbl's oversized cookies rotate to new flavors every week, arriving in its signature pink boxes.
- Crumbl earns about $122 million in royalties on more than $1 billion in franchise sales.
- Private equity firm TSG took a minority stake in Crumbl near a $2 billion valuation.
Quick Take
Crumbl leaves almost no institutional political footprint. It is privately held and does not file the periodic public-company reports required of SEC-reporting companies, and no corporate political action committee or federal lobbying registration tied to the company turned up in the public record. No federal contributions surfaced in the donor records reviewed for its founders. The one values-coded thread is operational: every store closes on Sunday, which the company frames around bakers' rest and family time even as observers tie it to the founders' Latter-day Saint roots. The signal here is cultural rather than financial, and it is thin.
Closed Every Sunday
Every Crumbl location in the United States and Canada is closed on Sundays. The company's own explanation frames the closing around giving its bakers a weekly day to rest and be with family, and does not mention religion.[8] The practice is nonetheless widely associated with the Latter-day Saint background of its founders, Jason McGowan and his wife's cousin Sawyer Hemsley, who have both described Latter-day Saint upbringings. The chain has also long been described as keeping coffee out of its recipes, a point commonly tied to that same background, though Crumbl has not publicly explained it in those terms.[3] McGowan has framed the Sunday closing as more than a religious observance, telling Fortune in 2026, "we don't open on Sundays. Not just for religious purposes, but for time to reset," and the company's public messaging tends to emphasize rest and family time rather than doctrine.[1] The faith-linked culture is not the whole story of who runs Crumbl: co-founder Sawyer Hemsley, who was raised Latter-day Saint and served a mission in Mexico, publicly came out as gay in an August 2025 Instagram post after online speculation, writing that he had come to accept that he is gay. The disclosure was his own and carries no stated political dimension.[7] Whether that faith-linked operating style amounts to a political signal or simply a cultural one is a judgment the practices themselves leave open; what is documented is the behavior, not a partisan aim.
A Private, Founder-Controlled Cookie Empire
Crumbl started in 2017 with a single store in Logan, Utah, and a goal of building a better chocolate chip cookie; it now runs close to 1,100 locations across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada, employs more than 29,000 people across the company and its franchised stores, and reported about $122 million in franchise-royalty revenue on more than $1 billion in system-wide sales.[1][6] Co-founder and chief executive Jason McGowan owns more than half of the company, and co-founder and chief brand officer Sawyer Hemsley holds most of the rest.[3] McGowan came to cookies from technology, immigrating from Canada with an eighth-grade education, teaching himself web development, cofounding several startups, and serving as Ancestry's director of mobile product before launching Crumbl.[1] Outside the business, he has paid off school-lunch debt in the Provo and Salt Lake City school districts and, with his wife, started a foundation to keep addressing it.[9] The company itself channels its giving through Crumbl Cares, a philanthropic arm focused on education, hunger relief, and disaster response, from Teacher of the Year awards across all 50 states to cookie donations after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.[10] In May 2025 the private-equity firm TSG Consumer Partners took a minority stake through preferred equity, and Blackstone and Golub Capital provided roughly $500 million in debt financing;[4] earlier that year Reuters reported the company was exploring a sale valued at close to $2 billion.[2] The founders have kept control throughout, though in May 2026 McGowan said he and Hemsley were beginning to step back from running the company as they bring in new leadership.[1] Crumbl is privately held and does not file the periodic public-company reports required of SEC-reporting companies.
Almost No Federal Political Trail
For a brand its size, Crumbl is close to invisible in federal politics. The public campaign-finance record shows no corporate political action committee and no federal lobbying registration tied to the company, and as a privately held firm it files no public-company SEC reports to review.[5] A search of the individual-donor record for McGowan and Hemsley surfaced no federal campaign contributions in their names either. Whatever the founders do politically as private citizens leaves little trace in the federal record.
Where to Find Them
Crumbl's stores are franchised, locally owned and operated rather than corporate-owned, and sell cookies and other desserts with a lineup of flavors that rotates weekly and arrives in the brand's signature pink box. Its home online is crumblcookies.com.
Footnotes
[1] Preston Fore, "Crumbl CEO says he shuts shop on Sundays and prioritizes game nights with his 7 kids in pursuit of balance," Fortune, August 2, 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/08/02/crumbl-cofounder-ceo-jason-mcgowan-work-life-balance-stores-closed-on-sunday-success-means-being-present/
[2] Reuters, "Bakery franchise chain Crumbl explores $2 billion sale, sources say," January 13, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/bakery-franchise-chain-crumbl-explores-2-billion-sale-sources-say-2025-01-13/
[3] Wikipedia, "Crumbl Cookies," accessed August 15, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumbl_Cookies
[4] Bloomberg, "TSG Invests in Crumbl Alongside Debt from Blackstone, Golub," May 1, 2025. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-30/tsg-consumer-is-said-to-near-investment-in-cookie-chain-crumbl
[5] Federal Election Commission and OpenSecrets, committee, organization, and individual-contributor searches for Crumbl, Jason McGowan, and Sawyer Hemsley, accessed August 15, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/ and https://www.opensecrets.org/
[6] Simone Melvin, "How Crumbl Cookies Devoured America," Forbes, March 2, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonemelvin/2025/03/02/how-crumbl-cookies-devoured-america/
[7] "Crumbl Cookies Founder Sawyer Hemsley Comes Out As Gay After Viral Rumors," TODAY, August 27, 2025. https://www.today.com/food/people/crumbl-cookies-sawyer-hemsley-comes-out-as-gay-rcna227572
[8] Crumbl, "Why Is Crumbl Closed on Sundays," Crumbl Blog, accessed August 15, 2026. https://crumblcookies.com/blog/why-is-crumbl-closed-on-sundays
[9] KUER, "Even with Crumbl CEO's donation, Utah's school lunch debt is an ongoing problem," October 27, 2025. https://www.kuer.org/education/2025-10-27/even-with-crumbl-ceos-donation-utahs-school-lunch-debt-is-an-ongoing-problem
[10] Crumbl, "Crumbl Cares," accessed August 15, 2026. https://crumblcookies.com/crumbl-cares
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