How The Woobles Founders Taught 500,000 People to Crochet

And Built a Massive Business Doing It.

May 09, 2025

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What happens when you make something easier to do or learn for consumers? 

You build a brand like The Woobles. 

They have taught over 500,000 people how to crochet (many for the first time), pulled in 9-figures in revenue, and landed licensing deals with some of the most famous characters ever. 

The founders Justine Tiu and Adrian Zhang started by selling simple kits as a side hustle on Etsy in 2020 with just $200. 

And in just a few years, they’ve grown it into a HUGE company. 

Here’s how they did it and what you can take away for your business:

Build a Better Tool for Beginners

When Justine was learning to crochet, she couldn’t find a product that made it easy. It became a great hobby for her, and she figured others would be interested if it was easier to learn. 

So she made a product that would make it easier for everyone. 

If you’ve never heard of the Woobles, each kit includes:

  • A pre-started piece (so beginners skip the hardest part)

  • Custom “Easy Peasy Yarn” that doesn’t fray or split

  • Short, clear video tutorials

  • A cute plushie project that feels achievable and fun

The short tutorials were key. 

Let me repeat: this started as a side hustle on Etsy. 

Without knowing the genius of what they'd done, they struck gold. 

Etsy already had their ideal customers. 

Etsy promoted it for them. 

And because the product actually made things easier, things began to move quickly.

Breaking that down:

  1. Know your ideal customer

  2. Know where they hang out

  3. Solve real problems for them OR make something easier for them

  4. Ask for feedback from customers

  5. Get reviews, let reviews do the sales work for you

New founders often launch without truly understanding the user experience. The Woobles' edge came from relentless iteration on what real customers needed to succeed:

Do the Work That Doesn’t Scale (Yet)

In the early days, Justine and Adrian hand-packed kits in their in-laws’ basement.

They didn’t try to automate too soon. They personally answered support tickets, shipped orders, and even cut yarn by hand with the help of their parents.

That level of hands-on work taught them what broke, what confused customers, and what worked best. So when they started scaling, they knew exactly how to do it better.

It’s important to remember that you can’t skip the unscalable phase.

It builds the foundation you need to scale effectively later.

Don’t Just Sell a Product

Crochet is the hook (pun intended). But the emotional payoff is the real product.

The Woobles are successful because they make people feel capable. They are making learning easy. 

They’re selling a win. A moment when someone says, “I can’t believe I made this.”

They also created tools to help customers succeed:

  • Bite-sized tutorials to reduce overwhelm

  • Pre-started pieces that create the feeling of momentum

  • Impossible-to-unravel starting yarn to create a safe space to fail

They weren’t just reducing friction. They were engineering wins into the customer journey.

Give them early wins.

What are you doing to create wins for your customers? 

Simplicity Scales

In Justine’s words: 

“People think we’re a big conglomerate, partly because our packaging is so good. But we’re really just a handful of remote people making this thing happen.”

They didn’t overbuild, overhire, or overcomplicate. 

They built a dead-simple product that worked, solved a real problem, and created a great experience.

So:

  • What problems are you solving? 

  • Is your messaging clear that you solve these problems? 

  • What wins have you or can you engineer for your customers? 

  • Are there sites like Etsy, where your ideal customers hang out, that you can leverage better? 

Let’s have a great weekend!

—The TRIBE Team