How Danny Weiner built Hexclad into a $500 million cookware brand

Executive overview

Two broke sales reps with no outside investors turned a basement trade show find into a $500 million direct-to-consumer cookware brand in under ten years. The pivot came after their first product — a cold-press juicer — collapsed when juice bars made the at-home version redundant.

Danny Weiner's core insight: a pan with laser-etched hexagons solved the two biggest cookware complaints at once — non-stick peeling and inability to sear — and that story had to be told directly to the consumer, not via shelf space.

Controlling the customer relationship through demonstration, online video, and a brand partnership beats traditional retail distribution for a product that needs its story told.

From actor to cookware sales rep

• Danny studied film and theater at NYU, moved to LA, spent roughly three years going on auditions with little traction.
• A serious car accident in 1994 shattered his leg and broke vertebrae; unable to work, he hit rock bottom financially.
• A friend offered him $500 to help work a cookware trade show — his entry into the industry.
• He became so effective that the company offered him his own events; he eventually rose to VP of sales.
• The moment he hit snooze on a 9am audition alarm, he knew acting was over.
• He met Cole McCray at the cookware company; Cole became his top salesman and eventual co-founder.

The juicer business and its failure

• Danny and Cole identified cold-press juicers as an underserved home market; they sourced the Juicepresso from Korea.
• The product retailed for $400; they self-funded, sold via Facebook video demos, trade shows, and Costco road shows.
• Their plan: build a suite of kitchen products each generating ~$10M in revenue.
• Whole Foods announcing in-store juice bars in 2015 was the inflection point — consumers chose convenience over making juice at home.
• Danny's diagnosis: he misjudged the market, not the way they sold; they shut the business down overnight.

Finding Hexclad at the Canton Fair

• Xi Jinping's visit to the Canton Fair forced Danny into the basement level, where he stumbled on a booth displaying a steel plate with laser-etched hexagons.
• The inventor, Mr. Lee, had a book of global patents — the first time Danny had seen anyone at a trade show produce actual proof of ownership.
• The technology: hexagons are laser-etched into steel, leaving non-stick coating recessed below the metal surface, so it can't be scratched off by metal utensils.
• Steel conducts heat differently than aluminum; the design also allows searing at lower temperatures and is oven-safe to 500°F — solving the two main non-stick complaints.
• The original product wasn't ready for Western markets; Danny spent 16 months co-developing it with Mr. Lee based on US consumer needs.
• The initial deal was a handshake — Mr. Lee would sell exclusively in the US through Danny; Danny would help design the product for that market.

Bootstrapping with no outside capital

• Danny and Cole initially ordered one 20-foot container of unboxed cookware — roughly $75,000 — because shipping unboxed let them fit more product.
• They assembled and taped boxes in Cole's backyard, cleaning blood from paper cuts off the packaging before driving to Costco.
• The brand name (Hexclad) and logo were created the night before a trademark filing; the logo was a $299 crowd-sourced design contest.
• They tried raising money in LA and San Francisco; every investor said the same thing — "people don't buy cookware online."
• Danny cashed out his 401k and Roth IRA, paid the penalties, and between the two of them put in roughly $800,000–$900,000 of personal savings.
• They were cycling credit card debt to stay afloat through 2016–17, waking up panicked at 4am.

Proving the product and breaking into Costco

• Early Facebook ads were limited to $1,000/month; Danny used gourmet trade show demos to learn what messaging resonated.
• Key sales insight from demos: be honest about trade-offs (Teflon cleans up slightly easier) but lean into the benefits (no peeling, metal-utensil safe, better sear).
• November 2017: first Costco road show in Fountain Valley; sold ~$5,000 in one day, ~$40,000 over the 10-day event — well above Costco's threshold.
• Costco immediately offered more stores; demand outpaced their ability to package product.
• First combined salary taken: $10,000 each, in July 2018. Company became profitable mid-2018.
• 2018 revenue: ~$10M. 2019: ~$18–19M. Both years profitable.

COVID and the Gordon Ramsay partnership

• March 2020: Costco shut road shows; Danny and Cole had already paid for inventory they'd expected to sell in-store.
• Decision: spend their entire $1M cash reserve on Meta advertising in April 2020.
• Result: February baseline was $1M/month online; April 2020 delivered $5M online.
• Summer 2020: a team member noticed Gordon Ramsay was following Hexclad on Instagram — he'd been gifted a pan during lockdown.
• Danny reached out; a 20-minute call ran for 80 minutes. Ramsay became an equity partner.
• The partnership is deliberately fluid: Ramsay puts Hexclad on TV shows beyond contractual obligation, proposes events and marketing initiatives unprompted.
• First full year with Ramsay as partner: ~$170M revenue.
• 2024 revenue: $500M+. Staff: ~235–240 globally.
• Product line has expanded to knives, cutting boards, aprons, and other kitchen tools.
• One outside investor taken in: Fox/Studio Ramsay Global put in $100M.

Lessons on entrepreneurship and timing

• Starting a business at 49–50 is not late; older entrepreneurs bring domain knowledge and better judgment about when to pull the plug.
• Juicepresso's failure was essential — it taught Danny to read market signals faster and kill failing lines decisively.
• The pandemic was a tailwind, but Danny attributes success primarily to controllable factors: work ethic, product quality, and marketing discipline.
• He frames luck as managing the "tiller" — you can't control which wave comes, but you can stay at the helm.
• Advice: identify a genuine hole in the market, take measured risks on yourself, don't over-raise.