Weeks before expanding the business with a new restaurant opening, a local company has gone viral on TikTok and is trying to keep up with a mountain of new orders.
Deric and Brooklynn Cahill are the husband and wife entrepreneurs behind Wicked BOLD Chocolates, and use social media to engage with fans of their vegan chocolates. Brooklynn was in a car accident in early April, and though she wasn’t injured, her car was in the shop for several weeks and they got a rental car from Enterprise. On April 29, Deric went to Enterprise to return the rental car to a nearly empty business. As he waited, the phone kept ringing but no one was answering it.
“I just thought it’d be hilarious to answer the phone and field the call as if I worked there,” Deric said. “But it wasn’t a joke to me, I wanted to help them.”
So Deric started taking a video of himself answering the phone, asking the only Enterprise employee he could see if there were any minivans available (there weren’t). After a while, the employee realizes that Deric didn’t work there.
@boldfam @enterprise tell me you have a customer service problem without telling me you have a customer service problem. Also, sorry about hail damage ??
That video went viral, getting more than 2 million views in less than two days. It is now up over 24.7 million. That account had about 1,500 followers before the video, and now it has more than 143,000.
In follow-up videos, Deric explained that the Enterprise employee then found hail damage on the rental, and it’s going to cost the Cahills about $2,000. Someone in the comments suggested starting a GoFundMe to help them out, but instead, Deric pointed them to the order page on the Wicked BOLD website, and said they could help out by ordering some vegan chocolates.
“Our e-commerce orders were maybe 25-30 a month,” Deric said. “We now have had about 1,000 in 10 days.”
Deric said he, Brooklynn and their children are working to fill the orders, but it’ll probably take about two weeks to get caught up.
All of this is happening just before Wicked BOLD will open the new Wicked BOLD Vegan Kitchen, 3343 Long Prairie Road in Flower Mound. Deric and Brooklynn had been looking for a larger kitchen to make the vegan chocolates, and when they found a space that worked for them that also had an open space in front, they decided to expand their vision.
“What if we use the available space to offer the community a chance to try something different?” Deric started. “Why not offer vegan food and mocktails too?”
Wicked BOLD Vegan Kitchen will provide a casual dining space featuring plant-based charcuterie, a bar with non-alcoholic craft cocktails and Wicked BOLD vegan chocolates. Customers will build their own healthy charcuterie boards with a menu crafted from up-and-coming plant-based food companies.
The Cahills are targeting an opening date in the first week of June, Deric said. They are seeking investments in the new business, with a goal of $30,000 to $105,000. As of Friday, they have $21,600 invested, but they only have until June 4 to reach the minimum goal of $30,000, otherwise investors are refunded.
“Everything so far has been self-funded,” Deric said. “We’re doing this raise to get a jumpstart on these ventures, just to make sure we have the best shot at making this successful for the community. Hopefully people will want to have the opportunity to support a local business.”
Wicked BOLD Vegan Kitchen will be open daily from noon to 8 p.m. For more details, go to wickedbold.com/pages/kitchen.
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