The timing was poor for bootstrapping: Winer and Mecray had just shuttered their first startup attempt, a juice presser company called Juicepresso. They maxed out credit cards, took out a small-business loan from American Express and packaged cookware sets in their backyards. It's grown steadily since, bringing in $170.7 million in revenue last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. At its height in 2015, we brought in somewhere between $5 million and $6 million in revenue. To be honest, though, as soon as I started working on the pan, I knew it wasn't going to fail.

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Persons: Gordon Ramsay's, HexClad, Danny Winer, Cole Mecray, Winer, Mecray, we'd, Jason Panzer, Ramsay, Cole, you'd, I'd, Warren Buffett Organizations: CNBC, bootstrapping, presser, American Express, Costco, Foods, New Locations: New York City