Two friends invested $600,000 to launch a business that now generates up to $4.3 million in monthly revenue.

In 2018, Karen Robinovitz was reintroduced to slime and, along with her friend's 10-year-old daughter, she ran up to her New York apartment's rooftop and tried drizzling it all the way to the ground.

According to Robinovitz, 52, it made me feel like a 7-year-old for four hours.

Robinovitz, who had not felt joy in over a year and a half due to the suicide of her husband and the death of her teenage cousin in the Parkland high school shooting, found unexpected relief through playing with slime. She bought hundreds of jars from TikTok creators.

Robinovitz and Schiller, who ran a talent management agency for social media influencers and an event space company respectively, saw a chance to sell more than just slime in the niche industry of small businesses, particularly those on TikTok, who have reported bringing in more than $1 million per year making and selling stretchy, elastic goo that you can squish and pop in your hands.

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The Sloomoo Institute is an interactive slime experience that offers visitors a unique and immersive experience. With locations in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and Houston, visitors can enjoy customizable slime stations, ASMR rooms, and white fiberglass vats of slime with different textures and smells. After purchasing tickets, which cost an average of $34 per person, visitors are given a gob of slime and invited to smack it against a wall.

Sloomoo generates more revenue from ticket sales than from slime sales, with up to $4.3 million in monthly revenue coming from ticket sales. Its first four locations generated $28.9 million in revenue in 2023, including $4.6 million in EBITDA, according to CNBC Make It.

The company says its full-year earnings for 2024 aren't yet finalized.

"Schiller, 54, says that Karen and he have a deep belief that tapping into your senses creates an emotional connection. He adds that Sloomoo has been profitable since its first location opened and that it's much more powerful than just mailing out slime packages."

'Lines down the block' for slime

Sloomoo originated unofficially during one of Robinovitz and Schiller's weekly meetings, which took place at Schiller's loft in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood. The women sought emotional relief as Schiller's husband had suffered brain-damaging strokes a couple of years prior, leaving her as the family's sole caretaker.

The siblings connected and played together through handling slime, which can improve depression and anxiety symptoms, some studies show.

The two friends, Schiller and Robinvitz, bought over 900 jars of slime to study, according to Schiller. They then worked on their own recipes. Schiller advises always starting with Elmer's glue, while Robinvitz suggests beginning with flour. The friends attended conferences and met slime creators, eventually hiring them. They also raised $1 million from a private investor, as stated by the co-CEOs.

Schiller put aside $400,000 of their investment money and used the remaining $600,000 to renovate a rental property near their home.

Schiller says that they invited slime, parenting, and lifestyle influencers on hardhat tours mid-construction as a marketing strategy. Their grand opening in October 2019 sold out — 3,000 tickets — before they even opened their doors.

"I recall the mother crying to me, 'My daughter must attend today because her friends are here,' and I responded, 'I regret to inform you, we're fully booked,'" Robinvitz recalls. "However, when I turned around, the little girl dashed in, removed her shoes, and leaped into the lake of muck."

"Schiller notes that there were lines down the block, but people didn't mind being jostled because they were thrilled to have the chance to enter."

Debt, expansion and 'doing something that's never been done before'

In its first week, Sloomoo sold $1 million worth of tickets, according to Robinovitz and Schiller. However, five months later, the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the business let go of approximately 90 part-time employees, keeping only the co-CEOs, a bookkeeper, and their resident slime-maker.

In 2021, Sloomoo fully reopened after hosting virtual slime-making camps for kids and corporate workshops for companies like Google and Pfizer. The following year, the company raised $5.8 million in a Series A funding round led by Raptor Group and opened its Chicago and Atlanta locations.

The company borrowed $5 million from investors to open in Houston and Los Angeles in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and has since repaid the debt. The co-CEOs reveal that their future expansion plans involve additional locations, physical products, learning programs, games, and live entertainment.

Sloomoo's longevity depends on providing memorable and unique experiences to visitors, according to Joe Pine, an experience economy researcher, consultant, and author. The popularity of their central product, slime, has fluctuated over the years, from the chemical-smelling slime of the 1970s to Nickelodeon's "Slime Time Live" in the early 2000s. With TikTok fueling the current slime craze, it is likely that this popularity will eventually fade.

According to Pine, experience-based businesses thrive when they are memorable, meaningful, evoke a sense of awe, and most importantly, transform our identities. Meow Wolf and Eataly are two examples of companies that meet all four criteria, he notes.

Sloomoo's vats, walls, and lakes of scented slime fulfill the first three, pine notes. Although Sloomoo's ability to transform people is not entirely convincing, Schiller and Robinovitz claim that it has certainly impacted them in some way.

"Schiller says, "We could be SVPs at major companies, and we've chosen to do this because it's meaningful to us. We want to show people that they can try something new and make a difference.""

"What are we going to fear now, given everything we've been through together?" she inquires.

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