New Delhi, Sept. 23 -- For Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar, the road to building an $8.5 million-valued food startup began with an unlikely obsession: pickle videos on TikTok.

The college friends, who graduated from the University of Southern California in 2022, began exchanging pickle-related TikTok videos in 2023. That summer, they quit their jobs and decided to build a business around the trend.

Their Los Angeles-based startup, Good Girl Snacks, now sells its debut product, Hot Girl Pickles, online and through retailers including Whole Foods Market and Erewhon.

The startup got a major social media boost in June when influencer Alix Earle posted a TikTok featuring Hot Girl Pickles. The video included Earle struggling to open the jar...