Elizabeth Holmes’ Onscreen Snack Sends Think Jerky Sales Soaring

Hirsch was watching poker at home when an employee texted him from a screening of You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s A24 documentary. In the film, Holmes asks for turkey jerky from a prison vending machine; the scene is reenacted with Amanda Seyfried, who played Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout. The film ends with Holmes and her husband, Billy Evans, eating Think Jerky.

Hirsch, who founded the chef-crafted snack company in 2015, went to see the film the following day with about 30 bags of jerky. After the screening, he handed them out to people outside the Austin theater. The featured honey sriracha flavor was created by Michelin-starred, two-time James Beard Award-winning chef Gale Gand.

The unexpected exposure quickly spread beyond sales. H-E-B stores in Texas reportedly sold out of what one post on X called “the Elizabeth Holmes jerky.” Reddit users debated the bag’s meaning in the film, Halloween celebrants dressed as the packaging, and restaurants approached the company about collaborations. Fake merchandise also appeared. “If somebody wanted to pay for this publicity, it’s in the millions of dollars,” Hirsch said.

Think Jerky is bootstrapped and has four employees, but Hirsch is looking for ways to sustain attention. The company plans to serve a Gale Gand egg dish topped with jerky at the Food & Wine festival in San Diego and hold lookalike contests. It has about 60 days’ worth of finished inventory in reserve, and Hirsch expects to sell out. A website revamp and new products are also planned, including a Thanksgiving turkey stick made with four-time James Beard Award-winner Andrew Zimmern. Hirsch said he would consider raising money with the right partner.