13. From Diagnosis to Disruption: How Loren Castle Redefined the Refrigerated Bakery Aisle

What does it take to disrupt an entire food category—and build a $100M+ brand while raising a family?

In this episode, Angela sits down with Loren Castle, Founder and CEO of Sweet Loren’s, to talk about turning a personal health crisis into a thriving business that’s reshaping the refrigerated baked goods aisle. From surviving cancer at 22 to teaching herself food science and launching in Whole Foods, Lauren shares the real story behind building a brand rooted in better ingredients and big ambition.

They dive into the early hustle, scaling challenges, leadership evolution, and how Loren balances motherhood with running a fast-growing company. This is an honest conversation about resilience, reinvention, and creating a business that aligns with your life—not the other way around.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I do think with the right systems and team in place at home and at work, you can make all of your dreams come true. Again, if you want it bad enough, you'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to Women Who Make It. Real conversations with women in the food and beverage industry who are building careers, leading teams, and figuring it all out. After years of building females and food, I've had conversations with some of the most brilliant women in the industry. And they shared the real stuff. The pivots, the boundaries, the burnouts, and the moments of is this even working before it finally clicked? So I hit record, and now you get to hear it too. We're women who make it. So let's dig in. Welcome back to Women Who Make It, a podcast by Females in Food where we go beyond the highlight reel and into the real stories behind building, leading, and evolving in the food and beverage industry. I'm your host, Angela Dodd, founder and CEO of Females and Food. And today I'm joined by Lauren Castle, who's the founder and CEO of Sweet Lauren, a brand that has not only scaled in meaningful ways, but has helped reshape what's possible in the refrigerated baked goods category. Lauren built Sweet Lauren's around something that might feel obvious now, but definitely was not at the time. And that's that you should not have to choose between indulgence and ingredients that you feel great about. And today we're not just talking about building and scaling a category-defining brand. We're also talking about leadership through different seasons of life as Lauren prepares to welcome her third child into the world. Lauren, it is so great to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining us on Women Who Make It.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah, so there's we have a lot to cover to get through. And so for some of our listeners who may not be super familiar in your backstory, I would love just to spend a couple minutes really grounding our listeners in those early days. As the founder of Sweet Lawrence, take us back. What was happening in your life in those early days when the idea first came to you that really made you feel like this is something you got to pursue? Because being a founder is no easy job, right? And so curious if you could take us back to some of those early days and what was going on.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Sure. So I started Sweet Lawrence really out of a personal need. I survived cancer when I was 22 years old. I had Hodgkin's lymphoma. I was diagnosed three months after graduating college. And so I was definitely not expecting that. And it it sent me, you know, into kind of a year of figuring out how to make myself as healthy as possible. So I had to do chemo, but I also started to take cooking classes and study nutrition on the days that I didn't have treatment or doctor's appointments, um, really because intuitively, like food to me was my fuel, was my energy. And I just wanted to superpower myself. So I started to get really into food because of that. And I felt like I could become a good cook in terms of making your meals, but I have a sweet tooth. I love to bake, and I just felt like I couldn't eat really processed, refined, bleached ingredients anymore. I just didn't feel good after I ate them. There was not a lot of nutritional value. It was really like inflammatory and hard to digest. So I got obsessed with just natural ingredients and whole food ingredients and just as less processed, tastiest, nutrient-dense ingredients as possible. And how do I bake with them and how do they work together? So that just became this like hobby and personal interest that I was trying to solve for myself. And I think when I really knew that like this was the beginning of potentially a business, is when I saw so many other people love like the samples I was making. And again, I never made it, I never created these recipes to start a business at the beginning. It was really just for myself. But then, you know, every time you bake, you have like one or two dozen cookies sitting around, or one or two dozen brownies, or whatever you're working on. And so I just I'd always bring them to a friend's house or to a party or give them to my neighbors, and and I would hear the feedback over and over again of like, wait a minute, these are delicious, and I don't get that like sugar high sugar crash. I feel better, I can digest these better. Like, can I buy these from you? And you know, when I would just hear it several times, your gut starts to tell you something. Like, I was like, I'm not the only one who wants here. Yeah, there's something here. And, you know, I think the real aha for me was when thankfully I was cured and my doctor was like, you know, go be normal and get a normal job. And I was like, I don't think I'll ever be normal again, you know, like this really changed my life. But I tried to join a PR agency. I tried to get into finance, I managed a restaurant, I like tried to jump into a bunch of different industries and they weren't fulfilling to me. And the thing that kept getting me excited, and the thing that I was truly the most passionate about was were these recipes. And so, um, and just like the joy it brought to people, you know, like it was just it made people so happy. And I was like, I want to be in that industry where there's a lot of joy, there's a lot of happiness, and food does that, the right type of food really does that for people. So I entered a baking contest and won. And that was, you know, I think the final tipping point where like the judge came up to me and was like, you really need to do something with this. And I think I just needed some extra validation outside of like friends and family. And uh I just kind of said, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm gonna be miserable working for someone else, I'm not fit for another industry. This is this, I gotta make this work. And so I jumped in.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

I love that. I love that for so many reasons. Food is the universal language. Um, and I'm not sure if I've shared this with you, but my background is in baking, right? I'm a food scientist by training, but really focused in baking in those early days. And I know winning a baking competition and getting that validation, I resonate with it so deeply because you know those judges have tried a lot of cookies in their life, right? Like that speaks that speaks volumes. Like you've you've done something different in getting that validation to move forward. But but also I say this to you know, in all my conversations with founders, there has to be this other cord that's pulling you so strongly in that entrepreneurial direction in order to survive entrepreneurship, right? And how good that you tried those other different routes, because ultimately to to survive not just being an entrepreneur, but an entrepreneur in F and B. And then more broadly, we're gonna get into later in the baking sector, which has some really you know stiff legacy competition. None of those were easy, easy things to do at all. Um, I really admire what you've what you've set out. Um we'll we'll continue down this path of this conversation, but to keep us for one minute longer on what some of those early days looked like, what would surprise people on the behind the scenes as you first started, the version, you know, maybe people see the growth and the product expansions, but what would they be surprised about about the version of you from at the beginning or what was going on behind the scenes?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Oh, I think people would be surprised at the blood, sweat, and tears it it really took to get off the ground and how hard those early days and years were. So, you know, just certain examples, like I didn't know what product I would even launch, sweet Lauren's, you know, to start. I just had so many different ideas of, you know, what it could be. You know, I had muffins, I had brownies, I had cookies, I had all these different flavors. So I did start out at a local farmer's market in New York City to kind of sample to hundreds of people and see what people would pay, what were the favorite products, um, what were the questions asked, like really like test the product to make sure I understood what people wanted to buy. And that was such a hustle that it was so physical. Like I had to find a way to like, you know, bring a table and all the plates and set up, you know, and I was a one-woman show. I didn't have a team in the early days. Like I just had to figure it out. And I had friends come and help, you know, bring over like a tablecloth so it looked more professional and you know, help me do signage, and my little sister would jump in and help me sell it so I didn't have to pay her. And, you know, you just just the physical hustle of it was a lot. And I also I started making them in my mom's apartment. I was living at home because you know, that's where I did treat. It's when I got sick, I was really just home. And then when I moved into my own like tiny studio apartment, like 450 square feet max, I raised the bed as high as I could. And so I would just buy like these big, you know, containers from like Amazon and fill them with like 25 pounds of you know, oat flour or chocolate chips or oil, or so all of my ingredients would go under my bed in like these like sealed containers, and I'd have like a long, you know, comforter kind of covering the bed so that like you know it didn't look weird. But at night I would recipe test and like bring those bins out and like really pull off a miracle in a tiny, tiny kitchen. So I just think that like when you want something bad enough, yeah, no matter what the circumstances are, you figure out how to make it work. There's just no excuse. Yeah, and so you know, I think I found something that really lit me up enough that I wanted it bad enough. You know, I I saw the excitement, I saw the opportunity, I saw the white space, and you know, I knew I I'm glad I tried to get other jobs because especially working for bosses I didn't love, it really made me see that like I don't want to work for someone else. So if I have to work twice as hard, I'll do it because I want to work for myself. I want to do something that feels like it turns this negative thing that happened to me into a positive, into a strength, into something empowering. Find something that brings joy to the world and it's like fun to do every day, and something that makes, you know, the food industry better and safer, more trustworthy. Like all those things are really what I care about the most.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

That yeah, you know, it just fulfills you on a different level. It uh I always say if you want the easy route to make money, go get a job, right? Um, but if you really want a different level of fulfillment that you can't experience anywhere else, start your own company. It's not an it's definitely not the easiest way to make money in this world. Um, but it it is the most fulfilling, especially in those early days, because you have to continue to lean lean into like that joy and and what you're creating, because not everybody sees that vision at the same time as you do, right? And moving through that vision and bringing other people along for that journey. And so, yeah, as we as we talk more about this journey, what's interesting is that you stepped into a category that was and has been operating in a certain way for a very long time. And, you know, I look at this from even a food science background. You were you were challenging a lot of norms, right, within this category and you were using a lot of different ingredients. I'm I'm curious, did you even know at the time that you were challenging different assumptions? And what what assumptions did you think you were challenging? But also I'm I'm curious from teaching yourself how to create products with ingredients that the at the time the industry wasn't using in this category.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Um yeah, absolutely. I mean, I really followed, I think, a combination of my deep gut feelings and also what I heard from dozens and dozens of people. So I think, you know, for me, I grew up in New York City around a lot of great food, and my expectation of food quality was just very high. Like it wasn't worth it unless it tasted super gourmet, super high quality. Like, and so, and again, I don't have food allergies, but I want to feel good after I eat food. I want it to help me feel great. I don't want to eat something and I have a stomachache. I don't want to eat something and I feel lethargic. I don't want to eat something and you know, it it be hard for my body to digest. And so it slows me down. So I think like my original recipes, I mean, I tried everything. And again, this is like back to one of those stories of like the nitty-gritty, like people, you know, how do they think, you know, the recipes got created? It's not like I got it on the first or second or third try. I made hundreds and hundreds of variations and batches. And again, I think I just was so interested in like this concept of like, I'm obsessed with a warm chocolate chip cookie. I think it's the best food in the world. And I don't need a hundred cookies when I eat them. I want one or two that just really hit the spot, satisfy me, you know. And you know, when you would, again, this is like over 15 years ago. So it's just the food industry has changed so much. So much. But back then it like it was so hard to like Google and find like a healthier cookie recipe that actually tasted great. Like it just and it and it didn't exist in products, you know. When I would go to a Whole Foods or I would go to a natural supermarket or a big conventional supermarket, it was just the same brands, legacy brands that you've seen forever, that all have artificial colors and dyes, all are using like white bleached wheat flour, you know, like it, there's just nothing new or different. So when I started recipe testing, I just started to order, and Amazon had kind of just launched. So between like Whole Foods and Amazon, I could order, you know, all these weird, interesting types of time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

With flour, like even oat flour. I was gonna say almond flour, oat flour, like these were weird ingredients 15 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

It's not normal. And so it's like, oh, oak flour, um, yeah, almond flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, brown rice flour, rolled oats. Like I just started to like test how does baking soda work with them? How does baking powder work with them? How, what types of oils are out there that are better for digestion? And like I was really trying to stay away from a lot of gluten and dairy and anything artificial. Like that to me made me feel less inflammatory and just higher energy. So I was like, how can I bring in some flowers that have like more nutrition? There's more fiber, they're whole grain, but they don't taste too grainy. I don't want to use ingredients where like the nutrition's completely stripped away. So it was just a ton of tweaking, like what types of sweeteners are out there and sugars, and you know, how does stevia or monk fruit or coconut sugar or white sugar, you know, like how does it all work together? So I just taught myself through a ton of trial and error of like how it tastes and how it bakes and how the chemistry is.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

I was gonna say you gave yourself an entire like university degree in food science because I did.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

I did. I just I just became obsessed with it. And and then again, like once I finally got like a chocolate chip cookie recipe that my younger sister, who's also very picky, was like, Lauren, this is the best cookie I think I've ever had. And when she said that, and I felt the same way, you know, I just was like, there's something here. So I started to like, you know, that's when I got more confident and started to bring, you know, a bunch of cookies to friends' homes and neighbors and and just get feedback. And I think that's when I realized, like, if I was really gonna start a business about this, it it really wasn't about me. Like, yes, it's great to have like an inner instinct of like, these taste great, but if I'm really trying to solve a problem in the food industry, it's really about what other people think. So, like, it doesn't matter how much I love this flavor of a cookie, if other people don't love it, what's the point? You know, it has to sell. So I really just started listening and like throwing my ego kind of out the window of like, what are most people reacting to? What are they saying? What are they saying about the legacy brands that are on the shelf? Do they love it or are they not buying those products anymore? Do they want a different option that they feel better about feeding their kids or themselves? It just doesn't exist. You know, and so I think when I started to like do this kind of deep research, you know, when you hear something over and over and over again, you know, you you you feel in your gut that like it's true. And again, I didn't have money to like buy research on this or data. It was just more, you know, talking to dozens of people and seeing people light up with the excitement of, you know, basically everyone I have ever met has a sweet tooth, but they want to satisfy it in a way that's not too sweet, and it makes them feel good after they eat it. So like they are searching for a brand that could, you know, create the quality taste, but they'd feel better about the ingredients if it was cleaner. So, you know, that was my really like my aha, and like it got even, you know, I refined the product more when actually I got my first store was Whole Foods. So I got in, I got set up on a meeting with someone at Whole Foods, just one local store in New York City. And I went to them with a plate of cookies because again, I didn't have a packaged product yet. And on that meeting, like the next day he called me and the buyer was like, How soon can we get this as cookie dough? We loved it so much. And I remember like crying as I got this news because I was just so, you know, excited.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Yeah, I mean, how do you go from farmer's market to Whole Foods, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Overnight. That's and in my head, I was like, this is just what I need. I need a chance to show I can do it. And again, because I knew I didn't want to work for anyone else and because I so believed in this, and it's like the thing that lit me up, it never felt like a job or work. Like it just felt like something so exciting that I was willing to build it and put in the work that I, you know, I just I jumped in and I was like, I promise I won't let you down. And you know, it took seven months from that call to find a factory, you know, design packaging, scale up recipes, like really figure out how to make a scalable product that could be sold in a grocery store and not just like a cookie that was made in my kitchen. Right. And once I got it into Whole Foods, I personally demoed every week for about a year and and you know, schlepped a big suitcase with uh, you know, a toaster oven in it and spatula and aprons, and you know, and I stood in the refrigerated section where it was cold and for three or four hours demoing. But what was incredible is like doing that in New York City, it's such a busy store. There's so many people in New York City that like you're meeting hundreds of people, it's not like it's crickets, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

And it's the best consumer testing feedback you're ever gonna get, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:36

And those early days are New Yorkers are no BS, so they're gonna tell you how it is. And you know, so it gave me like after asking enough and hearing enough repetitive positive things and negative things, like opportunities for improvement. I just I felt really confident I could I could direct the next iteration of the product because I knew the customer so well.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

So well, which is when you're moving forward in in that brand, and we're gonna get into brand expansion here, but I'm I'm curious, you know, typically clean label and indulgence are two things to match up, right? And as you said, you're going through all these iterations as it took a long time to like get to that perfect product. Was there ever a time, especially during that scale-up process, where where you felt like there was a trade-off in like trying to make those both work?

SPEAKER_00 20:29

So I think the thing that's really interesting about the product is the original, and like not many people know this, but like the the original recipes weren't allergen-free as well. So I launched and I actually had some whole wheat flour mixed in with my oat flour, and I did use eggs, and um, so we were dairy-free, but we weren't egg free, and like the original recipes weren't top allergen-free. And then I got sweet laurens, not just in um some Whole Foods, but I got into all public supermarkets and all Kroger supermarkets. And this is like 2016, and so 2016 got into really nationwide distribution in the two of the top supermarkets in the country that are quite conventional, and started to get hundreds of messages from people around the country saying, I love your concept, I love your product, but my husband is gluten-free, my kid is nut free, I'm trying to new or plant-based, or I'm a breastfeeding mom and my kid is allergic to eggs. Or, and I just started to realize, like, oh my God, there are so many people with like just dietary restrictions or requests, or someone in their family is, and then if one person in your family is, it affects the whole family and affects every meal you have together multiple times a day. It's really stressful. And I just was like, my goal is to make the cleanest product possible, meaning that as many people can eat it and feel great after they do. And so I was never gonna compromise, it was always about. Being natural and nothing artificial, no artificial colors or flavors or dyes, but like, could I go one step further, you know, and kind of remove the top kind of allergens? Um, because that was also white space in the supermarket. That was also an opportunity to create a product that even more people could enjoy that kind of the legacy brands were completely ignoring. So I really worked on that recipe. And then I had to find another factory that was allergen-free that even harder at the time. Even harder that we could launch in. And I needed some place driving distance to New York City because I was a one-woman, you know, I'd it was me and probably like a couple, two people by then, two or three people. So I was like, you know, I just needed it to be easy. Um, I need to be able to go to it in 40 minutes, not fly every time and make it hard. And so when I created that recipe and took out the eggs and took out all the gluten and whatever, I was like, holy, like, this tastes better than the original. Like, I I couldn't believe it. And so we started doing test runs at a factory, and of course, you have to tweak more things, but I remember that first runoff the the test run and being like, I it was amazing. This is this is a this this is gonna change the game. And so again, following my gut, I didn't have access to data. I didn't even know how big the allergen-free market was. And like when we we launched it in 2017 and it became our number one SKU overnight. And what we heard from consumers is like, just thank you so much. Like, I feel so much better with this product. But by the way, like now my whole family eats it versus like, you know, just my husband getting the gluten-free products. You know, it's easier for us to just buy one product we can all eat versus having to like have two different types of products out there in the house. So the data was right there. And it helped build a moat around us that was very differentiated from the conventional players on the shelf. And so it was a really smart move for us, you know. And even though it was a dollar or two dollars more expensive than conventional, everyone knew that like the types of ingredients we were using are more expensive. And if you try to bake from scratch, you're gonna be spending four times as much, you know. So like we're really saving you time and money, and also like the guesswork of like, is the recipe even gonna taste good? And so that was a really winning smart strategy for us because it created a moat around us, an even bigger differentiator from not just the big guys, but any even like smaller cookie dough brands that were trying to kind of see what we were doing and follow us. And again, it started to open up the net of like we were getting clean eaters, better for you eaters, millennials and Gen Z, people that really weren't buying the legacy brands and were looking for a better for you, more trustworthy brand.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

And influencer, the whole that time, the whole influencer cooking realm, right, really took off. And you had people for the first time cooking with some of these ingredients, but now they're you tapped in beyond the allergen category, but really everything that the influencers were bringing into that market category as well, like what people were looking for was shifting and changing based on some of those early days in Instagram, and your your product truly transcends people with eating restrictions to you know, people still looking for indulgence, but different ingredients and ultimately that convenience, right? Because it's like they still want all of these things, but by the way, we're really busy people.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Um totally, and no one people want people want it all now, like they want the highest quality, like the best taste, the best experience. They want to trust the brand, they want to love the brand, and by the way, they want their time back. So like they don't want to be cooking and cleaning up their whole kitchen every day. They want to be able to throw something in a toaster oven, in an air fryer, in a regular oven, and in 10-15 minutes. I don't care if you're a really experienced cook or you're someone who doesn't cook at all, you can just have like a guaranteed reliable, warm, fresh cookie or treat or you know, whatever sweet lorns product it is. And so yeah, we are. We are, we're definitely selling like trust and convenience.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Yeah, I I love that. And also with little, with little people in my household, I really love refrigerated doughnut because I can control them like we can just make two cookies at once and not and not uh two dozen. Two dozen, exactly, which uh they go after. Um so let's let's transition and talk a little bit about growth. And because it's always a delicate time and a business journey to decide when you're gonna move away from your core and start expanding into these different areas. And I know you started doing that gradually, but now, you know, just recently really expanded into oatmeal bars and scones and puff pastry, puff pastry sticks, I should say. You know, how did you make that decision? How did you know it was right? But that's a whole nother layer of complexity to stay true to your brand, your core values while innovating into these new spaces. We'd love for you to chat with us about that.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Yeah, I think it's a combination of a bunch of things. So thankfully, I'm not a one-woman show anymore. We're 35 people, we have an incredible RD team and RD center that's in Denver now. And I'm based in LA, and so we're, you know, like a really capable and but virtual organization. And um, so you know, several things. I think one, like again, we listen to our customers like crazy because we're here to fulfill their needs and like really make their lives better, and they're the ones buying our products. So, like, why are we not listening to them? And so, you know, from day one, of course, we got requests like, I'm obsessed with your cookie dough, but I can't eat your cookie dough for like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You know, can you create something like a puff pastry that doesn't exist right now, that's gluten-free and dairy-free, and like especially being refrigerated, just being so easy to use, like you don't have to thaw it and plan hours ahead. Like you take it out of the fridge, you unroll it, you make whatever you want, where it's a quiche or chicken pot pie or you know, an apple turnover, and like, you know, in 15 minutes, you have this flaky, delicious thing that you really couldn't make from scratch. You know, it's just way too hard. So I think we started to really listen to our customer, and then we started to see what's possible. Because again, the science and and chemistry behind this, it's not easy. So, no, how long is it gonna take our RD team, you know, and like I work really closely with them and to create these next products. If we could create them all tomorrow, I'm sure we would have launched, you know, a lot more products tomorrow. But, you know, certain things are really complicated and quite frankly, have taken years to create.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Oh, I believe it. I so I think I think about being a developer on the bench, and I actually want to meet some of these people doing this development for on your team. Incredible.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Um yeah, maybe they would love it. They're super awesome. And so it's a combination of like, what's the consumer asking for? What do we have the machinery for? What do we have the recipes for? How when are those you know going to be ready to launch? You know, do they take six months, a year, two years, three years? Like, what are we talking? And then like we now we really dive into data. Like we really, you know, we we've set aside a budget to, you know, buy data, to look at the market so that we go in eyes wide open in terms of how big is a puff pastry category? You know, how big of a market do we think this could be? Do we think we could grow it? Do we think consumers are changing and gonna use it more? Um, you know, I think with cookie dough, there's just a realistic, you're gonna max out a certain amount of flavors and skews. You can't, I wish I could get a hundred flavors on the shelf, but it's just not realistic. We're super, we're in a supermarket where there's limited shelf space, and you know, they're probably gonna have our top six cookie dough flavors, you know, ideally all yeah all year round. And then we're gonna have maybe four seasonal flavors that every quarter will come in as like something new and exciting that's only limited batch, you know, for a couple months. And then you're you're you're like, yes, you wish you could have more flavors on the shelf, but like that's kind of your set. So it's incremental to that. You know, how do you grow smartly so that you're growing into other day parts and other needs and into big enough categories that are interesting enough and have enough velocity and movement so that retailers are happy and we're happy and it's a big enough business. So I think the thing that was so interesting over the last like two years is like, you know, we launched into refrigerated puff pastry, and we also had some pizza dough and some pie crust, and the refrigerated puff pastry just absolutely blew up. And we saw the excitement and response of the sales from like the supermarkets, and we saw the excitement from our fans and our consumers. And so that really gave us, I think, the big, you know, wide open door to say our customers don't just want sweet and dessert from us, they want savory, they want convenience, they want other day parts unlocked because a lot of our customers are busy moms like you who want high quality and they want something delicious and trustworthy, and they want something that mom wants to eat, and by the way, kids want to eat too. And so, you know, and it's such ultimate convenience and bakes in 15 minutes and exactly. I got 15 minutes and screaming kids. 100%. So I think like we really started to think about and who is today's consumer because like they're different than five years ago, 10 years ago. And today's consumer is actually not eating three meals anymore, they're eating five different, more snacking occasions throughout the day. They want something, you know, maybe small in the morning pre-workout, and then they want something like after workout, and then they want like a pick-me-up before lunch, or then they want like a treat after lunch, or they want, you know, kind of like appetizer grazing before dinner, or they want, you know, so it's it's really interesting to look at how people are eating today that's different and they're on the go and they're busy and they want ultimate convenience, but they don't want sacrifice of flavor or ingredients. So we've said, wow, like we know the everyone wants better versions of the classics that are out there in terms of baked goods, but I think we have a chance to actually like create products that haven't even been done before in our refrigerated dough category. And so we invented like scone dough, like there really isn't refrigerated scone dough out there, but like it's so delicious. It comes in these cute triangles, and you can make as many as you want either in the morning, and your kids can grab it and you can enjoy it, or at tea time in the afternoon, or a little pick-me-up, or a Sunday brunch. So, like scone dough is going to be launching in like June in stores. And then we also created this six gram protein, three gram fiber oatmeal bar that comes in three different flavors. Like we have chocolate chunk and apple cinnamon and a cinnamon chip. And so it's like it tastes kind of like oatmeal, like fresh warm oatmeal, but also kind of like a bar too. And um, and so kids love it, adults love it, and and you really feel like it's nutrient dense, like it's six grams of protein, like you could eat two of them if you want. You can, you know, just have one and like pre-workout, post-workout, like it's it, it's just made of really trustworthy ingredients. And so I think like we're we're excited about not just doing the normal conventional kind of categories too, like really leaning into like this modern shopper and what they want and and and having kind of you know, just a let's let's try it. Let's see what we can like create real excitement in this category with new items that have never been done before.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

The amount of disruption that you're still doing in this category. And I was laughing earlier when you were describing the consumer because I'm like, oh my gosh, you're describing me, but when did that happen? Like, when did I change? When did that is definitely uh I don't even know when it when that uh when that switched, but yeah, I don't know the last time I sat down for a full meal. It could just be the busy working mom part. Um the but the disruption, I was I was curious if you think you'll still stay core to refrigeration, the refrigerator aisle. Um when you think about kind of expanding almost into that bar space, right? Because I'm assuming those oatmeal bars will be refrigerated, right? And baked. So you're I have so much excitement about that because it is disrupting a traditional bar category into baked refrigeration space that's gonna give a whole new consumer experience than anybody's ever had to do that.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

I think that's what we're excited about too. I think that like we can be, I mean, listen, the the snacking shelf stable category is super exciting to me, but something that's like been on the shelf for six months is never, you're never gonna have that wow experience versus something that's fresh warm out of the oven. So I think there's that aspect, and also there's the aspect of like it's just crowded, like that snacking bar category. I mean, people are doing it, they're doing a great job in it, they're deep in it, and it's just a whole nother business strategy. It's a whole nother kind of animal to go after. We started in the refrigerated dough category with cookie dough. We've now expanded into many other day parts, and we're gonna continue to and really build this exciting destination here for people that want that warm, fresh, baked, good experience, but in the ultimate convenience of ways. And, you know, I think we're gonna be there until we feel like we've maxed it out. You know, um, we're I think you have to be, I think something that can happen to brands is they try to do too much too fast, I think. And for us, it's like we've built a supply chain around refrigerated products. The customer we're we brought in through cookie dough loves refrigerate, yeah, refrigerated products warm and fresh. We're already, you know, have a relationship with the buyer of that category. So like to start all over in another category is literally starting all over in another category. And we just see so much white space and excitement and demand where we are that it really fits the brand's, you know, ethos.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Ethos, yeah. I love that. Well, I'm really excited to bring even more of these products into our home. And uh I know you'll have a couple big fans who are three and two in this family. Um and I know I we could continue talking all day, and I don't want to close us out until we can talk about your motherhood journey, but also leadership through that. Because goodness, if we talk about what has happened in the last like, I don't know, decade and a half, two decades of your life and being a cancer survivor, starting a company, building and scaling in into over 100 million is is correct, right? Over 100 million in sales and becoming a mother to two kids and having a third on the way in just a couple weeks. I was we were joking before we started this uh recording that there's no way I would be sitting doing an interview with three weeks before delivery with my third child. Like I wouldn't even be able to get through a sentence. All of this, right? Like you've had to transform your leadership style, I have to assume. And so curious if you can talk us through that motherhood journey and leadership journey and what it's been like as a working mom, a mom entrepreneur wearing all these hats. And I don't know if you ever get balanced, but curious how you really leaned into your leadership style in this new season of life.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Yeah, I think it's a really important question as women become, you know, more and more, I think, ambitious and try to juggle all of it. I think for me, uh there's a couple things. One, I started the business before I met my husband, before I had children. So like I saw what it was like giving my all to something. I mean, I really worked seven days a week, year over year in the early years. And your first baby. It was my first baby, and I was the one who was solely responsible and I cared so much about the success of it, and it had legs of its own the second I started. So there just was always something that had to be taken care of, you know, something that needed to get done day after day. And I think I saw what it was like just having a business and not having a family, and it was lonely for me. So I think that was really eye-opening and really good like soul searching that I got to do because it made me realize that my life is empty without a family, and that means kids and a really great partner and husband. And so it really helped me once I got the business, you know, off the ground. I mean, it wasn't huge yet, but it was a little bit off the ground. It wasn't in super startup mode anymore, you know. So I met my husband in 2017. So we were just launching like the allergen-free line, like the gluten-free. And in 2018, you know, we changed the whole business to be all allergen-free so that we could just have like one clear, you know, message to all. And and it really started to kind of grow and take off because again, I think there was enough tweaking of product market fit to get it there. Yeah. But I had more space to appreciate him, to have a relationship, you know. Um, and then we had children, you know, two kids together. And so I think I'm really glad I started the business and got to see all the different departments in the company and understand what I like doing, what I'm best at, what I'm not great at, what I want to outsource. It gave me a chance to really appreciate every department and what it needs and um hire for it. And so started to hire more experienced people in those early years. Um, but then after like three years, you know, you get to a different level of the business and you're like, I don't know if these people are the right people to even stay with me. Like there's only one person on our team, our VP of sales, who's been with me for nine years. You know, everyone else has kind of come and gone over years because whether for their reasons or our reasons, you know, it just it wasn't the right fit anymore. Yeah. It changes. And so I think like, you know, just being okay with that, knowing that like the people that are gonna be in startup mode may might necessarily be with you a decade later. Maybe it's not right for them, maybe it's not right for you, maybe you need someone more experienced, maybe you just need a different level, you know, instead of hustler mentality, you need kind of someone who can help create more systems and organization more. And so I think like it's been such growth mode, but the biggest thing that I did was like I took, I had my first kid who's five during COVID, and I didn't really have a number two. And I saw how stressful that was for not just me, but my baby and my family and the rest of the team. And I was like, no, I've worked way too hard and I care about Sweet Lawrence way too much to do something that just like doesn't make it as successful as possible and create stability. And so if I know in my heart that like having kids is important to me, I have to figure out how to like build something more sustainable in the business. And so before I had kid number two, I hired a president who could really be my number two in the business and you know, hired a recruiter to help me find them, found someone in the industry who had a great reputation in my category. We spent a lot of time together to make sure it was a good culture fit. Um, and it's been three and a half years that I've had my president and we get along so well. We're quite opposite in certain ways, right? Which is great because it's like his strength is really, you know, running the day-to-day of a business. And my strength is really growth and innovation and you know, being the face of the company. And so we can divide and conquer, and we're a really good team. And I really look at him as he's like my partner in this. And I think it's also super helped me because he's helped then us hire like a full C-suite team. You know, we have a 35-person team. We we're a real um, there's always things to improve, but like we're a great organization that's just really humming and has systems in place in all departments. So I can be on all day, but I am very present when my kids come home from school and I'm present on the weekends because even though I might have a call here and there and work early in the morning or late at night or an event at night, or I have to travel, you know, when I am home, I'm not trying to put out a million fires. And so I think like learning to delegate, learning to figure out the things that I want to do, what are my superpowers, what are the things that bring me joy? I don't want to burn out, I don't want to end up hating sweet Laurens because I took on too much, you know, and um, and quite frankly, it's been like it's a lot to juggle, but I do think with the right systems and team in place at home and at work, you can make all of your dreams come true. You just have to, you know, again, if you want a bad enough, you'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

You'll figure it out. Yeah, I think that's I think there's so many really important nuggets that you just shared. And something that I I hope a lot of other founders or business owners heard in this is that it's okay that the people that you start with aren't the people that maybe you are with you five or ten years later, and that as business owners. Businesses change, those needs change as well. But really investing, you also invested heavily into finding those right individuals to support you. And I I think a lot of business owners, those are some of the last investments made out of kind of risk or fear of kind of in a scarcity mindset, right? I'm not gonna hire a recruiter, I'm not gonna kind of go after uh the more experienced individuals in the in the industry and and they can hire inexperienced, right? Or not the right people, which can sometimes lend itself to be more work than truly support within in a growth business at those points. And it's always decisions and trade-offs in the way, but really being able to you know identify those things inside of you and what is gonna make make you the best leader, but also the best mother at home, I think is really important because you get into that seven to ten year mark for a lot of businesses and that burnout, people start resenting their business and then they start looking for that exit, right? And if you can design it in a way that you're energized around it still 10 years later, that's uh there's something there. Um and you're doing something right. You should be really proud of yourself. Well, I as we as we close up, two final questions. Being being a pregnant mom right now, what is your biggest sweet Lauren craving?

SPEAKER_00 45:21

I am this this boy, so I have two girls. This is a boy. Uh this boy's gonna be like half dark chocolate. I just like I am eating so much chocolate and like dark chocolate and our monster cookie and our fudgy brownie are like uh just so delicious. And it was my daughter's birthday, and then a baby shower. I've just had so many big events where like I've just I've made sweet lawrence has been the dessert, and it just hits the spot. So yeah, I think um I think like dark chocolate to me like has like superpowers in it. And so anyway, I've I've needed that to kind of cope the last the last several weeks.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Oh my god. I think that's a way to describe um pregnancy in the last trimester coping. Whatever you need to, whatever you need to cope. Coming from somebody who had two boys. I I think I had uh in each pregnancy 60 pounds of of chocolate sitting on me for each for each pregnancy. Um curious from a kid standpoint though, what do your girls love? What uh what is the favorite must-have kid product in your refrigerator right now?

SPEAKER_00 46:29

I would say the girls love when I make a cookie cake. So, I mean, of course they love like when they just get a cookie, but I think a cookie cake and like being able to slice it into like, you know, a little pie slice and and putting sprinkles on top of like our sugar cookie or doing anything that that's like extra fun. So, like, I mean, my girls love chocolate. Of course, they're raised in my house. So, like, I mean, the monster cookie is just really fun, classic chocolate chunk. Of course, they're gonna love that. Honestly, they love all the flavors. I'm my five-year-old is like a pretty adventurous eater, so like she loves the seasonal even. Like, she loves gingerbread, she loves the pumpkin spice, she loves the lemon that's coming out for spring right now. Um that's impressive. Yeah, no, it is. She's she she loves it. And I think I think the fun part that I try to always do with the girls is like because it's dough, you can add sprinkles or icing to it. You can shape the dough into like a bigger cookie, a snake, uh sunshine, like just kind of having fun. Make it there are times when you want to cookie, and there are times when you want to kind of like create a cookie-making project and you want to entertain your kids for an hour. Like, so I think there's a lot of fun things you can do on like a play date. And you know what? She also did actually like so during my baby shower a couple of weeks ago, she and one of her best friends did their first lemonade and cookie stand with Sweet Lawrence. And they they made quite a bit of money, I will say. And so I think like also that is like such a cute way, like doing a bake sale, like having your kid learn to sell and bake and make signage and explain, you know, the product and um be able to buy their own present with the money that they make. Like it was a really cute experience.

SPEAKER_01 48:19

I cannot wait for those days, actually. Though that's a really good idea. And and honestly, a good way for our followers and our listeners as you as you move forward. I know, I know Sweet Lawrence is is found across the nation. Are the new products that they're uh are the new products rolling out across the nation or telling you?

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Yeah, across the nation, but in more June time. So have to wait a little bit. But you know, our refrigerated cookie doughs and puff pastry is you know available in Whole Foods and Target and Kroger and Publix and Wegmans and Stop and Shop and Vaughn's and all the main shit. You can always go to our website and check it out.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

I was gonna say, so go out to everybody listening, go out, get yourself, get yourself some sweet lorns, cook it up at home. Be sure to tag us. Let us know what creative projects you're doing, both for yourself, your friends, um, your parties, your kids. We'd love to see it. I think that's a great, a great call to action. Um, I would certainly love to see it across our podcast channels and uh and females and food too. So, well, with that, Lauren, thank you so much for being on our show. Thank you for sharing your insights. I'm incredibly excited for what lies ahead for you personally, but also for sweet Lauren's being able to talk to a founder who's been a disruptor in this category for so long is is truly an honor for me. So, because at the end of the day, we're not just making food, we're making moves, we're women who make it. Thank you guys so much. Thank you for listening to Women Who Make It. If today's episode inspired you, please follow the podcast so you never miss one of these powerful conversations. And we would also love your help in growing this community by sharing the show with friends and colleagues because together our stories can create change. For even more connection and inspiration, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at femalesandfood.community. Or join our global community of women by visiting the website femalesandfood.community. We're not just making food, we're making moves. We're women who make it.