Kristen Tomlan has turned her baking hobby into a pretty sweet business.
Tomlan is the the founder of DŌ, safe-to-eat cookie dough that comes in flavors such as chocolate chip, fluffernutter, and confetti. Launched as an ecommerce business two years ago, the company just opened its first brick-and-mortar store this January in New York City.
Tomlan decided to launch online-only first in order to build a fanbase and do some market testing before she took the leap and opened a physical store. With more than 78,000 followers on Instagram, DŌ got a ton of traction with customers posting their colorful cookie dough concoctions on social media.
“That was a great way to have a testing ground for customers to figure out what flavors work and some of the logistical nightmares that we went through,” she says.
Six weeks into selling cookie dough through her online shop, Tomlan decided to leave her corporate job and turn her side hustle full-time. “I just took the leap of faith and trusted my gut and my instinct, and I thought it could be something really big,” she says.
That gut feeling has paid off so far. She says sales doubled in the second year of business, and she expects them to grow 10X in 2017.
Watch the video above for an inside look into the new Manhattan cookie dough shop.