According to the CDC, 129 million Americans have at least one chronic disease, and many of those illnesses—such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes—require patients to maintain a specific diet that cuts out certain foods many of us love, especially (and unfortunately for anyone with a sweet tooth) desserts that tend to be high in sugar. There are also those of us who, either by choice or for health reasons, have specific dietary restrictions and live gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, or other lifestyles but still crave a sweet treat now and then. While more dessert options that consider a wide range of dietary needs are increasingly becoming available, it’s not always easy to find ones that taste as close to the original as possible in the dessert aisle.
That’s why in 2012, Loren Castle founded her company Sweet Loren’s, which offers cookie dough that is gluten-free, dairy-free, free of the top 14 common allergens, non-GMO, made from high-quality ingredients, and most of all, is absolutely delicious. This past November, Sweet Loren’s also just released their first ever breakfast biscuit line that is gluten-free, plant-based, non-GMO Project Verified, dairy-free, and peanut and tree nut free. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Castle and hearing more about the inspiration for Sweet Loren’s, how she successfully scaled her businesses to thousands of stores in the U.S., and some of the challenges she overcame along the way.
Liz Elting: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. To kick things off, would you be able to offer readers a glimpse into your career and founder journey?
Loren Castle: While working at Levain Bakery in New York City I saw the joy, happiness, and connection warm cookies brought to people. There were lines out the door…down the block… for warm cookies! It was the highlight of people’s day. Everything came to a halt when I was diagnosed with cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, right after graduating college at 22 years old. After six months of chemotherapy, I was cancer free but forever changed. I realized throughout that year that my health was everything to me. So I cut out most dairy, anything artificial, and highly processed ingredients. I started taking cooking classes to find ways to make delicious food from healthier ingredients, but I couldn’t find anything to satisfy my sweet tooth. There was no bakery or packaged product that made something so delicious with only better-for-you ingredients.
From there, I started recipe testing to solve my own dilemma, and after hundreds and hundreds of trials and errors, I found the right combination. It was the best tasting cookie I’d ever eaten and I felt good after eating it, so in my opinion it was the best cookie in the world, full stop. When I saw how much friends and family absolutely fell in love with my recipes, I knew I wasn’t the only one who wanted healthier ways to satisfy their sweet cravings. That is when I knew I had to find a way to turn my better-for-you cookie recipes into a business, and Sweet Loren’s was born.
Sweet Loren’s is now the fastest growing natural dough brand in the U.S., and we’ve grown to become the #3 cookie dough brand in the country. We create new products with the purpose to make sure there’s a seat for everyone at the table and to prove that better-for-you can also be delicious.
Elting: A large part of your story involves beating Hodgkin's lymphoma (your story hits close to home for me—my father was unexpectedly diagnosed with Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia lymphoma in 2011 and is still fighting strong to this day). What role did overcoming your diagnosis play in the idea for Sweet Lorens?
Castle: I’m so sorry about your father’s diagnosis and I’m really happy he is still fighting strong! I went through periods of time that I was depressed, hopeless, and frustrated after I found out I had cancer at such an early age. I started seeing a therapist who helped me shift my mindset to seeing this as an opportunity and new lease on life. I was inspired to start Sweet Loren's after overcoming cancer and finding a passion for creating great tasting, better-for-you food because I believe real good ingredients are so incredibly important for our health and well-being, mentally and physically. Health became everything to me—really my purpose in life. This combination became my number one priority, and necessary for my health and recovery. I enrolled in cooking and nutrition classes so I could take care of myself and make delicious, healthier food that I enjoyed eating, and when I realized there was a bigger need than just myself, I took the leap to start Sweet Loren's.
Elting: You went from sharing your cookie dough recipe with friends to now having your products in over 25,000 stores nationwide. From your perspective, what goes into effectively scaling a business? What sort of steps did you have to take and what goals did you have to set to get to where you are as an entrepreneur today?
Castle: It amazes me to think about where I started in my New York City apartment trying hundreds of different recipes to get the right flavor and texture and sampling them at Whole Foods Market hoping to get one new customer to where we are today! For scaling a successful company, I recommend being as resilient and resourceful as you possibly can to get your product off the ground and go for as long as possible before bringing in investors or hiring team members. You have to be beyond passionate and driven to be an entrepreneur and to succeed through all of the hurdles and problems to solve along the way.
Once I realized I had a product that was missing in the market and there was a demand for it, I started perfecting the recipes, packaging, and overall purpose and ethos. From there I began hustling to get Sweet Loren’s into stores, media coverage, and sales. Someone I was in a business writing class with worked on the floor at Whole Foods Market in New York City, and I asked him how I could get a meeting with a buyer there. He somehow managed to set up time with the buyer. I didn’t even have a packaged selling product yet, but I brought in a few flavors of cookies I baked fresh that morning for him to try out. He called me the next day and said he had never tasted something so good and wanted my cookie dough as soon as possible! The panic set in, and I started working non-stop to get a production facility, finish the packaging, and design a website. From there I got more meetings with retail buyers and increased our distribution, awareness, and sales. In the early years, I set goals for myself to accomplish the next phase of growing the brand, now I work with my amazing team to climb new mountains for major goals we’re setting for ourselves.
Elting: Being an entrepreneur isn’t always easy and can be downright grim at times, especially in the early days of building a business. What challenges did you face at the onset of starting your company and how did you overcome them?
Castle: The challenges are endless and they can become overwhelming very quickly. One of my biggest hurdles early on was getting people who weren’t gluten-free, dairy-free, or who had allergies to even try our product. Some consumers would see or hear our products were gluten-free and they just assumed it would taste bad or have a crumbly texture like most gluten-free products on the shelves. We listened to the feedback and were so confident that our cookie dough is delicious that you would never guess it’s gluten-free, dairy-free, or made from only better-for-you ingredients. We started tweaking our packaging so that “gluten-free” and “dairy-free” were very small on the bottom of the package and primarily there for those looking for allergen labels. We focused on the deliciousness of the cookie on the front of our packaging and on our logo to sell the product to all cookie lovers.
Another challenge is sourcing. We have to source very specific ingredients, and we are extremely limited on what is available on a mass scale for our volume. There was a major oat shortage in 2021, and we use oat flour in all of our products! It was very upsetting and daunting to have supply chain issues at that scale to where we had to stop producing and only rely on our inventory for a couple months. We couldn’t meet our demand and we lost out on millions of dollars of sales. We also had to leave shelves empty during our peak holiday season and weren’t able to provide allergen-friendly products to our loyal fans who need it so badly. From that experience, we learned to have several backup suppliers so we can avoid this situation from ever happening again.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
WRITTEN BY
Liz Elting