Kelsey Moreira (formerly Kelsey Witherow) is a wildly passionate entrepreneur who, after getting sober in 2015, ditched her decade-long tech career with Intel and followed her sweet tooth to open her own cookie dough company: Doughp. Though self-taught in the food world, Kelsey graduated with a degree in marketing & international business from Arizona State University. With her business savvy behind her, Doughp experienced monumental growth in their first 4 years with revenue increasing on average 295% YoY.
In 2019, she appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank and was named a Forbes 30 Under 30. Kelsey is using her platform to reduce social stigmas around addiction recovery and mental health through her #Doughp4Hope initiative. Outside of cookie dough, Kelsey enjoys taking moonlit strolls in the park…and fitting in some yoga & meditation to catch some zen in the entrepreneur fast lane!
Doughp Cookie Dough is an edible, bakeable, and ridiculously tasty cookie dough company that’s on a mission to serve raw dough & real conversation. We ship our cookie dough to households nationwide and give back through our #Doughp4Hope initiative, which works to break the stigma around mental health & addiction recovery. We donate a portion of every purchase to nonprofits in this space and live out mental health policies inside the company and with the community.
Tell us a little bit about your background, how you started your company and ended up on Shark Tank?
When I first got sober, my time baking in the kitchen became my happy place! I rediscovered my passion for dessert and was overjoyed by the idea of building something that was truly MINE after 10 years working for someone else’s vision at Intel. In February of 2017, after baking vegan for a few months, I found a great substitute for raw eggs – but I loved butter WAYYY too much to let it go. So I found myself digging into my cookie dough recipes raw and much more guilt-free without the risk of salmonella! I knew I wasn’t alone in my cookie dough indulgence and thought how cool it would be to share a scoop of dough with friends and family without having to sneak a bite! In April of that year, I was set to have my sabbatical from Intel – 10 weeks paid vacation to travel the world. Instead, I readied myself and set off to start a cookie dough company! From there, the company grew into more than I could have ever imagined! I quit my job at the end of those 10 weeks and focused full-time on making Doughp what it is today. I have built Doughp into a platform to influence, inspire, and spread joy with our #Doughp4Hope initiatives. Mission-driven, cookie dough fueled!
We were selected to be featured on Shark Tank in 2019! I went through the traditional path: sitting through an open call in San Francisco at 6 AM and waiting along the curb amongst around 400 other people just as excited to pitch their idea for 90 seconds to the executive producer and staff. I went and gave it my all, and slowly but surely made it through the subsequent rounds until being selected for filming in September 2018. I stood waiting by to see if my episode would air until finally getting the call just before the air date on May 5, 2019! It was a completely surreal experience; I have absolutely never been more nervous in my entire life! You’re going up in front of five people who could dramatically change the course of your life and also knowing that it’s going to air to millions and millions of viewers. The show was a great experience for me, I’m really proud of how I represented myself and the company and my vision, and it continues to re-run. So we get an extra boost of new fans every once in a while from another airing of Shark Tank! All around, 10 out of 10 would recommend the experience!
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
Based on 3 of our Bestseller Flavors:
Ride or Die: Find a partner who will be in it to win it with you and give them a piece of the pie. It was just over two grueling years as a solo founder and many attempts to find a “right hand” person on my team – but now having my husband in the business as a co-founder/COO role – it’s a whole new world. Find someone with skills that complement yours – I’m all sales/marketing, he’s all finance/operations. It’s a win-win for us both and he’s got ownership in the business to make sense of the wild hours and extreme stress levels that are a gift of the start up life 🙂
Fairy Dust: Sprinkle a little fairy dust wherever you go. Doughp is where it is because people who’d paved the way before me, reached out to help. I work on sprinkling some of that goodwill with those following in my footsteps too.
You Want S’more?: Always be thinking about what MORE you can be doing for the world. Making money is cool, but making an impact on the world is even cooler. Think about doing something beyond yourself/your biz. Build something that matters.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
The biggest problem I faced was coming to terms with the insane costs and operational challenges of running a brick & mortar storefront. The opportunity to scale the company at the speed and size I wanted would present many more challenges with physical locations versus online. Given the pandemic, we saw our brick & mortar business drop 82% YoY, but luckily we were prepared to pivot and had been steadily growing our presence online. Turned out we needed that more than ever as we shuttered our last physical storefront in October in a commitment to the online business.
In 2019, we’d sold ~$50k online. By February 2020, we’d already surpassed all of 2019’s online sales. In 2020 our online sales passed $2.5M … THATS A LOT OF DOUGH! I’m so proud of the team that helped us get here. Surreal. *Pinch me.*
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
I repeatedly learned that in order to grow the business, I can’t be working IN the business. It’s a lesson I’m constantly reminded of. You never stop assessing your workload and finding out what tasks you’re owning that are NOT your unique value add areas. Delegate them ASAP and get back to the strategic vision level!
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
Every day I find time to connect. Who else should I know? Who else could I learn from? What’s happening on LinkedIn? Chiming in on conversations on LinkedIn or accepting a seemingly one-off intro request often have led to incredible things!
Tell us something you experienced on the show, we might not know or seen when it air?
I was in full-blown hysterics after walking off stage from my pitch time with the Sharks! I was a ball of emotions, stressed and tired from weeks of preparation, and it was sort of like this emotional drop-off having not turned out the exact way I have pictured. They didn’t end up airing this part, but it was the full waterworks as soon as I made it down the end of the hallway! We’re all about feeling your feelings, so it’s certainly in line with Doughp‘s messaging around mental health and knowing it’s ok to not be ok!
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
Read your contracts: upside down and left and right. And if you don’t like to read them, find someone who does like to and is good at it! If you don’t have the finances for a lawyer at the beginning, find a friend with legal experience or reach out for some guidance on LinkedIn. It’s worth getting it right, particularly as you get into more comprehensive contracts and making sure you have a termination clause and fully understanding the length, costs, and liabilities associated with what you’re signing into.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
For the first 3 years, we operated almost entirely off word-of-mouth marketing! I only started venturing into paid advertisements at the end of 2019! Now that is by and large the most effective way we are gaining new customers, but of course retention marketing will be the only way to make it sustainable in the long run! We put a lot of effort into our email and text marketing to make sure our customers know what’s happening in the Doughp world and come back for more when they’re ready for a refill!
What’s your best piece of advice for entrepreneurs who want to apply for Shark Tank?
Shark Tank will be looking to see YOU, so make your story shine. Figure out your why – what drives you and what impact you hope to have. Make sure you can explain it succinctly and have your heart in it!
My favorite book is You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero. Great read and was the catalyst book for me; I read it and quit my job within a couple of months. 😉 Watch out!
How can we get in touch with you?
Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram and on Twitter @eatdoughp
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