Choire Sicha at The Awl interviewed BabyCakes NYC (which now has an outpost in LA) about the business side of running her bakery and her cookbooks. I haven't seen it yet so I don't know if there are cupcakes in it, but BabyCakes Covers the Classics: Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes from Donuts to Snickerdoodles comes out April 12th, and her first cookbook was BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery. For more on BabyCakes NYC (and LA) you can visit their official site and follow them @BabyCakesNYC on Twitter.
The Awl: Can I ask about how much of the company you gave up to investors?
Erin: At this moment, I still own 78%. I had to white knuckle it through the hard times. After we opened, after a few months everyone wanted to invest and, as poor as I was, I didn't do it. I knew If I got through the challenging times I'd be happy I didn't sell any more in the end. I think the hard part before you open is placing a proper value on your company. It's an imaginary number! But the way I did it was I asked myself, "What would I sell this company for on this day?" When all it was was a concept and some recipes. It was tempting to go under, because I was so desperate for anyone to invest, and I felt like they were going to think I was crazy at what I was saying it was worth. But I think the few people who laid their money out believed the same thing as me: that the chocolate chip cookies were really good. And the uniforms were cool. So I got lucky with recipes. I mean, I worked really hard to get things to taste good but I was also lucky. I understood it for some weird reason.
The Awl: And the cookbooks came soon after you opened?
Erin: I signed on for it about a year and a half after bakery opened, and then it came out a year later. I did it mainly because everyone kept asking me to do it, and honestly, I needed a new project, so I did it. And everyone told me it would be great for business. I didn't really understand how good it would be. Our sales tripled after the publishing. I have to thank Martha though. She's a powerhouse, and after I went on the show to teach her a few recipes, it went nuts. We sold out of the first printing in about 2 weeks. We're on the 8th printing now.
The Awl: Can I ask about how much of the company you gave up to investors?
Erin: At this moment, I still own 78%. I had to white knuckle it through the hard times. After we opened, after a few months everyone wanted to invest and, as poor as I was, I didn't do it. I knew If I got through the challenging times I'd be happy I didn't sell any more in the end. I think the hard part before you open is placing a proper value on your company. It's an imaginary number! But the way I did it was I asked myself, "What would I sell this company for on this day?" When all it was was a concept and some recipes. It was tempting to go under, because I was so desperate for anyone to invest, and I felt like they were going to think I was crazy at what I was saying it was worth. But I think the few people who laid their money out believed the same thing as me: that the chocolate chip cookies were really good. And the uniforms were cool. So I got lucky with recipes. I mean, I worked really hard to get things to taste good but I was also lucky. I understood it for some weird reason.
The Awl: And the cookbooks came soon after you opened?
Erin: I signed on for it about a year and a half after bakery opened, and then it came out a year later. I did it mainly because everyone kept asking me to do it, and honestly, I needed a new project, so I did it. And everyone told me it would be great for business. I didn't really understand how good it would be. Our sales tripled after the publishing. I have to thank Martha though. She's a powerhouse, and after I went on the show to teach her a few recipes, it went nuts. We sold out of the first printing in about 2 weeks. We're on the 8th printing now.
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