Latest news with #SweetLorens
Entrepreneur
2 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Sweet Loren's TikTok Name Error Led to Viral Success, Sales
On Friday, Sweet Loren's finally got access to change its name back from what it has been this past week: "Ryan." Gluten-free cookie dough brand, Sweet Loren's, has gone viral before (both Kylie Jenner and Glen Powell have touted the sweet treats), but this week, the brand achieved incredible viral success — and by total mistake. While trying to update her personal TikTok name, the company's new social media manager, Ryan Weitz, accidentally changed Sweet Loren's TikTok name to her own — "Ryan." She says she immediately tried to change it back, only to find out she would be unable to do so for seven days. "So I don't get in trouble, please make this follower count go up," she says. Related: This Is What a $300 Million TikTok Strategy Looks Like After telling her boss, the duo decided to do what any good social media manager would do — make a TikTok about it. One week and 42 videos later, Sweet Loren's is still enjoying viral success, with more than 2.2 million views so far. The company has gained 10,000 followers in the last week, and website-based sales increased 46%, the social media team told PRWeek. "TikTok is a place where you can have a little fun, so we decided to lean into it and create content around the moment," Weitz told the outlet. "I was pushed to really go for it, be unafraid, and it's paid off." Sweet Loren's finally got the ability to change its name back on Friday (though it still has yet to do so). Join top CEOs, founders and operators at the Level Up conference to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue and building sustainable success. Related: Want to Go Viral? 3 Strategies to Make Your Next Campaign Go Viral
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sweet Loren's CEO was unfulfilled in her ‘real' jobs—beating cancer gave her the guts to quit and launch the $120 million cookie brand
After a cancer diagnosis in her early 20's right out of college, Loren Castle poured her heart into her healthy refrigerated cookie dough brand Sweet Loren's. Disillusioned with unfulfilling 'real' jobs and growing more concerned with her health, she quit the corporate world for good to launch her $120 million business that's now stocking the refrigerated aisles of over 35,000 Targets, Whole Foods, and Costcos. There are many people out there feeling stuck in their full-time jobs, waiting for divine intervention or the perfect moment to jump ship. One entrepreneur found the courage to become her own boss after surviving a scary bout of cancer right out of college. In 2006, Loren Castle, the CEO of refrigerated cookie dough empire Sweet Loren's, was a fresh-faced 22-year-old who had just graduated from the University of Southern California. But three months later, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma: a cancer that originates in the lymphatic system. While going through chemotherapy for six months, Castle was wrangling the issue of eating healthier while figuring out what her career would look like. 'After [recovering], my doctor said, 'Go be normal and get a real job,'' Castle recalls to Fortune. 'I was like, 'I can't be normal anymore.' Life is really precious, I want to make sure I find something that I'm super passionate about. I wasn't happy working for someone else in a job that I just wasn't really passionate about.' Four years after working unfulfilling corporate and restaurant-industry jobs, she finally found that passion—and turned it into a booming million-dollar business. Today, her healthy refrigerated cookie dough brand lines the aisles of 35,000 supermarkets, including chains like Whole Foods, Target, and Costco. Sweet Loren's rolled in $97 million in gross sales in 2024, and is on target to reach a staggering $120 million run rate this year. 'The goal is to take over the whole refrigerated dough section, and really become the number one player in the space,' Castle continues. 'While the big guys are asleep at the wheel, we know how to speak to millennials and Gen Z, the future shopper…I'm just really passionate about this because it started from a personal need.' New York-based Castle wasn't inspired to start Sweet Loren's because of her love for baking—in fact, she did little of it before her diagnosis. While her friends were out partying, her illness had forced her to change the way she lived, including the way she ate. Having a big sweet tooth, Castle was disappointed in the lack of wholesome cookie dough brands. So she took cooking classes and studied nutrition on the days she didn't have cancer treatment, opting for 'super-powered' healthy foods, and formulated her own healthy sweet treat. 'I started making my own recipe, practicing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of batches. And finally I [made] these recipes that I was like, 'Wait a minute, like, this is the best cookie I've ever had,'' Castle says. 'It turned what was a really scary, negative time in my life into like a superpower.' Castle started test-running batch after batch of health-conscious cookies while working other jobs on the side. During those years she worked at a boutique PR company, helped manage a restaurant, and had a role at a wine business. She was bouncing between roles that didn't fulfill her. But surviving cancer—and wanting to turn the nightmare of the illness into something positive—was the push she needed to finally start her own business. 'Life is short. I don't want regrets. I was so keenly aware of my feelings. If I wasn't in love with something, it was really hard to make myself do it,' Castle said. 'It got to that point of, 'I don't like my boss, I don't want to be making him money.'' After three years of trying and failing to find a job she loved and was passionate about, Castle pulled the plug and veered into entrepreneurship at 26. Now, what started as a personal necessity has become a game-changer for a much wider audience. Castle has enjoyed massive success by tapping into cravings for healthy sweet treats, especially among consumers with allergies or dietary restrictions. Selling nut-free, dairy-free, and vegan cookie doughs, pie crusts, puff pastry, and pizza doughs, Sweet Loren's reached a niche that has since blossomed into a bigger movement. Castle had already amassed a hoard of cookie fans from having her friends and families test the batches. But her real big break came in 2011, when she entered a baking contest in New York City: The Next Big Small Brand Contest for Culinary Genius. She swept the competition, winning both the people's choice award and judge's award. Sweet Loren's was officially on the map, and suddenly, hundreds of families were emailing the brand weekly asking for new dietary-sensitive options. In addition to the healthy cookie dough she was producing, they wanted nut-free, gluten-free, vegan-friendly sweet treats. 'Once I launched allergen-free [products], they became our number one SKU overnight,' she says. Castle says that her brand is now the number one natural cookie dough brand in the U.S., without private equity backing, VC funding, or glitzy billboard ads. 'It's not like we're pouring $50 million into Super Bowl ads and things like that. I think it's just that we really solved a problem,' Castle says. 'They just love the quality of the product and tell their friends and become advocates for it. Because we're raising the bar on what packaged food can taste like, and what the ingredients can be like. It's more of a premium.' 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Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The CEO of Sweet Loren's makes new hires sit through a personality test—they don't get the job if they're too corporate
The CEO of the cookie dough empire Sweet Loren's gives a personality test to all prospective hires. Loren Castle says she's looking for positive, passionate people with the energy to work at the sweets startup set to rake in $120 million this year. Corporate stiffs who can't keep up with the craziness won't make the cut. Myers-Briggs has found that many entrepreneurs have extraverted, intuitive traits—ENFPs like Quentin Tarantino, and ENTPs like Thomas Edison. When it comes to astrology, the biggest U.S. CEOs are most likely to have the Taurus sign, like Mark Zuckerberg. Certain qualities can be linked to success, so one chief executive is using a personality test to find her star workers and weed out the bad candidates. Loren Castle, CEO of frozen cookie dough empire Sweet Loren's, runs her business with the energy of a start-up—and needs her workers to thrive off that craziness. Castle hands out the CliftonStrengths assessment to every candidate she interviews to sort out the bad eggs. One red flag that she's always looking for? Corporate stiffs: 'People that have too much corporate training and no experience with startups or fast-growing smaller brands,' Castle explains to Fortune. 'I just don't know if they're actually going to like this world. It's totally different.' The millennial CEO says she looks to snag talent who have both corporate and start-up experience so they're prepared for the intensity of running a fast-paced small business—which rolled in $97 million in gross sales last year, and has a projected $120 million run rate this year. Sweet Loren's has expanded to 35,000 retail locations, taking over the frozen aisles of Target, Whole Foods, Publix, Kroger, and Walmart. Castle says she hasn't always had a solid team behind her; in the beginning it was difficult for her to fully understand what the culture at Sweet Loren's would look like, and who would be the best people to work there. But now, she has a keen eye to spot those applicant green and red-flags. 'It's hard to hire the right team. That's the hardest part of this: to really understand what your culture is and attract the best people,' Castle says. 'Not everyone wants to work this hard. It's definitely not easy—this is not a coasting job.' 'We're really mindful now when we're building out teams,' she says, adding that when a candidate completes the test, she's looking at: Are they analytical? Are they really strategic? Or perhaps, they're empathetic? Castle is looking for employees with a few core traits: they need a positive attitude, passion, and teamwork skills. 'We have less than 30 people on our team, and we run a profitable business,' she continues. 'So we really need smart, passionate people on the team—you can't kind of hide. It took us a while to get there.' There's another winning characteristic Castle looks for in her next Sweet Loren's hire, that can't be parsed out through a personality test: they have to have relevant experience, even if they aren't in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space. One of the several things she won't tolerate? Job-seekers with big egos. 'Rounding out each team, we're going in eyes wide open,' Castle says. 'They shouldn't have an ego—we want everyone to be driven for their own personal fulfillment.' Personality and talent assessments like Hogan Assessments and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator have long been an employer strategy in culling a talent pool. Here's a peek inside the test job-seekers have to pass to work at Sweet Loren's. The CliftonStrengths assessment is a 30-minute test made by American analytics company Gallup which analyzes unique skills, thinking patterns, feelings, and behaviors. Questions are framed on a sliding scale: it asks job-seekers to rate their relatability to two statements, each on opposing ends of the query. For example, the statement 'I want everyone to like me' is on one end, while another saying 'I want people to adore me' is on the other. Test-takers choose if one declaration 'strongly describes' them, or float to a 'neutral' option in the middle if neither statement resonates. The test then categorizes the results into 34 themes across four domains: strategic thinking, relationship building, influencing, and executing. Test-takers can be described as talented in certain ways—maybe they're a 'learner' when it comes to strategic thinking, or are a stellar 'developer' in relationship building. This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
