Loren Brill
CEO/Founder Sweet Loren’s
What inspired you to start your business?
I was inspired to start my business after overcoming cancer after I graduated from college. I was searching for ways to satisfy my sweet tooth with clean ingredients that I wanted in my body and delicious taste, and there was nothing in the market that I could find. So, I started to make my own recipes. Soon, friends and family started to buy cookie dough from me and that’s when I realized that everyone wants delicious, clean ingredient food. I decided to start Sweet Loren’s to awaken peoples’ expectations of what convenient food can and should taste like and be made from.
What challenges have you faced as a woman entrepreneur and how did you overcome them?
At the beginning of Sweet Loren’s, when I said I had an all natural cookie dough company, the response from many was “oh, that’s cute”. Obviously, my intention of starting my company was never to be “cute”, it was to raise the standards in the food industry and show that a small, or women owned, or conscious company that cared could figure out how to beat the big guys.
What advice would you give to other women entrepreneurs?
Find something you’re so passionate about and have such deep belief in, that you’ll figure out how to break barriers to make it happen. Also, it is all about the team. Make sure you find and hire the best of the best to help you grow and protect the brand.
What three traits define you?
Passionate, tenacious, positive.
What women inspire you?
Hoda Kotb, Diane von Furstenberg, Sara Blakely
How has being a WBENC-Certified WBE helped your business?
It’s helped us get out of some major slotting with retailers and into some big companies as a certain percentage of their business has to be done with minority or women owned businesses— and they’re not many out there.
What do you see as the coolest or most important trend in your industry?
Coolest trend is that people are buying products made from people that care; from brands that have a story and emotional connection to the consumer.
As a business owner, what keeps you up at night?
Finding the best team and growing brand awareness. Not enough people know we even exist! Once they try the product, they’re hooked.
What are the biggest obstacles you see for young female entrepreneurs?
Work life balance, and the voracious focus it takes to start, execute and run a successful business.
What do you love about being a business owner?
The freedom is gives me in life and the positive impact I know we are making on our team members, fans and the industry at large.
·What’s the hardest part about being a business owner?
It never stops. Never! Never. There are new challenges daily in every aspect, even when you’re growing fast, there are growing pains. It’s just constant juggling and uncomfortable growth, learning new things for the first time. Also to have other interests, some times you forget there is so much more to the world than your own world.
How do you define success?
I personally define success by making dreams come true; financial abundance & freedom; and having the biggest positive impact we can on the world.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
“What’s the worst that can happen when you dream big?”
What’s your favorite career moment?
This year! We made it to the 2019 Inc. 5000 as the #114 fastest growing privately held company in the US. I also made it to Inc.’s Female Founders 100, where they picked 100 women building the most ambitious and innovative businesses in the US. Both were huge honors and shows how hard our team has been working for 5 years strong.
How do you unwind after a long workday?
Great workout (spin class, run or yoga are my go-to), great dinner with friends with red wine, snuggles with my fiance, or just a bubble bath to relax is my happy place.
What do you like about your workspace?
I love that it’s open, tall ceilings, white, plants around, and has a freezer full of cookie dough for samples for all.
Fill in the blank:
When I face a challenge, I... take a deep breath and then dive in piece by piece, with my eye on the prize, calm and cool.
To get my creative juices flowing, I …read recipes for inspiration and then get in the kitchen once I am inspired by something new, and magic comes out as I invent new recipes. Just being in the flow is the best feeling.
Sweet loren’s
Sweet Loren’s is the clean food company transforming what it means to be convenient and delicious. Every product offered is crafted with clean ingredients so that everyone — regardless of dietary restriction — can enjoy a delectable treat. Founder and CEO Loren Brill pours, stirs and whisks her heart into each and every Sweet Loren’s product. Take a bite and experience how our products surpass the competition on taste, ingredients and benefits: Certified Gluten Free, Certified Vegan, Non-GMO Project Verified, Nut Free, and Kosher Pareve. Sweet Loren's is available in the refrigerated dough area of over 10,000 grocery stores throughout the U.S.
