In May, some of the Honeycomb team took a trip to the Windy City to celebrate the success of our first-ever Chicago based investment offering! Tubby’s Taste, a vegan cookie company, recently closed out a campaign that received $55,925 from 74 local investors.
Danielle Tubbs, the founder and CEO of Tubby’s Taste, creates her cookies out of an incubator kitchen in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago called The Hatchery, which has to date launched over 100 food companies. Of course it was the perfect place to invite investors to have a party celebrating Tubby’s Taste’s success! Partygoers had the opportunity to taste the cookies, mingle, and get to know the face behind the business.
“Working with Honeycomb was pretty easy, and I’m looking forward to being able to expand the business, work with distributors, expand our team, and get some machinery so it’s not just two people scooping all day long,” Danielle said to the crowd. “These cookies need to get into more hands, right?”
But *record scratch* you might be wondering: how did we even get here?
From “Jamaican cake ladies” kitchen, to a food incubator kitchen
Danielle’s cookies are largely inspired by her childhood, growing up baking with her grandmother, mother, and aunt, who were as she says, real “Jamaican cake ladies.” As an already successful full-time nonprofit professional, she began baking cookies inspired by island flavors as a hobby, then it slowly grew into a business.
At first, she started slowly, selling cookies to family and friends. Then, she joined a program called Future Founders, which encouraged her to start selling her cookies at farmers markets in the area. During this time, she also honed in on her website, marketing, brand voice, and packaging. She quit her full-time job and took up some side hustles to support herself, before eventually committing herself full-time to Tubby’s Taste. Eventually, she had the need to grow and started working out of The Hatchery.
Tubby’s Taste has a strong e-commerce presence, and they also have solid revenue streams of corporate gifting. You can even find them in some grocery stores in the Chicagoland area.
Financing a growing cookie business
After a bout of really amazing press, from local coverage to Good Morning America, Danielle knew there would be more demand for her cookies, which means she need to find a way to automate her production, hire more staff, and expand their marketing tactics. Then, she needed to find a way to fund it.
Danielle chose to use Honeycomb Credit to finance this next stage in Tubby’s Taste’s growth, and became Honeycomb’s first-ever Chicago investment offering. She ended up raising $55,925 from 74 local investors.
Congratulations to Danielle and Tubby’s Taste! We can’t wait to see these vegan cookies take over the country - maybe Pittsburgh is a great next market?
Celebrating community investments has never been sweeter
One of the best things about local business investment rounds is that it’s a team effort between the business owner, the supportive Honeycomb team, and the investors in every business. So why shouldn’t we celebrate people coming together to support small businesses? If you’re already planning your success party in your head, we’re right there with you - fill out the form below to learn more about Honeycomb Credit local business loans.