Loren Castle started baking cookies after surviving cancer in her early twenties. Five years later, Sweet Loren’s refrigerated cookie dough was generating just $350,000 a year. But instead of giving up, she listened to customers, and reinvented the dough without gluten, dairy, eggs or nuts.  That transformation turned a small regional business into a national brand sold in more than 30,000 stores.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNHow surviving cancer at 22 inspired Loren to rethink her career and develop a passion for healthier food.What working at New York’s Levain Bakery taught her about the enormous appeal—and profitability—of cookies.Why Loren decided to sell ready-made cookie dough instead of cookies Why she was totally unprepared for her first Whole Foods meeting—but went anyway Why raising her first $1 million from friends and family was much harder than she expected.Why hundreds of customer requests revealed an unmet need for allergen-free cookie dough.Why growing slowly may have saved the company.Why Loren isn't rushing to sell Sweet Loren’sTIMESTAMPS: This episode was produced by Carla Esteves, with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei.  It was edited by Neva Grant. Our audio engineer was Jimmy Keeley. Follow How I Built This:Instagram → @howibuiltthisX → @HowIBuiltThisFacebook → How I Built ThisFollow Guy Raz:Instagram → @guy.razYoutube → guy_razX → @guyrazSubstack → guyraz.substack.comWebsite → guyraz.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices