Entrepreneurship comes in all different flavors. Sara Kahn, a serial entrepreneur, and junior studying Entrepreneurship at W. P. Carey has taken a sweet approach to building her own business, Cupcakekahn Specialty Desserts. Sara grew up baking and had a customer base built prior to attending ASU. When she was no longer in her hometown, she lost access to her customers. Sara decided to restructure and relaunch her business via her ENT 360 / FSE 301 class – Entrepreneurship + Value Creation.
Cupcakekahn Specialty Desserts’ old business model, along with most other dessert providers, requires large order sizes and does not offer to ship. Cakes and cupcakes do not ship easily or at a low cost. After reaching out to 400 people, Sara was able to collect enough data to inform her business’s next steps. She discovered that college students across the country want the ability to order custom desserts to their doorsteps, and this demographic is more drawn towards items that ship well – such as cookies and cake pops. To ensure this was the correct step for her business, Sara built a pseudo website with a waitlist – it had 10 names within a day.
Sara is now preparing for a soft launch of her business to test her product’s shipping capabilities. She intends to relaunch Cupcakekahn Specialty Desserts in May 2021 and continue developing her business model as her Barrett, the Honors College Thesis project for the 2021-2022 school year.
Sara claims that “A business’s way forward is making data-driven decisions. If you can’t find the data, go make your own – it’ll be more valuable. Evidence-based decisions apply to everything, whether it be tech innovation or cake pop.” When asked what keeps her motivated, she responded, “I believe in the statement that if you make money doing what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. And who doesn’t love dessert?”
Click here to watch Sara’s pitch for Cupcakekahn Specialty Desserts.
Click here to visit Cupcakekahn Specialty Desserts’ website.
Click here to follow Cupcakekahn Specialty Desserts on Instagram.