Join us for a treat as we sit down with Kathryn Sabo Bricken, Tennessee, founder and CEO of Doughlicious—the company behind irresistible cookie dough creations. Kathryn shares how she turned passion, resilience and some serious baking magic into a recipe for success and a business that spans the U.S., the U.K. and other parts of Europe.
What started out as baking for friends turned into an international business with more than 5,000 retail doors (and growing). Kathryn talks about the moment she realized her hobby could grow into something bigger, balancing entrepreneurship with motherhood, an international move and leading her company through her breast cancer journey with grit and grace.
We get into the real talk of starting a business—failing forward, trusting your gut, fixing what’s not working and building a culture where women lead the way, including fellow Tri Deltas! Kathryn shares how Tri Delta shaped her confidence as a founder and continues to guide her as a CEO who prioritizes purpose, joy and community.
This episode is packed with heart, hustle and a whole lot of dough puns we refuse to apologize for!
And, as a bonus, print out this coupon for $2 off Doughlicious products, exclusive to our listeners. Consider it your sign to treat yourself to something sweet while you get inspired to chase your own big idea.
COUPON here!
[Sweet Success! The Story of Doughlicious With Kathryn Sabo Bricken]
This transcript was created using automated technologies and may contain errors.
Hello and welcome to Let's Talk Tri Delta. I'm your host, Mindy Tucker, Tri Deltas CEO.
And today I'm really excited to be joined by a sister whose story is as inspiring
as it is delicious. That's a hint as to where we're going. Delicious.
Our guest today is Kathryn Sabo Bricken from our Delta Sigma chapter at the
University of Tennessee. She is the founder and CEO of Doughlicious, the company
behind irresistible cookie dough creations, from gelato bites wrapped in cookie dough
to ready bake, gooey, yummy skillets. I can't be so hungry when we finish this.
It's going to be amazing. What started as a baking thing for friends,
has now grown into this international brand. It's sold across the UK, Europe, and
now in the U.S. And I'm really excited to share her story of creativity,
resilience, and heart as a baker myself. I can't wait to dig in here with you. So
Kathryn, welcome to the podcast. It's really great to have you. Thank you for
having me. I'm really excited because I felt like being a Tri Delta was like part
of my existence, like why I did something
I mean, it was just an awesome experience. I think going to a big school, not
knowing people, not knowing a lot of people. So, it was a way for me to immediately
have these sisters, this family that I felt connected with, like-minded, somebody
that I could always, somebody I could always talk to, be with. So, it made what
could have been a scary experience really comfortable. And then on top of that, we
had a great time.
Tons of socials. It was a great way to meet new people. And I'm still really good
friends with a lot of my Tri Delta sisters and then all the girls I lived with.
Because at UT, we didn't have houses at the time. So, I lived with a KD and a KIO
if I'm you and we were all really good friends until this day we're friends good
good yeah I think when I remember from my experience, we had um spring recruitment
and knowing people in other houses was just it's just so rewarding as well just um
you make friends that are outside and your tried out the friends are special but I
think it's always great to have that sort of larger panhellenic friendship on yeah
I'm kind of sad that we didn't have houses, though, because then I could have
started, like, really baking men and just made cookies all the time, right? Maybe I
wouldn't have had that lapse in life. I would have just started right after school.
I love it. I think there's a reason why things happen the way they do in life.
Always, always. And you did have a career outside of the kitchen first. So, do you
want to tell us about that? Yeah. Well, so I graduated from UT and one of my
friends, she was not a tried out, but her dad worked on Capitol Hill. He was a
chief of staff and he's like, oh, you girls need to come work on Capitol Hill and
I can help you find jobs. And at this point, like, I had done a semester abroad
and I always thought I wanted to go abroad again. And I was a French minor. So, I
was like, I am moving to Paris. Like, that is my plan. Not thinking like, how am
I going to get this visa and move abroad. And so, I took him up on his,
on his offer. And I started as an intern in a senator from Florida's office and
then got a full-time position with a congressman. And then before I knew it, I had
been on Capitol Hill for a couple years and just moving from, you know,
one different position up to another level and ended being a legislative
correspondent for a senator from Minnesota, like so randomly. But then, met my husband
and he said, I'm going to take a job in Canada with Bain and Company. So, we're
moving a little abroad across the border. And we moved to Toronto. And that's when
I got to reinvent myself, right? Like, I could take a look at what do I love
about what I'm doing and what do I not. Well, I knew I did not want to be
lobbying health care or focusing on health care because that was what I was doing
in my last phase on Capitol Hill. And but I loved people. I loved food. I was one
of these types of girls growing up that I was obsessed with going to the
supermarket with my mom. I grew up in Florida, and I would go work at Publix as a
cashier in the summer. Not so I could like sit there and earn the money, but so I
could like see all the products that would go buy on the scanner. And that was
like super exciting for me. Like how many people do that? So, I looked into like
hospitality like okay that would be with food but was that for me no and then I
found a position that was with Borden foods which is a large pasta and sauce food
manufacturing company in Canada and their plant the production facility was in
Montreal so it's like okay I can choose my French in Montreal and I'm going to
work with food so I started as a brand manager and then worked closely to develop
a line of flavored pasta. So worked closely with product development and just fell
in love with the whole product development side. So, then I started to focus on
loving sweets and being like one of these dessert girls. I started to focus on my
own in taking courses and developing like really bespoke cookies and cakes and
decorating them in beautiful ways, like simple but elegant. And then got pregnant
with twins. So that kind of put a halt on things. And when the twins were four
months, we thought we got to get back to the U.S. just closer to family because
it was a lot of work. And so, once I was back to the U.S. with twins and we
moved to North Carolina, I started doing these cakes and cookies with caters, which
is something that I could do why they were sleeping. So, I was a mom during the
day and baker by night. I mean, I would be up till 4:30 in the morning doing 300
Christmas trees or bells or like these really decorative cookies.
But that was the only time I would have. And but just loved it. Like it was
something that pleased me and seeing people's reaction and their excitement about
these and then be like, oh, my God, they'd only only look good, they taste good,
was super fulfilling to me. So fast forward, 2008,
had another child on the way in that process. And so, three under the age of three,
but I kept on going, like working through the nights with the cookies and the cakes
and moved to London in 2008 and started bringing my my
to make something that was so simple, but unique and different from anything that
had been created in the UK or even in the U.S.
Okay, there are like a hundred things I want to unpack. That was a lot. First is,
I have to know what years you were on Capitol Hill. So, I was there when I
graduated in 1990. So, I was there 90 to 93 and a half,
94. Okay. So, we overlapped. I was on the hill with 92 to 96,
98. Okay. So, we're going to have to have a whole other episode where we.
Yes. Yeah, no, I need to hear that. On the hill and such a great sort of first
job, I think, for people in terms of stepping out into the world. Yeah, the salary
wasn't very
$17,000 front desk. My first one was $16,000. And nobody believes me.
So, I'm so glad you got a better job than I did. You were two years later. That's
right. It must have been a cost of living. Inflation. Just crazy to think about
that we took those, like, that's where it all started. Right. So, when I hear people
now and they think the salary is low, I'm like, just, just look at me. I survived
on 16,000. No idea.
And, okay. So, so.
Tri Delta are, like always looking for these, these great, what's the word,
experiences. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, right? Like, we're not wallflowers, but we're, we're outgoing,
smart, fun. And so, I met Dan on May of 1994,
and we got married in 1995, so like met engaged within three months and married a year
later and he had gone to Georgetown law school and then was practicing law and he
wanted to do something different so he met somebody that was with bain and company
and they said you really should come to bain and company and um you know applying
we're looking for people in the Toronto office, so it was kind of his segue away
from law so I guess you know we both had made these career changes and his was
from law to going into consulting with Bain & Company.
So that's what took us. Oh, that's the one to Canada. Is that the one or the
other one? Well, and then how you end up in the UK? So then in 2008, we moved to
the UK and that was with he was then, okay, gosh, it's complicated. But it's his
job that's been sort of. It's his job, yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Was there a moment you sort of had this spark and you said, like, I can do this
as a business. Like, this could be bigger. Yeah. Well, so in 2014,
I made it more like a hobby. So, I was like, okay, I'm going to make all these
dough, different flavored dough balls. I'm going to freeze them. And then I'm going
to put it out there to all my friends. And people can come to a good friend of
mine. She had a photography studio in central London. So, she was like, just put it
out there. You can come set up in my kitchen at the studio and just sell your
dough balls. So, I was selling them and it started to grow and grow and more people
wanted the dough balls. And then I decided to put them in a little kitchen where
they could make them for kind of like you have door dash. It was kind of like a
door dash, a deliveroo. So, people could place an order line and get them. And
because the cost of delivery was so expensive, people were buying 10 dough balls for
10 pounds, which was crazy, especially at the time with the pound to the dollar.
That was probably like $15 for 10 doughballs. So, I was like, okay, if people are
paying this much, which is crazy, obviously I have something here. So, in 2016,
I decided if I'm going to do this, I either go bigger, I go home. So, I put it
in a food show with my husband. He helped me and put delicious T-shirts on,
didn't even have barcodes set up and Whole Foods came to us right away and they're
like, we love it. Like, how do we get it? I was like, well, first I need a
barcode. And then Planet Organic and a couple other stores in the UK were super
interested. And I think Whole Foods was interested because they new American goods,
and they knew, like, there was this difference between American-style cookies to the
British biscuit. Interesting. Yeah. So that was, like, the first light bulb,
like, okay, this is what's going to, you know, I can, I can scale it. A
competitive advantage coming from where you came from and having that. Right, right.
And my whole ethos was moderation, so make these balls that were all separated,
Somebody could have dinner style perfect cookies, but that tasted amazing.
And we happened to become like, at first, I trialed just wheat flour and then I
started making everything with oats because I'm the type of person that I think if
I'm eating oats, I can eat 10 times more and it's going to taste, it's going to
be better for my body, the fiber, and it's going to taste just as good. So, I
would do taste test side by side and everybody loved the oat ones. So, I found a
gluten -free farm that did
use raw cane or coconut sugar depending on the product and then oat flour with a
little bit of like rice and tapioca depending on the product. And we even have some
Vegan flavors that we think are amazing and you would not know they're even vegan
and then some that are mainstream. So always trying to cater to a cult different
communities and cultures. I love that. So, this is a lot that you have going.
So, you have three kids,
this business. Two dogs. That alone would put me over. I've done the two-dog thing
before.
How do you, what are your tips and tricks to balance all of this? Yeah. I think
like when you just love something, then it comes easy or it seems to be easy
because you want to do it. And I think I just loved baking so much and I loved
making people happy. Like I'd like to say that if I can bring joy to a couple
people a day, then it's all worth it. Like just. Yeah. I can hear it right to us.
When you were talking about being awake till 4:30 in the morning with twins. Yeah.
And you still had joy in your voice. I was like, she really loves what she does.
She really loves it so I can know it is it was definitely a lot of work and um
but yeah I think it's it's every day that I get closer to like growing more and
more and obtaining like where I see this business can be it gets me excited and a
lot of people it's really hard like it's super hard people would be like oh my
gosh it's so hard I'm like yes it's hard but think of what we're doing like if it
was easy everybody everybody would do it. That's true. That's true. And it wouldn't
be as rewarding. Right. Yeah. Tell me, I want to dig into another part of your
story that's pretty powerful. You're also a breast cancer survivor. And I'd love to
hear a little bit about that and how, like, we already talked about you had a lot
on your plate. And then you add that on top of it. Yeah. I think, well, I, so I,
you know, never thought like, nobody ever thinks, oh, God, I'm going to get breast
cancer, right? That's just something that doesn't go through.
a biopsy and everything. They're like, oh, sorry, it's cancer. So, I think the first
thing that went through my head was like, oh my God, I don't have time for this.
Like, I had no time. Like, I'm too busy making a cookie dough.
Like, put that on the back burner. But I am, so I had a couple choices. And I
don't know if my choices were right at the time. And being a woman, you go through
these things of like, okay, so do I do a lumpectomy and hope that it's not in my
lymph nodes? Do I
you know, HRT, they're fantastic. So now I'm not on HRT and I can't take HRT.
So, I'm not very fantastic some days. But I, yeah,
so, I just decided to at the time, what worked for me was to have a lumpectomy.
They found out it wasn't in my lymph nodes. And then I had to go through
radiotherapy after that for three months. So, it was like, again like it was
miserable time and I think the worst part was um you know planning it getting
mentally prepared but thank goodness I had Doughlicious, so I didn't have that time but
I had two awesome girlfriends that went to the hospital with me my husband said he
would go was like nope I'm going with my girls and um had the surgery and then um
with radiotherapy I think also you just get super depressed, So I think having
Doughlicious and having really good friends to go with me, I would make somebody go
with me every day. Because not, like, even though it was only 15 minutes that you
sit there, it's, it's not fun. So having really good friends and I think having
something else to focus on than this, you know, this cancer, which, you know,
a lot of women go through. Like one in seven women are diagnosed with some form of
breast cancer. yeah um I love the
know I love it too. And we've done a lot with breast cancer. So, there's a charity
over here called Kappa Feel. We actually did a strawberry cookie dough and gelato
bite that we actually put little boobs on it. And it's called Kappa Field because,
you know, feel yourself and check yourself. I guess that sounds better. Check
yourself. To, you know, make sure that you don't have, you know, because if you
catch it early, it's usually curable. It's when you wait that then you have issues.
So, we gave 10 % of all, I think, net proceeds to crop a feel.
So, it's great. Yeah. Yeah. Just getting the word out there, spreading it any way we
can. We continue to support any breast cancer charities. So, if anybody's listening
and they have a breast cancer charity, we're happy to do what we can to support
you. That's great. I love that you're giving back,
serving others. So, tell me for someone who's thinking about starting something new,
dreaming a little bit, maybe about a business or a new endeavor, or just reinventing
themselves, what advice would you give them about taking that first step? Yeah,
I think you need to have passion. So, if you're passionate about something, then that
will help you persevere and work hard. But I also think like you just need to,
you know, follow your, follow your, I don't know what the word is.
Like if you, if you think of something, you're passionate about it, then go for it,
right? I mean, don't be afraid to fail because, I mean, we all will have
challenges. And every day is, is there's something, right?
Like there's always a day that something goes wrong. And if you let it get you
down, then you won't, you won't want to keep on going. But I think you just have
to realize there's always going to be challenges. If you're passionate about it, you
feel it, you believe it, then go for it. I love it. The passion. Your passion is
contagious. I can feel it. No, I can talk cookie dough all day. People think I'm
crazy. And I see it in like everywhere. Like if I go eat a croissant, I'm like,
oh, my God, this would be so much better with cookie toe in it. I need a cinnamon
roll. I'm like, oh, that's better with cookie dough. I mean, what isn't better with
cookie dough in it, right? Sometimes I say that about bacon, but cookie dough is
equally as powerful. I bet you if you wrapped bacon around some blob of cookie
dough, it would taste
new product line new product line yeah so tell somebody should do that they should
stuff a date with cookie dough and wrap bacon around it don't tell you with a good
time somebody somebody needs to do that that's the kind of thing I will do next
week and take to Thanksgiving dinner yeah I'll let you know how it goes so fun so
what's next before delicious in the company Yeah. So right now, so we're in the UK.
That's where our main manufacturing facility is. We are starting a production facility
in Ohio in the U.S. in 2026. So that'll make it easier on us.
Right now with tariffs, it's really hard to only produce in the UK. So, the factory
in the UK will service UK and all others, and I'm super proud of the company from
where it is today. So, we're not only in the United Kingdom, but we're in
Switzerland, Sweden, France, Iceland,
Costco, Spain, in Costco, actually all over Europe, not yet in the U.S.,
but also, we are in Dubai, Saudi, Kuwait, Greece,
And just growing. Lebanon, Israel, which is fantastic. So, there's a lot of cookie
dough monsters out there and that just love the dough. So, I'm really excited. And I
love, like I see these other countries and the way they, what they do with it is
different. Like sometimes these parties they have, the content they create. Like what
I, the way I see are gelato bites and the way I eat them, they do it totally
different. You know, whether it's like cultures. Yeah. Yeah, I've seen like videos
where they take the gelato bites. They dip them in meringue, torch them, and their
mini-baked Alaska. I'm always like, oh, my God, that is so cool. I'm super
impressed. And then so right now our plan is to continue to grow the U.S. Because
we launched in the U.S. in end of 2023, 24 with Whole Foods exclusively in four
regions. And then we went nationwide. And now we are proudly in about over 5,000
doors in the U.S. So, the plan is to continue to grow that, fix what's wrong
because not having to transport it from the U.K.
And actually also, we've just launched the cookie dough skillets, so which are really
fun. And it's just like my, again, my crazy brain going in like cookie dough ways.
So, the one that's launched in Whole Foods was an inspiration because whenever I
would bake at home, my kids loved apple pies or rhubarb pies,
but they always wanted a crumble topping. And I would always get mad at them
because I'd go into the kitchen after I made it. And like half of the pie had the
crumble missing because they had gone and eaten the crumble off the bottom. That
would be me. So, a lot of people do cookie dough. They just do like a slab, right?
That you bake skill it. It's just cookie dough. And then you can do something with
it. But I was like, okay, I love texture and I think experiences are cool. So
we've taken our cookie dough and put a crumble topping on it. And then we've par
baked it for you. And all you need to do is heat it and eat it. So, you can warm
it in the microwave, the air fryer, the oven, or just don't even. But so, it's a
combination, again, like making cookie dough modern, innovative, and better for you at
the same time. And then one is the cookies and cream.
Like who doesn't love collagen, right? We all like collagen. We’re the same age
group where I need collagen. Right.
You're reading my mind here. This is so fun. I hope all of our listeners will go
out. First of all, you can go to your website and check it out. But you've kind
of run through the different products. I assume you guys are on Instagram and
Facebook. delicious underscore dough and that is a global Instagram we are starting a
US one just because we're realizing as we grow it makes sense to have two Instagram
so, there's one Doughlicious US and then delicious underscore dough but we're on go puff
Instacart so wherever you live if you can't get to a store hopefully you can find
it elsewhere Amazon and yeah just hope that everybody will try the dough.
Yeah, I'm in. I'm going to try a lot of the dough. Yeah, I'll put the coupon on
too. So, everybody has a coupon. So, in the notes for this episode, if you guys
check it out, there is a coupon for all of our listeners that she has provided to
us. Kathryn, this is just great. It's been so fun to talk to you.
You've built an incredible business and your passion. Like I said, it's contagious.
We can all feel just how much you love doing what you're doing. Yeah, thank you.
Well, I'm a on the podcast to kick off our year. Everyone, please like, subscribe, and rate our
podcast. We have three stars in our Crescent, but we love those five-star ratings.
Thanks everyone for joining us. Until next time, Delta Love.