Santa Barbara Cookie Company – Siobhan Holden, Founder

In 805conversations by Mark Sylvester

Making zero kilometer, hyperlocal food

My favorite part of the business is making the cookies and getting to meet new people.Siobhan Holden, Student, Founder, Santa Barbara Cookie Company

Siobhan Holden is a student at Santa Barbara High School and Founder of the Santa Barbara Cookie Company. She brought cookies to her class one day, and everyone fell in love with them. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get that entrepreneurial energy flowing. It turns out that high school kids don’t have enough money to afford organic, handmade cookies, so she turned to a broader market and debuted at last year’s Summer Solstice Festival. That was a great launchpad, and since then the cookies and the cookie business has grown exponentially.

Along the journey to growing the business, she’s learning about marketing, distribution, bulk baking, customer relations, and finding ways to build the business. It will be fun to watch this project grow over time. They’ve got a great product and a great brand.

She says that the reason they don’t use preservatives in their cookies is that you wouldn’t expect your mom or grandmother to use them in theirs. We agree.

Siobhan runs the business with her Mom. She’s more interested in the creative side of the business and let’s Mom pay attention to the business side. This seems to work well for them, especially as Siobhan’s goal is to go to Art College when she graduates.

Looking for one of these tasty treats? You can find them at the Isla Vista Co-op and the Gift Shop at the Santa Barbara Airport – next time you’re headed out of town, pick some up for treats for your friends. You can find more locations for the cookies on their website or Like them on Facebook.