“Get BAK’D!” is something my sister and I would have never thought we would be telling our friends, families, and customers. 

This story actually starts back in April 2020 when COVID-19 was at its peak and no one had a clue what was happening. My sister, Jessica, was in her last semester of finishing her Honours Bachelor’s in Business Administration at SFU and I was starting spring break of my high school senior year. During this month, SFU sent an email to all students telling them that their classes are now online, my part-time job as a junior baker in a local pie shop let me go, businesses began shutting down, and a huge toilet paper shortage began.

Jessica was extremely sad because the job she had lined up for after graduation emailed her saying that they were no longer hiring new employees at this time due to the pandemic and she was having an extremely tough time in the horrible job market. In an attempt to cheer her up, I decided to try to recreate her favourite cookies from New York. It was a big chocolate chip and walnut cookie from Levain Bakery. So much like everyone else during the pandemic, I started baking up a storm to make Jess the best cookie ever. 

After being able to create the perfect recipe (and remedy for Jess’s sadness), Jess shared the cookies on her personal Instagram. This caused friends and family to reach out and ask if they could purchase some cookies from us because they wanted to support and because the cookies looked so delicious. Our friends and family then referred us to their network and we came to the realization that we may be onto something special with our cookies. Together, we put together a website and Instagram Business page and by April 10th, 2020, we made an unofficial launch for our cookies. Our page features all of our cookie flavours, from classics like chocolate peanut butter and birthday cake to more fun ones such as caramel macchiato and s’mores.

I believe that co-founding this company with my sister is a key contributing factor to BAK’D success. Our skills and different experiences are true compliments to each other. Through my experience with YELL, I learned the necessary business fundamentals and had an amazing mentor and network to support BAK’D. Given my attention to detail and baking experience, I focus more on the back-end business aspects and product development.

On the other hand, Jess is extremely personable which makes her great at building relationships and connecting with customers, an essential component of our brand that people have come to know and love. Not only that, she is brilliant with marketing and analytics because of her university degree which allows us to better measure the effectiveness of our strategies.

Together, we now sell in local Farmers’ Markets, online, and in Chachi’s in Coquitlam Centre and have completed over 900 orders. Currently, you can find us at the Port Moody Winter Market! We have cumulatively sold over 25,000 cookies and someday hope to open up a storefront for BAK’D where we can serve our customers the freshest cookies.

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Andy Nguyen
Co-Founder and Head Baker, BAK’D
YELL Alumni 2019

Check out BAK’D’s website or follow them on instagram @bakdcookies.