Teachers Making Dough-Nuts, a dessert startup founded in 2013 in Herndon, Va., has added next-day online ordering to its growing business. The company, cofounded by Daniella Minetti and Kim Richardson, provides fresh mini-doughnuts to order at area farmers markets. The pair is actively looking for business partners to help them expand their reach.
The mini-doughnuts, which come six to an order for $3, can be customized according to the customer's wishes, with chocolate, vanilla, maple, strawberry, lemon and blueberry toppings, plus candy pieces, sprinkles or nuts.
Minetti and Richardson both teach at McLean High School in Fairfax County. The pair took a trip to San Francisco and became enamored with doughnuts similar to the ones they make. "We decided it was the right time for us [to start a business]," Richardson says. "It's getting harder to be a teacher. We started the business because we hadn't gotten a raise in five years. There is so much less stress in this [job]. If we could do this full-time, we would."
Right now, Teachers Making Dough-Nuts sell their fried wares, along with Italian ice and a custom coffee blend, at
Fairfax County Farmers markets. They also sell during McLean high school football games, where business booms, and they're looking at selling at other high schools too.
In October, they'll provide doughnuts for the company's first wedding, Richardson says. "We can provide doughnuts for corporate picnics and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. We're even doing birthday parties, where kids can decorate their own doughnuts."
Minetti admits that the pair has limited ability to scale because it's just the two of them, for now. "We're working on the idea of a school bus—instead of a food truck," she says.