Baking + Building Solo: The Story

By Grace Kennedy

THE STORY OF LEXINGTON BAKES

Lex jokes that LEXINGTON BAKES (LXB) is “the business I never wanted to start.” Baking was, for the last seven years, merely one of his hobbies as he worked a demanding design job. He baked nearly every weekend, teaching himself how to make macaroons, eclairs, and all manner of pastry delights. But when he began to receive requests to cater or sell his baked good, he always responded with a firm “No thank you.” He had seen firsthand how hard it is to be a professional baker: his stepdad was a pastry chef at restaurants his entire life, working grueling hours and missing holidays to fulfill the needs of others. Lex never wanted to turn something he loved into something he hated. Baking was his escape — a way to express himself creatively and connect with loved ones — not a business.

Not a business, at least, until November 2021. One day, Lex shared a picture of his homemade brownies with his few hundred Instagram followers. Within an hour, his direct messages were flooded with requests to purchase a brownie. Lex was about to dismiss these requests yet again, but then, a lightbulb went off. Brownies can’t break in transit, they’re square and easy to package, and they last much longer than other pastries — maybe he could sell baked goods without sacrificing his sanity.

After crunching the numbers, he realized he’d have to price his brownies around $10 a pop to account for the cost of his high-quality ingredients and shipping. “No one’s going to pay that,” he thought but pushed forward with his experiment.

Within a week, he had $5,000 in his Venmo account.

Lex has a background in CPG manufacturing, and he has founded start-ups in the past (although none have been in the CPG space), so he is no stranger to the process of getting a product into the hands of consumers. This time, however, he had an imminently looming deadline: Christmas. Over the span of six weeks, Lex formed a legal business, ordered ingredients, scaled his recipe to match

Lex Evan,

Founder & Chief LEXINGTON BAKES

demand, designed a shipping box, got labels printed, found a commercial kitchen, and shipped out 500 brownies for his customers to unwrap on Christmas day.

Lex is the definition of a solopreneur (and no, he admits, he does not have much of a social life). Since his first run at the end of 2021, Lex has single-handedly cut, packaged, and labeled 14,000 units, and he is close to hitting $100,000 in sales in 2022. He has launched limited edition flavors like Raspberry Velvet and now has six permanent offerings: original Fleur del Sel brownie, Choc Chip No 5 Cookie, Walnut Chip No 7 Cookie, Bday Confetti Blondie, and two gluten-free options. He also expanded into retail, sold his products at pop-ups and farmers markets, and is planning to begin fundraising efforts in the new year. All of this, while holding down his full-time job as a design manager at Johnson and Johnson.

So how did Lex turn his serendipitous Instagram success into a fully-fledged, thriving business — solo?

MANAGING GROWING PAINS

LXB’s thoughtful mission and exceptional product have garnered the attention of major partners — a success that comes with its own set of growing pains. One of LXB’s biggest breaks this year came when they partnered with the retailer Foxtrot. LXB first connected with Foxtrot by entering their Up & Comers competition. When the team tried LXB’s product, they immediately decided to stock it. Lex has already acquired another LA-based retail location and hopes to

continue to expand in the new year.

For this growth to be possible, however, Lex realized he could not continue to run a one-man show — he simply does not have the time to make enough brownies to keep up with the growing demand.

This fall, Lex began working with Partner Slate to find a co-manufacturer and co-packer and quickly learned that finding external partners came with its own unique challenges. He needed someone who would be able to duplicate the unique way in which he makes his luxury treats. But he also was not ready to work with a manufacturer who would expect to do a million SKUs per run. With the help of Partner Slate, LXB found the right co-packer and conducted their first pilot run in October. If all goes smoothly, they will have their first production run this coming January.

“My interactions with people, whether they're within the company or outside of the company, are an extension of the culture that I want to build through LEXINGTON BAKES.”

MORE THAN JUST A “GOOD PRODUCT”

In a crowded market where “plenty of people are making great brownies,” Lex knew there had to be more to his brownie than mere taste. For Lex, this meant creating a luxurious and decadent product that is also good for people and the planet. LXB invests in companies that offer ethically sourced ingredients, is B-corp certified, and is investing back into the communities from which they harvest. LXB also practices Radical Ingredient Transparency™, so consumers know exactly what they are putting into their bodies and where it came from.

Nothing about LEXINGTON BAKES has been done haphazardly. LXB is no Betty Crocker Boxed Mix; Lex has iterated his recipes up to ten times to ensure his customers are getting the best possible product — without using any artificial ingredients. He also designed his brownies to be freezer-stable, meaning they can be shipped directly from the freezer without an ice pack, which keeps the brownies fresh and is more sustainable. Everything — from the meticulously tested recipes to the marble box the brownies come packaged in — is done with thought for his mission and care for his customers.

While Lex begins to offload some of his work to external partners, he is also thinking strategically about the systems required for a future full-time employee. When he started his business, he created a server that contained folders for each of the different functions of his company. Every process he builds, whether it is in operations, design, or marketing, is organized into its appropriate folder. When the time comes to bring on help in any one department, these folders will contain everything the new employee will need to know to get the job done. This system is not only helpful for the future, but also allows Lex to stay organized in the present. Solopreneurs have to keep track of countless channels at a time; if you don’t compartmental-

ize, “you will get lost trying to do everything at the same time,” he says. “Having a repository to dump information into allows you to get it out of your head and focus on the task at hand.”

CREATING YOUR OWN “CO-WORKERS”

Though Lex has grand plans for the expansion of LXB over the coming years, he is still, at the moment, his only co-worker. To establish a sense of community in the meantime, he creates his own (unofficial) co-workers through social media, fellow-business owners, and podcasts.

He frequently checks in with his Instagram following — the same people who urged him to sell his brownies in the first place — for advice and feedback on anything from flavors to the color of the tissue paper placed inside each box. He has built his brand alongside his Instagram community and has since sold nearly $20,000 to the same 200 original customers.

He also heavily relies on the other makers in his incubator commercial kitchen space. When he shows up to bake on the weekends, he is greeted by an impressive array of culinary co-workers. They have helped him build confidence over the last year as taste testers and provided invaluable intel on farmers markets, pop-ups, and more.

Finally, Lex takes advantage of the wealth of information available to CPG brands via podcasts and articles — some of his favorites being Food Chained by Vasa Martinez (Perfy), In the Sauce by Alison Cayne (Haven’s Kitchen) and Startup CPG’s podcast by Jessi Freitag. He may not be able to walk down the hall or text a co-worker about a specific question, but he passionately believes “all the advice you need to win is available to you” if you’re willing to listen.

BUILDING A PEOPLE-FIRST CULTURE

In wake of the pandemic, building a positive, happy, and healthy company culture has been at top of mind for many businesses. But how does one build company culture as a one-man show?

First, Lex says, “My interactions with people, whether they're within the company or outside of the company, are an extension of the culture that I want to build through LEXINGTON BAKES.” He wants his customers to know that he cares about the person behind the order, not just the order itself. He hopes to mimic acts of care such as those exampled by Chewy.com, a pet-food business that sends flowers to customers whose pets have passed away. And perhaps most importantly, by respecting his own needs and boundaries as a solopreneur, he is putting into practice the culture he plans to extend to future employees.

As LXB continues on their path of growth in 2023, Lex remains committed to creating a company that will be future-forward on every angle: sustainability, climate change, people, and the workplace. He plans to offer employees a four-day workweek with full salaries, provide work-from-home flexibility, and, perhaps most importantly, create a company that is “not going to run the people who run the business insane.”

“Food brings people together,” Lex says. And as a food business, LXB’s culture will always prioritize “people, connection, and compassion.” No matter if they are a company of one person or one hundred — LXB will put people, and the world we inhabit, first. As Lex says, “This is a company that is going to change the world for the better.”