We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashlei Brown. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashlei below.

Ashlei, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

If you would’ve said to me a few years ago that I would start a donut business in 2023, I would’ve called you crazy. That’s exactly how bizarre the story behind Quirk ‘N Co Donuts really is.

I belong to an amazing online community and about 2 years ago, my profile picture included some strawberry donut frosting. I became known as The Donut Queen and I embraced it. But it wasn’t until the people in this community started asking when actual donuts were going to be a “thing” that I realized “wow, how do I deliver donuts? How do I not disappoint an entire community rooting for this to happen?”

Enter the idea for Quirk ‘N Co Donuts. I started daydreaming about a food truck and a nationwide tour of serving donuts. The idea started out big and I quickly realized that I could potentially be in over my head. But I knew that this is what I wanted. I knew that I wasn’t going to be content anymore, until I saw the birth of a donut business through.

I started doing research on how to start a business, step by step. And then the hard part came: how do I make donuts? And how do I stand apart from regular donut shops?

I got my answer when I realized that baked donuts weren’t a big “thing”. Your typical donut is fried, even cake donuts. I started with a very generic base baked donut with strawberry frosting from scratch that I have perfected now and I worked my way into other flavors as well.

To this day, I’m always trying to come up with a quirky flavored donut to keep returning & new customers coming back for more.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a mother of 3 beautiful children alongside my husband of 14 years. I work full-time in HR but my donut hobby has turned into making lots of orders during the nights and weekends!

I recently started participating in vendor markets and I quickly realized that this excites me most. Having one-on-one interactions with customers, watching them taste my products for the first time and understanding their pure-joy sentiments on their faces is a feeling that ANY business owner would get a thrill out of.

When a customer approaches my tables because my set up or my logo has caught their eye, it becomes easy to allow the food to speak for itself. Whether it’s sampling a dragon bite or an actual donut, I live for reactions! My main goal is to provide an experience to the customer that is intimate. I want you to leave my table with a pail of dragon bites or a box of donuts knowing that we’ve just laughed together or had a quick but sentimental conversation about how a flavor reminded you of your childhood or somewhere you used to live. Experience is everything and I want you to share it with me!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Baked donuts may be my niche, but it wasn’t first. I initially started with fried donuts as those are the most popular (and what I was most familiar with).

I wanted to create a comfort that you could always come back to the donuts if you didn’t eat them in one sitting. I also thought about the people in Tennessee who would order them online and I’d have to ship. I wanted to make sure to craft a donut that could withstand that AND still be good to eat when it was received.

I quickly pivoted to baked donuts. Although baked donuts are not as versatile as fried donuts, it allows for a sense of a slightly better nutritional value as well.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I personally funded the business from the beginning. I had a savings account built up with a little stash for emergencies. Although this wasn’t an emergency, I had enough Conviction in myself to bet on myself to pull this off and make it work.

So here I am pulling it off and trying to make it work to the best of my ability!

Contact Info:

• Website: Quirkncodonuts.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/QuirkDonuts
• Facebook: Facebook.com/QuirkDonuts
• Twitter: Twitter.com/quirkdonuts