Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Danielle Velez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Danielle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

The Half Cookie was a dream turned reality that I began building the foundation for back in 2017 without even realizing it! In 2017 while still in the midst of my fitness career (by this time I had transitioned from personal training to management) I started to sell cookies as a hobby. I’ve always loved baking and baking for others and started to get insterest from past clients and friends to bake for them. I created an Instagram account for fun and dabbled in this as a hobby. Fast forward to 2020 and I had built a small following and really nailed my cookie recipes down and had started to develop a business identity when I was laid off from my job (my real job) in April 2020. A week later I had my second daughter and my family decided I would take this time to pursue my passion of baking/entrepreneurship. We quickly dove into an online business model and have been evolving our business with a mixture of personal goals for the business and customer feedback! We now pop up all over the Boston area for holiday and one off markets, offer pickups at our ghost kitchen in Charlestown, cater for corporate/personal events, ship nationwide, and have our first long term popup in Seaport!

Danielle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The Half Cookie and becoming an entrepreneur is a path I didn’t naturally seek out but now looking back at how the last decade unfolded it seems like it was the plan all along!

I grew up in a family that loved large gatherings for holidays. A core memory for me from an early age is making dozens of different types of Christmas cookies with my family over a month long prep! This has always carried on for me as I loved baking treats for occasions and gifting cookies to loved ones.

As a true foodie I spent the last decade eating my way through bakeries all over Boston and surrounding cities. I was never able to find the classic New York style cookie here and began making my own- and stuffing them with different flavors/combinations! The Half Cookie stands out with our quality of ingredients and our creative/redefined flavors! We proudly use Vital Farm eggs and grassfed butter-delivering a luxurious butter forward cookie that isn’t overly sweet. We also love redefining what a cookie can be-adding pies, cinnamon rolls, and cookies within cookies. This keeps our customers excited to try new flavors and we truly believe we have a flavor for every mood.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think that we are currently in it! 😂

2023 we really made a name for ourselves in a seasonal market sense but this past year as we are experimenting with popup retail we (both as a company and me personally/my family) are giving it our all and pushing our limits to grow the company! We started the year with me being the only employee and now as we have a 55 hour/week retail popup for 3 months in Seaport are quickly scaling and meeting each days challenges. We have grown to a team of 3 part time and 1 full time, and our day begins at 4am in the kitchen and ends at about 7pm when the store closes! We have two young girls 6 and 3 and balance parenthood in the mix too. It’s an exhausting exciting wonderful adventure that we wouldn’t trade for anything!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our social media presence is something we are really proud of! We naturally have built up to 10k and it’s truly been through building a fan base. We love engaging on social media, and while it’s had its ups and downs we try to keep a healthy relationship with it. We don’t get too caught up in engagement but instead use it daily to give a glimpse into behind the scenes, get customer feedback through polls, and showcase our products! My other favorite part of it is the networking/collaborating I do with other small businesses. I’ve made some wonderful friends through IG that are also small business owners and it’s amazing to help support each other, vent to each other, and have a circle that understands one another.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thehalfcookie.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thehalfcookie
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thehalfcookie
• Other: We’re on TikTok! @thehalfcookie

Image Credits
Images are mine and Alyssa Palladio