We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gaby Primo Ananda Fcachenco a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gaby Primo, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In 2016 i was working at a Coffee shop when a friend there got a secong job at a new Cotton Candy Kiosk that had just opened. She got me to work with them too and the little kid Gaby in me got so excited to be able to work with Cotton Candy. Being Brazilian, i grew up eating cotton candy all the time because its very popular everywhere in Brazil, parties, concerts, beaches, etc.

The previous owners started the business as a way for their little 2 year old daughter to be able to enjoy some cool sweet treats. She’s allergic to dyes and some other ingredients that are usually in all the candies. Thats why the importance of our Cotton Candy being Organic, Dye-Free, Gluten-Free, Preservative-Free, Non-GMO, Natural Flavoring, completely Allergy Free. So everybody can enjoy it!

From the start I loved working with them and they knew they could count on me for anything. I worked at the Kiosk, worked at the store, worked at the events, worked making orders, packaged, cleaned, found and trained new employees. I could do everything and i loved it. I enjoyed doing it.

But sadly that only lasted 1 year. The couple running the business at the time had other professions, he’s a firefighter and she’s a pharmacist. With no more time to take care of the business, in 2017 they shut it down and put it all the equipment in a storage unit.

After realizing they werent going to start back up, i got a call in Janurary 2019 asking if i was interested in purchasing the Cotton Candy Palace from them and running it from there on. I was super excited and super nervous with the awesome opportunity. It was perfect for me because since i was with them from the beggining, i was also part of the learning process of everything with them and i was absolutely sure i could run it.

I spoke to my parents and my fiance who super supported me. By the next month, in Feburary 2019 we were business owners. My fiance even quit her job at the time to learn everything and run the business with me. Im happy to say its been a sucess and consistent growth! Thats how today we are Gaby and Ananda, the Cotton Candy Palace Queens 👑✨️

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We didn’t invent cotton candy – we just enhanced it with a modern spin on a classic treat!

We feature handcrafted, all natural, Organic, Gluten-Free, Dye-Free, complete Allergy-Free Cotton Candy. Gourmet flavors that do not contain any preservatives. Providing the freshest and fluffiest Cotton Candy.

We have over 40 unique flavors and provide a Royal Experience to all of our customers. We do events where we go and spin the Cotton Candy live on the cones anywhere and we also offer party favors in many different sizes. Or if you’re just looking for a sweet treat anyday, you can stop by our Cotton Candy store where you’ll find a hidden, sweet smelling, pink palace. There you can try all the delicious flavors because we have all of them available at all times at the store.

No event is too small or too big — we can accommodate all of your needs to ensure your experience is EXTRA SWEET!

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I come from a family of entrepenuers. My Mom and my Dad both are business owners and have been ever since i was little. I grew up knowing I was probably going to be a business owner too. At 19 my Dad opened a used car dealership for me to run with him. That was very stressful, a lot of paperwork, a lot of documents and working with family isnt easy. That was unsucsessful and we had to shut that down making me rethink if i ever wanted to be a business owner. It seemed like too much. But perfectly right after that I had to get a job at the coffe shop and its when everything happened leading me to the Cotton Candy Palace. Where i got to work, learn and buy very own first business and it was perfect for me. We’ve been in a consistent line of success and growth and personally im super happy and satisfied.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We started running Cotton Candy Palace from an extra room in our house in 2019. But very soon we were having problems with people not taking us seriously and canceling orders because we were homebased. There was no credibility so we needed to find a store location fast. While we were in the process of finding a location, in the end of 2019 beggining of 2020, the big Covid pandemic hit. Businesses were closing everywhere, people couldnt leave their houses. We didnt know what to do anymore, didnt seem like a good time to take on the rent of a store where people couldnt even go to. We didnt know how long that would last so we decided to take it slow. We werent gonna get a location yet. But still sometimes id keep an eye on the ads to see if anything interesting popped up. Well with so many businesses closing due to the pandemic, so many store locations were unoccupied and there wasnt many people looking to get them. Prices went way down for the rent of the stores. Seemed like a risk we should take and in the middle of the pandemic in june of 2020 we got our store location and we are very proudly there until today.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.cottoncandypalace.com
• Instagram: @cottoncandypalace
• Facebook: The Cotton Candy Palace
• Other: Tiktok- Cotton.candy.palace Email- [email protected]

Image Credits
@cottoncandypalace