We were lucky to catch up with Maryam Counter recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maryam , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Matryoshka’s Bakery was named after Russian nesting doll. The largest doll is considered the matriarch of the family, while the smallest is called the ‘seed’ and represents the soul. Also I’m a mom of 3, which makes me feel like a matryoshka.

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.

I was born in Russia and moved here
when I was 21. I carry a lot of my culture and family with me.
When our youngest, Zoya, turned 1, Liliya 3 and Jasmine 8, I started thinking of working from home. I
wanted to make enough money to pay for dance or other classes for girls. I’ve tried different things, like
jewelry and sewing. I tried baking – and it clicked right away. I always knew that my bakery name would
be Matryoshka. I started making cakes, cupcakes, macarons, cake pops.
I fell in love with macarons: with their texture, the flavor and how complicated was to make them. I liked
the challenge.
When we moved here to Vermont, I was very busy making cakes and taking macaron orders. I didn’t
have enough time to take my girls to dance classes or exc. My friend Julia Atherton told me that I don’t
have to make everybody happy. I should pick what really makes me happy. I picked macarons.
And that’s’ when my explosion of creativity happened.

The secret of our success is LOVE, quality and consistency.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

As a stay at home mom with 3 kids, I started baking. I would bake and give out to neighbors all the goodies. Our neighborhood in Texas did the garage sale and I decided to do a bake sale. People bought my macarons and ordered more for next time. My neighbor and friend Gina helped me to design the logo and I paid her with baked goods. And that’s how it’s all started.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

As my business continued to grow we build out our home kitchen to suit the needs of it. We upgraded our ovens and change our dining area into production space. At a short time I began to realize that I needed more space and a real commercial kitchen to work in. This led us to start looking for space last summer and came upon our new home in South Burlington. My husband Travis Counter and I merged our business together, Good Times Cafe and Matryoshka’s Bakery. We couldn’t have done the expansion without the help of friends and community. We will always be grateful to them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.matryoshkasbakery.com/
• Instagram: @matryoshkasbakery

Image Credits

Colette Kulig Photography
Hayley Wick Photo