Misfits Bakehouse: Help save my Gluten-Free Bakery

Mina M is organizing this fundraiser.

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Help me continue baking wholesome Gluten-Free, Grain-Free breads and baked goods for the people who love them

Growing a business from the ground up is an amazing challenge. Leaving a relatively secure engineering career to starting a new career in the food industry can be borderline crazy!

But I love every second of it. The long hours. Working in 100+ degrees bakery. Troubleshooting the dough every day to react to the roller coaster of a Bay Area weather. But best of all, my customers and what my team and I have been able to do for them.

Four years ago I couldn’t find any Gluten-Free/Grain-Free bread in any grocery store that were baked fresh. And to add to it, none of the options available had a decent nutritional value and I won’t even mention the taste, texture… etc. So I decided to make my own!

That’s how Ducks and Dragons Bakery was started. And what happened next was phenomenal. I didn’t have resources for fancy packaging or even advertising. But as it turned out, I didn’t need it. The community that organically grew around the bakery was spreading the word like wildfire. And the bakery grew.

I was getting calls/emails/texts of people telling me that they can’t believe they are having fresh baked bread! And I quickly found out that my customers weren’t just gluten-free due to Celiac Disease or gluten-intolerance, but also due to diabetes because our bread has low glycemic index. Many people who are battling multiple disorders have to avoid gluten and grain.

Sadly, I had to close the bakery due to unresolved issues with a former partner that were beyond my control.

After being utterly devastated by the whole situation, talking to customers at the final couple of events, made me realize that I can’t quit. I can’t give up. This time it will take a village to get things going but I have faith in this amazing community that has supported us over the years.

I already spoke to our landlord and the folks that we finance the oven from. Both agreed that if we can raise the capital we get to keep the bakery and the oven to get going again. Losing these would make startup costs very high ($100k+) I also spoke with all of our suppliers and they are extremely supportive.

The money raised here will go towards the following:

- Bakery’s lease reassignment to Misfits Bakehouse. This includes security deposit, and rent
- All legal fees to reassign the oven’s lease.
- Buying a fresh round of ingredients
- Paying for all the permits and insurance needed to get back into Farmers’ Markets and Grocery Stores.

You might be curious why Misfits Bakehouse. To borrow from a famous Apple commercial from the 90s “Here’s to the crazy ones. The MISFITS. The troublemakers.….. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are often the ones that do”

Now, maybe I can’t change the WORLD… But I am sure that WE can change the Gluten-Free world together one delicious freshly baked loaf at a time (and some Cinnamon Rolls too!)