CLEVELAND — Starting your own business can be stressful, but one local who’s making and selling cookie dough bars says if you keep the end goal in site, anything is possible. His business was recently one of nine brands to be selected for a $20,000 grant and business extension.

What You Need To Know

  • Whoa Dough is a father-started business based on family health situation

  • Business looks to expand in coming years

  • Brand was selected for $20,000 grant

Billy White was packaging a protein cookie dough box for moms’ part of the mothers meet organization. He’s one of the employees at Whoa Dough, one of the marketers for the company that started back in 2019.

"We thought this was a great opportunity for us because we are now just entering into the K-12 space," he said.

White said when he first started with Whoa Dough, he knew it was going to go far.

"A year and a half ago there were two of us here, and now I think we are up to seven or eight people," he said.

The man behind it all, Todd Goldstein, created the company's cookie dough bar with inspiration from his little boys.

"My whole life I was always really sick, and then in 2011 I got diagnosed with a severe gluten allergy, so it changed my life and how I would eat," he said.

But things really took a turn when he realized that his three boys have gluten allergies too.

"Fast forward to 2015 my first son was born, he had a severe gluten allergy and in 2017 my second son did as well, so I was like why don’t I create the thing I loved as a kid which was cookie dough," he said.

Goldstein’s story has inspired others like White to join his journey.

"There aren’t many companies that have people like we do, we come in everyday, and we really have fun," White said.

With four full time employees and a couple of interns, Goldstein said his journey is getting ready to expand.

"Over the next three years the goal is to expand to six to 10 employees here in northeast Ohio as we continue to grow our business throughout the country," he said.

While there are some tough days, Goldstein said he knows he can always rely on his team.

"One person cannot do this alone," he said. "We have really built a young team of professionals who are really taking whoa dough to the next level. It is all about giving people the chance to be successful, and that’s what I do here at Whoa Dough."