Growing up in a family of physicians, Stephanie Baker (MBA ’09) was always passionate about health and medicine. After graduating from the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business with a degree in business administration, she merged her interests in business and health to tackle an often over-looked issue.
“I wanted to do more than just focus on treatment methods,” Baker says. “I wanted to know what I could do about health prevention.”
The result was Credible Cravings, a company focused on addressing prevention methods, especially during one of the most vulnerable periods of a person’s life for nutrition uptake — the prenatal period. Credible Craving manufactures and sells organic food bars dedicated to pregnant and breast-feeding women. Whole-food ingredients for the bars are sourced from all over the United States.
“The main goal of the company,” Baker says, “is to improve the health of the next generation.”
Baker’s Credible Cravings team includes two other DU alums, Tyler Hansen (BSBA ’08) and Lauren Stone (BA ’07, MPS ’12), whom she met during her time at the University. Hansen helps her out at the company’s Southern California headquarters, while Stone plays a vital role within the Denver community.
Other than the great connections she made at DU, Baker says Daniels College of Business taught her the skills necessary to start her own business. In fact, the University of Denver was recently named one of Forbes Magazine’s top 50 entrepreneurial schools.
“My MBA capstone class was a particularly valuable and beneficial course,” she says, “alongside many of the marketing courses I took advantage of.”
The company currently has a presence in stores all over the United States, including the Vitamin Shoppe, Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods in Southern California, Down to Earth markets in Hawaii and Natural Grocers in Colorado. The hope, however, is to reach out to mothers and future mothers on a more global scale. Baker also wants to eventually offer additional products.
“Credible Cravings produced more than 225,000 snack bars during our first year, and we are looking to continue to grow our production in year two,” says co-founder Hansen. “Most Credible Cravings customers buy a few bars at a time in retail stores, but we also have our devout fans who stock up with boxes online. In-store sales exceed those of online sales, but both have proven to be in demand by our customers.”
To explore the potential for expansion, the alumni reached out to the Daniels College of Business for advice. The Daniels Consulting Firm, a student-run organization based out of the Daniels College of Business, offered to work with the company on its project request and got to work analyzing export markets and export strategies. Its final recommendation was to focus on growing Credible Cravings domestically before pursuing international markets.