Blog Post: David Kravetz- A Brownie Fairytale

At 25, with a degree in mechanical engineering, David Kravetz decided he wanted to sell brownies. David, along with his lifelong friend and business partner Eileen Spitalny, moved to Phoenix, found day jobs, and spent many nights in a friend’s catering kitchen armed only with his mother’s brownie recipe and a disturbing lack of experience. Sixteen years later, David and Eileen’s mail order venture Fairytale Brownies can claim a single day’s sales record of $450,000.

“I just think it’s great to sell brownies,” David says, “It’s a fun product that puts a smile on people’s faces.”

Five years into a ten-year business plan, Fairytale recently moved into a beautiful new facility from which the entire operation is controlled. The Phoenix facility includes a walk-in retail area that contains a viewing window of the actual baking floor, an order processing and shipping center, and plenty of customer service work stations.

Conspicuously lacking, however, are executive private offices. David does his work from the same area as his employees. This, along with full financial disclosure to all employees, maintains the cooperative work atmosphere that makes Fairytale so successful. The $100 Empowerment Policy allows all customer service representatives a budget of $100 to fix a customer’s problem immediately, and it works.

David’s advice for young entrepreneurs is all about patience. “It takes a long time to gain a foothold. We worked for 3 years without a salary, and eight years until the company had a positive net worth.”

That patience has paid off, thanks to calculated risk, trust, and a mother’s fabulous recipe.