The name and logo choice!

The business idea was done, so now we needed a name. That sounds like the easy part! I already had a name picked out: “Sweet B”, but on our first meeting with Blackstone Launchpad they suggested we do some research on names to see what was out there first. Turned out that the name “Sweet B” was already taken, so we had to come up with another name – how disappointing!

Broken hearted, we did some brainstorming with the team but nothing was as satisfying to us as the name “Sweet B”.  I had to get over that name and accept the fact that I had to have another name for the business. “Yummy B”, “Yum B”, “Bite B”, “Sweet Bite”, and some other names came in mind but not catchy enough.   We finally came up with the name “Doce Brigadeiro” !! In order to use "Doce B" to facilitate the pronunciation for the English speaking customers, and then since the business plan includes having a shop in the long-run with coffee and some other Brazilian goodies, we added "Shop"to it.

The name was finally picked out, now we had to have a logo.  Something that would somehow represent Brazil with the colors green and yellow and also give the customers the impression that it was food related.

I am the type of person that doesn’t sleep very well when I have too much going on or am too excited about something. So guess what happened? A couple sleepless nights, waking up in the middle of the night with ideas. So I left a paper and pen on my nightstand so I could write it down and/or draw whatever I had in mind.

And that’s what I came up with! I know – don’t judge! I was never good at drawing but it helped me sleep better!!

Marina took on the responsibility of doing the logos.  She has a MacBook and the perfect program for this project.   She came up with really good and cute ideas.

 

That was the first logo idea she sent me.

 I liked it - but she still wanted to work on it more. Obviously there were still room for improvement. So she kept working on it, and came up with the ones we will be using today. J

Tcharam!!! Here are they!!! 

 

I particularly LOVE them!  What about you?

The Business Idea Part II

Hi everyone! This is Marina Lauand writing, I am Danny’s partner . Born and raised in Brazil, 28 years old, with a dream that is about to come true!

Since we have already started to tell you our story, I am also going to talk about my journey in the United States and how our friendship and later on, our partnership started.

As many other Brazilians I came to the US in 2010 for the Au Pair Program.  I lived in Connecticut for one year and within that year I met a special man that would later become my husband. After my au pair year was over, we decided to continue with a hard overseas long distance relationship, until I finally moved in to the United States permanently.

                                       That is me and my future husband Michael

During one return visit to the lovely State of Michigan, I met Danny through a North American friend, who is one of my husband’s best friend.  Believe it or not, she was the first Brazilian I met, and that was a big  deal for me  since I was pretty lonely and missing my friends from home. As good traditional Brazilians we knew without asking each other that we had something in common: we both love and know how to make the delicious “little chocolate balls” known as Brigadeiro.

Girls night out

Even though we lived 45 minutes away, our friendship grew closer as time went by. The idea of opening a Brigadeiro business crossed my mind many times before I met Danny, but I've never had enough encouragement to do something like that.

One day, in one of our conversations, Danny said she dreamed about starting to make Brigadeiros to sell here and opening a business. Those lines sounded like a great idea to me! We figured out that every person that has tried out the traditional Brigadeiros love them and want more and more.

Since the candy is a ‘must have’ in the birthday parties in Brazil, we asked ourselves; why not make it a ‘must have’ in events here as well?

That’s when the idea became serious and we decided to put our efforts in making it happen.  So that is where we are in our journey right now.   We are feeling very positive and excited about and see it as another bright spot in our future!

The business Idea

The first blog post will be about the birth of Doce B Shop; Where the business idea came from? Why? When? How?

Before that, let me introduce myself. My name is Danielle Cecconi, I am 26 years old, born and raised in Brazil. The country of the deliciousness called Brigadeiro. I came to Michigan to get my Master degree in Management in Marketing at Walsh College and started working with BlackstoneLaunchpad in June, 2013 in order to open my business: Doce B Brigadeiro LLC.

Brigadeiro it’s been part of my life, and it was a “must have” in all of my birthday parties.

 

Here is a picture of my 7^th Bday with my brother’s 9^th, he is the silly one holding the balls. That’s the cake table, where we would get together to sing happy bday and that’s where usually the Brigadeiros were set.

The exciting thing about it is that as I started to get older I would help my mom make them, and it would be the highlight of my day because I always got to eat a few prior to the party. J

Long story short, I became a professional Brigadeiro maker! My favorite desert then, now and forever!

So when I first came to Michigan and noticed that Brigadeiro wasn’t known here, I had to make it and share with people. The more I started to meet Americans and other international people, the more Brigadeiro I had to make.

I got really involved with school and the International Student Organization there, so I decided to offer to bring my “Brazilian candy” to the events. And guess what? Everybody LOVED it!

 

Me and my candies at the Focus Hope Walk 2012, I made little Brazilian flags as a “business card”, and that’s when the business idea was born. Due to everybody’s feedback I noticed that I would have a chance and customers If I opened the business.

 

Here is when I made the candies for the International Day at Walsh College this year. At that point I was focusing on getting feedback from people, the more I had, the better. And I got 100% approval!

So as a 26 years old woman that is getting her master degree and has an entrepreneur mind, I saw a business opportunity coming together. I then had the opportunity to meet my Brazilian friend and partner Marina Lauanda. We got signed up at Blackstone Launchpad and the rest is story for the next posts.