Sprinkles Founder Filled a Void in the Market

Candace Nelson is a New York Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur. She says when she founded Sprinkles - known to the world as the first luxury cupcake - “People thought I was nuts and felt free to tell me so.”
She told UCLA Anderson Student Association president Marysela Garza (’24) that she “had done everything right”: gone to the right school, scored the high grades, entered the lucrative field of finance and later technology. But when the dot-com bust and 9/11 pulled the rug out from under her prestigious job, she realized that what she was led to believe were the “right” choices had not delivered security and success. “I was filled with this feeling I’d been fed a bunch of lies,” she said. “It cracked me wide open to the possibility of following a completely different path.”
And the rest is delicious history.
What does Nelson say to women looking to launch a business? The idea that seems not to make sense to others but makes perfect sense to you could be the key indicator there’s a void to fill in the market. No question that burnout is real, she warns, but your instincts could propel you past the pitfalls.
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