Hidden Gems: Meet Christen Capobianco of First Bite Cookie Company LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christen Capobianco

Hi Christen, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
While financially supporting herself through college at UCLA from 2017 to 2021, our founder Christen Capobianco didn’t have the money to buy her friends and family gifts for birthdays and holidays. Instead, she got creative and used her mom’s ancient hand-held mixer that she brought with her to college to bake chocolate chip cookies as gifts. When her friends started telling their peers about her baking abilities, Christen knew she possessed an extraordinary talent unlike others for crafting the perfect cookies. Since then, she has been on a journey to share her cookies with the world.

After graduating college, Christen spent the Summer of 2021 in Los Angeles perfecting her Chocolate Chip and Fudge Brownie cookie recipes. After weeks of testing various ingredients and concentrations, she was ready to start her business. Christen reached out to Duffl, a student convenience store at UCLA, to bring in free samples for them to try in Early August 2021. They were instantly impressed and offered to buy 20 cookies to test out their first week. In half a day, all the cookies were sold out. Christen’s cookies were an instant success. Within 4 months of starting her business, she added two new cookie flavors and expanded to sell at USC. By the end of October 2021, Christen sold just shy of 300 cookies per week.

Though Christen’s instant success was evident, she encountered obstacles that forced her to evaluate her life and career goals. The convenience stores were temporary shutdown in November 2021, which allowed Christen to realize that she did not have a set business model and long-term goal. What started as a side hustle in addition to her full-time job, became a possibility of a career Christen never foresaw. With over a two-year break due to personal reasons after the convenience stores shutdown, Christen restarted her cookie business in September 2023. She has fully dedicated herself to restarting and growing the business as her full-time career.

Now, Christen sells her cookies and baked goods through her website www.firstbitecookies.com, at her church TFHOC in Brea, CA, and at Cassidy’s Corner at LBX in Long Beach, CA. She is planning to expand her wholesaling business and get more into catering as her business grows. She eventually wants to be able to open her own coffee and bakery shop where locals can come in an enjoy her sweets while doing their work or relaxing.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has definitely not been smooth. The struggles that came along the way included navigating a side hustle while starting and working a full-time job. I gave up my cookie business right when I was deciding to pursue it full-time or keep it a side hustle because my ex-boyfriend wanted to move out to Texas. I made the mistake of picking a guy and relationship over myself and my goals. When I lived out in Texas, the convenient store I worked with in Los Angeles that got me started on this entire journey, Duffl, contacted me since they knew I was out in Austin and wanted to work with me again as they were opening up a branch out at UT Austin. I really thought it was a sign to get back to baking and pursue my business again. A week before I launched my business with Duffl, my ex-boyfriend broke up with me. I was so heartbroken after giving up my entire life and passion for a guy that I did what any brokenhearted sane woman would do, I traveled for 9 months across the United States crashing on my friends’ and family’s couches while working a remote job. During the year that I was recovering from the breakup and figuring myself out, I took time off baking and the business. When I got laid off from my full-time job in August 2023, I decided I have no more excuses or anyone holding me back anymore from pursuing my baking passion, so I decided to take a leap of faith and start working on making baking my full-time career and restarted my brand First Bite Cookie Company.

We’ve been impressed with First Bite Cookie Company LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
First Bite Cookie Company is a baking business that is run out of my home kitchen at the moment. The goal is to get more clients and orders that I can afford to move to a commercial kitchen. I would like to specialize in wholesaling, catering, and online orders until I have enough funds to open my own coffee and bakery shop. Currently, I specialize in gourmet cookies and banana breads with various flavors, but I want to expand to macarons, breads, etc. What sets me apart from others is quite literally my product. It’s what got me into the business, and what has given me encouragement. I do believe my tenacity and passion for baking is what makes me continue on this journey. I am most proud of pursuing this business despite it “failing” twice before. This is technically my third time starting and running my business. I am proud of myself for never giving up on this business and passion. Most people would’ve given up after the first try and though “okay, I tried, and it didn’t work out.” But, I thought, “Okay, I tried, but I’m not giving up.” I want readers to know that I am open to orders online (we do shipping and pick up), catering, and wholesale for shops and stores.

How do you define success?
I define success as the ability to pick yourself back up and keep going. Success isn’t in what you’ve accomplished but what you’ve overcame and your ability to not let it phase or deter you from your goals. Sometimes there are detours and delays, but as long as you keep going and don’t give up, then that to me is what Success is. I also believe that success can only be achieved from reflecting on those failures and learning from them in order to grow and avoid the same mistakes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.firstbitecookies.com
• Instagram: @firstbitecookiecompany

Image Credits:
Christen Capobianco
IG: @phrank.ph for some photos