While some people were baking sourdough bread during the pandemic, Alexandria Diggs was nurturing a different kind of starter. Diggs never saw herself starting her own business. As a biochemistry student, she planned to pursue a career in medicine before eventually pivoting to teaching. But looking back, she said the signs were there early. Growing up, she watched her parents run several businesses, including a hair salon, a moving service, and a logistics company. Diggs learned how to bake from her mother, who often baked cakes for church events. “I grew up in a family that cooks very well. I feel like we all have a love for cooking and a love for food,” Diggs said. In high school, she began baking cookies for classmates after friends repeatedly asked her to make more. For a year and a half, Diggs baked roughly 100 cookies a night to sell at school the next day, while her parents bought 50-pound bags of flour and encouraged her to think bigger about the business potential. A lousy cinnamon bun in college unintentionally pointed Diggs toward her future path. “I wanted to try to make cinnamon buns, because I had gone to a farmer’s market that was close to my apartment, and I had some, and I just didn’t like them at all. I didn’t think they were good, and I’m like, I know I can do this better,” she said. “I wanted to get a part-time job, like selling makeup, and my father told me I should just make the cinnamon buns because everybody loves them. That’s where the vision finally caught on. I’m like, ‘Okay, I can do this.’” Read more about how Alexandria turned home baking into a rising business.—JH | 
