We acted as a strategic consultancy team tasked with helping Fleur et Sel — a beloved, founder-led gourmet cookie brand started by USC alum Lara Adekoya — figure out how to grow without losing what made it special in the first place. The core tension we were working with: Lara's customers trust her specifically. Her presence, her baking, her community connection. But that kind of founder dependency makes scaling nearly impossible. Our job was to find a path forward that preserved Lara's values and voice while building a brand that could stand on its own. We researched comparable successes like Kei Concepts and Dave's Killer Bread — brands that successfully transferred founder identity into company identity — and cautionary tales like Pinkberry and American Apparel, where founder behavior and rapid expansion without infrastructure led to collapse. From that research, we built a two-part strategy: first, transition Fleur et Sel from a founder-centered to a team-centered brand by building a genuine founding team — not just employees — who could host pop-ups, lead community events, and become visible faces of the brand. Second, anchor the brand's values of community, quality, and service into repeatable systems: baking classes, product-centered experiences, employee spotlights, and cause-driven initiatives inspired by what Lara already does naturally. The goal wasn't to remove Lara. It was to build something big enough to hold her vision even when she stepped back.