Frank Ridout, a Dallas-based college student and entrepreneur, was recently chosen as a winner in The University of Texas at Arlington’s MavPitch competition, awarding him a $15,000 grant to grow Frankly Good, a sustainable vegan cookie company.
Frank launched his vegan cookie business, Frankly Good around a year ago starting with Dallas-Fort Worth local farmer’s markets that gained him much attention among the vegan and non-vegan locals.
“We love surprising people at farmer’s markets with how there are no eggs, butter, or dairy in our treats to make them taste great!”, shares Frank’s mother and business partner, Andrea Rideout.
How the Cookies Began
Frankly Good started out in 2019, as Frank was a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, who adopted a plant-based diet but was on the lookout for a vegan treat to satisfy his sweet tooth.
“I was having a lot of trouble finding a good vegan cookie, so I decided to start making them myself and found that not just vegans loved them, but everyone that tried them pretty much”, shares Frank.
He partnered with his mother Andrea Ridout, who had extensive entrepreneurial experience and could lend advice on how to turn it into a business. Though Frankly Good simply started as a side project, it soon grew to high success at the local farmers markets, a healthy online ordering business, and now a full-time venture that lead to Frank’s winning grant from UTA.
”As far as we know, Frankly Good is the first vegan business to win the award,” says Andrea. All of the winners will go on to compete for an additional $25,000 grant in August.
Frankly Good is known for their cookies, cookie dough, brittle, and candied pecans. As a member of GO TEXAN, a program to help promote regional makers and growers, their products are mostly organic. They support local farmers and other regional suppliers whenever possible, using pecans in their brittle and candied pecans that are sourced from organic Texas growers.
Majority of their sales are through food delivery services such as Profound Foods, Turn, and À Table. They bake their goods in a commercial kitchen they rent in East Dallas.
Sustainability At The Core
Another initiative, besides being completely vegan, that Frankly Good keeps as their core values, is to be as sustainable as possible. This resonates throughout their packaging and operations. Even their cellophane bags and paper labels are made from sugar cane and are completely compostable. They bake all of their treats on reusable PFOA and PTFE-free pans, silicone mats or compostable, quilon-free parchment paper to save resources and avoid chemicals. For local deliveries, they travel using hybrid vehicle to ensure the most good in every aspect of their businesses.
“Small steps add up to big changes as we care for this planet and the living creatures on it”, adds Frank.
Baking Traditions
With all of Frank’s baking concepts, he aims to keep the flavors fairly simple yet delicious.
Stumbling upon their Nutty Oatmeal Texas Pecan Brittle, Frank used his Grandma Laura’s oatmeal cookie recipe as the (accidental) basis. Turns out, a little burnt batch of oatmeal cookies lead to one of the tastiest brittles around! The Rideouts also use their Grandma Fran’s Ginger cookie recipe as the basis for Frankly Good’s famous Ginger Rosemary cookies.
Taking after his mom, Frank takes his passion for showing people how tasty vegan treats can be and combines it with the innate entrepreneurial skills to build a strong business.
“All of our kids have a very entrepreneurial background, seeing me grow multiple businesses throughout their upbringing”, shares Andrea Rideout. “Now our family aims to take over the world with vegan cookies and show people you don’t have to use butter, eggs, or hurt any animals in the process”.
On the Horizon
With aspirations to go into larger stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts, etc., Frankly Good aims to get their cookie dough in big store chains to ultimately show people, as Frank states:
“This is vegan, but you’re going to love it whether you’re vegan or not”, Frank Rideout.
Frank has several new flavors including a chocolate walnut cookie and vanilla anise biscotti in the works. There was even talk of a new oatmeal dough soon. Look out for the chocolate chip and ginger rosemary cookie dough to the Grapevine Farmer’s Market, available in-store or available online for pick up or to be shipped to your home.
Racquel Morehead, co-owner of Grapevine Farmer’s Market with her husband, Jack, “Everyone loves the cookies! They are selling very well! Also, that brittle is so much more than brittle! It’s like crack! My husband and I ate almost the whole bag in one sitting! Delicious!”
The cookies look great, and I absolutely love that the packaging is truely compostable. I hope you expand to Canada after you are done expanding in the USA!