Maura Duggan said her time in the labs of Northeastern helped lay the groundwork for launching Fancypants Baking Co., a cookie line that is now sold in Costco.
Everyone has a different way to relieve stress. For Maura Duggan, it was baking.
But not everyone’s stress-relieving hobby blossoms into a full-on business as it did for Duggan. What started as a side hustle turned into Fancypants Baking Co., which just celebrated 21 years in business with an expansion into Costco.
“This is an unbelievable opportunity,” Duggan said. “We’re hoping we do great and that continues to propel things forward.”
The path to running her own baking company was not linear. Duggan came to Northeastern University to study neuroscience as part of what was then a new program.
“It was interdisciplinary, which wasn’t quite as common as it is now,” Duggan said. “And I just loved the co-op program because it was so, so practical. I loved that I would be able to have some work experience and try things out.”
Duggan spent a lot of her undergrad career working at various labs, including doing a co-op at one. She did research on dopamine and the role of neurotransmitters in rewards.
Her time in the lab served her well when she launched her cookie company in February 2004.
“I remember the research I did … we came upon an unexpected result that was great,” Duggan said. “I carried that experience with me. It’s so important to try things out on a basic level … in life, to some degree, but certainly when trying to scale a business.
“You collect data, take a little step forward, and then collect more,” she continued. “I spent years doing that, constantly testing, retesting, talking over ideas with lab mates, and listening to different perspectives. I think it really had a huge impact.”
After graduating from Northeastern, Duggan worked at the Perkins School for the Blind before going to grad school and working at a science education nonprofit.
While at this job, Duggan began baking specialty cookies in the kitchen of her Boston apartment.
“I was looking for stress relief,” she said. “I started baking cookies because that’s what I had done growing up with my grandmother and mother. It was meant to be something that was fun and different from anything else … to just switch gears and take a break.”
Duggan soon began selling cookies both to specialty stores throughout the greater Boston area and to customers through special orders. Her niche at the time was cookies for special occasions like holidays and life events. She sold cookies in the shapes of shamrocks and hearts; she once even made cookies in the shape of huskies for a fellow Northeastern grad.
After a few months of working her day job at the nonprofit and then in the kitchen baking until 1 a.m., Duggan got an offer to sell her cookies at Roche Brothers supermarkets. This was enough to allow her to transition to running Fancypants full time.
Within a year, she was able to move her company from her apartment to a 1,000-square-foot commercial kitchen after fulfilling an order for the Democratic National Convention. By 2008, her cookies were being sold in Whole Foods Market locations nationwide. The business expanded from there to larger and larger commercial kitchens and more stores.
These days, Fancypants Baking Co. has moved away from decorated cookies and now sells bags of crispy cookies you can stock in your pantry for everyday consumption. You can buy Fancypants treats in flavors like birthday cake, ginger snap, salted caramel, s’mores and pumpkin chocolate chip, as well as more classic varieties like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.
“When you want something to be a household name, it has to be pretty recognizable,” Duggan said. “We started with flavors that pretty much everybody would know. I’m a huge ice cream lover, so I draw inspiration from my favorite ice cream flavors. I’m always going for flavors that are recognizable but with a little fancy twist.”
This new line, which launched in February 2024, is now in close to 3,000 stores, from larger chains to smaller markets. In March, Costco also began carrying the brand.
Fancypants Baking Co. now operates out of a 25,000 square-foot kitchen with a team of at least 25 people, Duggan said. It’s a far cry from the apartment kitchen where she began.
“(When) I walk in and see this place and what I’ve built, I feel so proud,” she said. “I feel like we have a ton of momentum right now. We have so much room to grow. We’re in 3,000 stores … I want to be in 50,000 stores.”