UtahPreneur - Inside Utah's Most Iconic Businesses
What if your favorite Utah business never made it?
UtahPreneur is a storytelling podcast uncovering the make-or-break moments behind the shops, brands, and founders at the heart of Utah’s entrepreneurial excellence. While most business podcasts focus on unicorns and viral growth, we dig into the stories that almost didn’t happen, but shape our everyday experience here in Utah now. From bootstrapped startups to neighborhood storefronts, these stories show what it really takes to build a business in Utah.
🎧 Weekly in-person interviews with founders across Utah
🧠 Practical insights for entrepreneurs + curious locals
⛰️ Real stories from the edge of success, survival, and what almost wasn’t
Subscribe and rediscover the soul of your city.
Notable Guests: Costa Vida, Beehive Meals, Project Solar, Kid-to-Kid, & Spencer Mecham (Buildapreneur)
Topics: Small business funding, local marketing strategies, Utah startup stories, hiring and leadership, brick-and-mortar growth, high growth founder origin stories, surviving hard seasons, scaling without burnout, building community through business, building a business with your community, and what makes a business last
UtahPreneur - Inside Utah's Most Iconic Businesses
She Cashed Out Her $10K IRA to Build Utah’s Favorite Cookie Brand (in 2008) | RubySnap Cookies
✨ She walked away from a 15-year career in architecture, cashed out her $10,000 IRA, and risked it all on cookies—long before Utah’s cookie boom.
Back in 2008, Tami Steggell saw an opportunity to reinvent the cookie industry by using 100% real ingredients—no preservatives, no artificial flavors, no shortcuts. She founded RubySnap Cookies in a rundown Salt Lake City neighborhood, determined to make it a destination for gourmet, scratch-made cookies.
But building a premium cookie brand wasn’t easy. She lost her original trademark, scaled too quickly in 2018, pulled out of grocery store distribution, and had to shut down five locations—right before COVID hit. That decision ultimately saved her business and reinforced her belief that “bigger isn’t better—better is better.”
Now, RubySnap Cookies is a Salt Lake City favorite, known for its high-end ingredients, bold flavors, and nostalgic branding. Tami’s story is one of entrepreneurial risk, resilience, and redefining the cookie industry in Utah and beyond.
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🍪 Find RubySnap at: http://www.rubysnap.com/
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🎙 Hosted by: Keaton Walker
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Want to get a business featured on UtahPreneur? Or have questions, suggestions, or just want to say hi? Email us at podcast@utahpreneur.co
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