COSTA MESA, CA — When former food blogger Saphira Rasti launched Nowhere Bakery, she knew the art of influence and collaboration. Like many better-for-you bakeries, she started Nowhere in search of making better-tasting functional baked goods in response to her own dietary restrictions.
“A lot of my inspiration comes from traditional products that exist in the market,” Rasti said. “I just try to make healthier iterations.”
With eight cookies and a baking mix in the core line, Rasti has discovered collaborations as a growth avenue for new products and limited-time offers. Her food blogging experience baked in a network of opportunities for collaborations, including one food blogger focused on health-and-wellness and gluten-free recipe sharing.
The two collaborated on a better-for-you version of a classic sandwich cookie, which was cross-promoted through their social channels, which included a host of influencers.
“We ended up with a three-month waiting list for those cookies,” Rasti said. “I realized, ‘Wow, there’s something here.’”
Since then, Nowhere Bakery has done three to four collaborations a year with food bloggers and influencers.
“Some are based off recipes they’ve created, and we commercialize, and sometimes we come up with a recipe together,” she explained. “It usually depends on the person I’m working with. If they have a recipe that people really love, we can make several flavors of that recipe. Or if it’s not paleo, we can make it paleo.”
With the exception of one item that uses baking powder, all Nowhere Bakery products are paleo-friendly — though Rasti does not consider the brand to be strictly paleo.
“We’ve also done some collaborations for products with peanut butter,” she said, noting that all Nowhere Bakery products are grain-free, gluten-free and vegan.
