Our Story

Hi! I’m Laura and I’m the founder of Legally Addictive Foods! I get asked all the time how I started the business and came up with the name so I decided to provide everyone with a cheat sheet and also give people a chance to know a little more about us on a personal level.

My background: I had worked in New York in real estate marketing for about 10 years before I was unexpectedly laid off. Thinking I could quickly find another position, I soon realized there was a non-compete clause in my employee contract. The two new offers I received were rescinded when my request to be released from the clause was denied. Who knew that you could be laid off and be prevented for one year from working in a field you had been in for 10 years? To be clear, I did know about the non-compete but was definitely not aware that it would be applied if I was to be laid off. Because that’s absurd, right? Also, it was not like I quit and ran to a competitor and with top secret real estate files! Thankfully, in 2024 the state of NY has made moves to ban these damaging clauses but at the time, I thought this was really going to destroy my life. 

Cookies

But despite this pesky setback and after a flash moment of wallowing, I didn’t sit still. I decided that I would take this opportunity to turn my life in a different more creative direction, one where I didn’t have to depend on someone else for my own livelihood - or have to ever think about employment contracts again.I needed to make something tangible. While accepting the burn of having the offers rescinded and working about multiple odd jobs, a friend suggested that I sell the “amazing cookies” I often brought to parties at an upcoming Etsy holiday market in Brooklyn. The cookies in question were the ones you know and love. (Maybe you have even made a version of them yourself at home!) So I set off to create a name, packaging and a logo all within 3 weeks. 

So that brings the other question I get a lot. How did you come up with the name Legally Addictive? The answer is truly simple. It literally just came to me while I was standing in the hallway of my apartment in the dark trying to think up names. Laura’s Cookies, the only other option that came to me, wasn't quite as interesting. While this wasn’t an approach vetted by a marketing department,  I am quite certain this was the right direction!

After filing for the name’s trademark, I spent the next 8 months learning the food biz and recreating the recipe for shelf-stability. I spent a lot of time selling the cookies (that real estate career came in handy here!) and would make deliveries all over the city by bike, Uber, the subway and foot. 

Fast forward through a million other significant and minor events, including a lot of not-so-great moments (because this has not been easy!) but lots of excitement and joy, and our sweet & salty cookies are now carried in over 2000 retailers. We expanded to a 6,800 sqft production space in Western North Carolina in July '22. For fun context, our kitchen in NY was under 300 sq ft and our storage was another 400! Our NY office was in a closet made out of concrete blocks. 

This is not the end of our story but I hope it helps you know there are people behind these incredible cookies. Our entire kitchen team, my co-founder husband who joined me 2 years in, our Irish Sales Manager Tim who came in as an intern when the pandemic started and couldn’t get back to Ireland (that’s a story I’ll let him tell) and our fantastic incredible NC team all play such a huge part of what we do every day in making the most delicious treat you could possibly eat. Thanks for being here and being part of it all!