Tiff’s Treats is a privately held cookie manufacturing and delivery company, founded in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

by two

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

graduates. The company operates 93 locations in eight states.

History

Founders Tiffany Taylor and Leon Chen met as

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

s at the University of Texas at Austin. The idea for the company started after Tiffany accidentally stood Leon up for a date. She then delivered an apology in the form of warm cookies she'd just baked. The company was established in 1999 with an initial manufacturing facility on Sixth Street in Austin. The founders would bake cookies and deliver them warm to

dormitories A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm), also known as a hall of residence, a residence hall (often abbreviated to halls), or a hostel, is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential qu ...

around Austin. The company’s first order was delivered to a woman named “Amy.” Tiffany and Leon Chen 2022 Texas Book Festival

Tiff’s Treats has conducted multiple rounds of financing and received more than $50 million in outside investment since its founding. In 2017,

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

Expansion Capital reported that the fund had invested $25 million in the company and taken a seat on the board. In 2018 the company received additional financing from

Andy Roddick Andrew Stephen Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 13 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in ...

and Brooklyn Decker. That same year, Tiff’s Treats acquired

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

-based Jake’s Bakes, a company founded by a fellow University of Texas

alumnus Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

. As of 2020, the company was valued at $500 million, with major investors including Kendra Scott,

Dirk Nowitzki Dirk Werner Nowitzki (; born June 19, 1978) is a German former professional basketball player who is a special advisor for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Listed at , he is widely regarded as one of the great ...

, Brooklyn Decker and Andy Roddick. As of 2022, Tiff's Treats employed 2,000 people with operations in five U.S. states, and has 70 retail locations. The

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

location was the most trafficked. Tiffany and Leon Chen were married in 2007 and are parents to twins. Their book, ''It's Not Just Cookies: Stories and Recipes from the Tiff’s Treats Kitchen'', was published by Harper Horizon in April 2022.

References

{{reflist

External links

"The True Stories Behind Tiff’s Treats," The University of Texas at Austin, Moody College of Communications
Companies based in Austin, Texas 1999 establishments in Texas