About Us
Our Purpose
Picture this: It’s 2:47 AM, and Lucas is sitting at his tiny kitchen table in Queens, surrounded by flour-dusted business permits, a laptop with seventeen browser tabs open about cottage food laws, and what was supposed to be his “simple” banana bread recipe that customers kept requesting. He’d just gotten his third order that week from a neighbor who tasted his weekend baking experiments, and suddenly he wasn’t just a guy who stress-baked after long workdays – he was accidentally running a business.
That’s when it hit him: Why is this so freaking complicated?
We started Go-Plated because we lived through that 2 AM confusion. All three of us – Lucas, Isabella, and Emily – had that exact moment where we realized we’d stumbled into something bigger than weekend baking, but nobody had prepared us for the maze of permits, regulations, insurance questions, and “Wait, can I actually sell this from my kitchen?” moments that followed.
We’ve been there – crying over health department forms, celebrating our first $50 week like we’d won the lottery, and wondering if we were crazy for thinking our homemade treats could actually become a real business. Spoiler alert: we weren’t crazy. Neither are you.
Our Mission
Every single day, we’re helping cottage food entrepreneurs turn their kitchen dreams into profitable realities – without the 2 AM panic attacks or drowning in confusing regulations.
Lucas tests every business strategy in his own kitchen first (yes, he still bakes commercially and yes, his apartment always smells amazing). Isabella develops recipes that actually work for home bakers scaling up their operations, not just Instagram-perfect food stylists. And Emily? She’s personally walked over 500 home bakers through their first cottage food permits, and she keeps every success email because honestly, they make her cry happy tears.
We do this because 847 cottage food entrepreneurs trust us with their biggest dreams, and that keeps us up at night in the best possible way. When Maria from Buffalo emails us at midnight because her salsa business just hit $2,000 in monthly revenue, or when David finally gets his cottage food license approved after months of back-and-forth with his local health department – those moments remind us why we exist.
Our Vision
Picture this: You’re not stressed about cottage food regulations anymore. You actually understand them. Your kitchen business isn’t just surviving – it’s thriving, and you’re making real money doing something you genuinely love. You’re part of a community of home-based food entrepreneurs who share resources, celebrate wins together, and help each other navigate the inevitable challenges.
We’re working toward a world where starting a cottage food business doesn’t require a business degree, a law degree, or three months of googling regulations at 2 AM. Where your biggest worry isn’t “Is this legal?” but “Which farmers market should I try next?”
That world is closer than you think. We’re building it one kitchen entrepreneur at a time.
Our Core Values
Kitchen Dreams Deserve Professional Support: Just because you’re baking from home doesn’t mean you should figure it out alone. Lucas learned this the hard way when he spent six months navigating his cottage food license solo – what should have taken three weeks turned into half a year of confusion and missed opportunities. Now we make sure no one else has to go through that.
Real Experience Beats Theory Every Time: We don’t just teach cottage food business – we live it. Isabella still runs her specialty sauce line from her Brooklyn kitchen, Emily just launched her own line of artisan crackers, and Lucas? He’s probably testing a new cookie recipe right now. If we haven’t done it ourselves, we don’t teach it.
Honest About the Hard Parts: We’ll tell you when cottage food businesses hit roadblocks (looking at you, New York’s complicated licensing process) because learning from our disasters saves you from yours. When Emily’s first batch of crackers turned into expensive birdseed, she documented everything so our community could avoid the same mistakes.
Community Over Competition: The cottage food world is big enough for all of us. When one of our entrepreneurs succeeds, we all succeed. That’s why we connect our bakers with each other, share customer referrals, and celebrate every win – no matter how small.
Profitable Passion Projects: We believe your cottage food business should make you money, not just make you busy. Every strategy we teach has been tested for profitability, not just possibility.
Meet Our Expert Team (The Humans Behind the Screen)
Lucas Rivera – Creative Home Baker & Cottage Food Business Mentor (Plus Weekend Sourdough Obsessive)
Lucas didn’t plan to become a cottage food expert. Five years ago, he was a stressed-out marketing manager who started baking bread on weekends because kneading dough was cheaper than therapy. Then his coworkers started offering to pay for loaves, his neighbor commissioned custom birthday cakes, and suddenly he had accidentally created a side business that was making more money than his day job.
The problem? Nobody had told him about cottage food laws, proper licensing, or how to price his products without losing his shirt. He spent months figuring it out the hard way – navigating New York’s cottage food regulations, getting proper insurance, learning food safety protocols, and building systems that actually worked for a home-based business.
Now Lucas has helped over 200 cottage food entrepreneurs launch profitable businesses without the trial-and-error nightmare he experienced. He’s certified in food safety management, holds a cottage food operator license in New York, and still bakes commercially from his Queens apartment because he believes the best teachers are the ones still doing the work.
His specialty? Helping bakers scale their weekend hobby into a legitimate business that pays real bills. Lucas personally responds to every entrepreneur who emails about pricing struggles because he remembers what it felt like to undervalue his work.
Contact Lucas directly: [email protected] (He usually responds within 24 hours, often with a photo of whatever he’s currently baking)
Isabella Moore – Head Chef & Recipe Innovator (And Sauce Experimenter Extraordinaire)
Isabella’s cottage food journey started with a kitchen disaster that turned into her signature product. Three years ago, she was batch-cooking meals for the week when she accidentally doubled the spices in her pasta sauce. Instead of throwing it out, she tasted it – and realized she’d created something incredible.
That “mistake” became her best-selling artisan sauce, which she still produces from her Brooklyn kitchen under her cottage food license. But Isabella’s real superpower? She understands the unique challenges of developing recipes that work for home cottage food operations, not just restaurant kitchens.
With 15 years of professional culinary experience and a culinary arts degree from the Institute of Culinary Education, Isabella bridges the gap between professional food development and home kitchen realities. She’s personally developed over 150 cottage food-compliant recipes and has helped entrepreneurs navigate everything from ingredient sourcing to scaling production without losing quality.
Isabella specializes in helping cottage food operators create products that are both delicious and profitable – because beautiful food that doesn’t sell is just an expensive hobby. She’s particularly passionate about helping entrepreneurs develop signature products that stand out in farmers markets and online sales.
Contact Isabella directly: [email protected] (She loves hearing about recipe experiments, successful or otherwise)
Emily Carter – The Cottage Food Coach (And Permit Process Champion)
Emily became the cottage food coach because she was tired of watching talented bakers give up before they even started. As a former small business consultant who helped her sister navigate cottage food licensing in 2019, she realized how many people were getting discouraged by the regulatory process – not because it was impossible, but because it was confusing and nobody was explaining it in plain English.
Since then, Emily has personally guided over 500 home food entrepreneurs through the cottage food licensing process across 15 different states. She maintains current knowledge of cottage food laws in all 50 states, holds certifications in small business development, and has built relationships with health department officials who actually appreciate her thorough approach to compliance.
Emily’s secret weapon? She makes the boring stuff interesting and the scary stuff manageable. She’s personally filed cottage food applications in multiple states, navigated insurance requirements, and even successfully appealed a rejected license application. When she says “I’ve been there,” she literally means it.
Her specialty is turning cottage food compliance from overwhelming to organized. Emily has created step-by-step systems that have helped entrepreneurs get licensed in record time, avoid common mistakes, and actually understand the regulations they’re working within.
Contact Emily directly: [email protected] (She personally reviews every compliance question and usually responds with a detailed action plan)
How We Actually Do This Work
Every morning starts the same way: we check in with our community of cottage food entrepreneurs. Lucas reviews business questions over his first cup of coffee, Isabella tests new recipes or troubleshoots scaling issues, and Emily tackles licensing questions that came in overnight.
We don’t just create content – we live it. Every strategy we teach has been tested in our own businesses first. Every regulation we explain, we’ve navigated ourselves. Every common mistake we warn about? Yeah, we probably made it first so you don’t have to.
Our approach is simple: real experience + proven systems + ongoing support = cottage food businesses that actually work.
We research cottage food laws quarterly in all 50 states, maintain relationships with health department officials, stay current on food safety protocols, and test every business strategy for both profitability and compliance. Because when you’re trusting us with your dreams, we take that responsibility seriously.
Why Trust Us? (Fair Question!)
Here’s the truth: we’re not just cottage food educators – we’re active cottage food entrepreneurs. Lucas still operates his licensed baking business, Isabella continues producing her sauce line, and Emily just launched her own cracker company. We eat our own cooking, literally.
Our combined credentials include:
- 500+ cottage food entrepreneurs successfully guided through licensing
- Current cottage food operator licenses in New York
- Food safety management certifications
- 15+ years combined culinary and business experience
- Ongoing relationships with health department officials in multiple states
- Active membership in cottage food industry associations
But honestly? Our best credential is the inbox full of success stories from entrepreneurs who started where you are right now and are currently running profitable cottage food businesses. We keep every single “I got licensed!” email and “I hit my first $1,000 month!” celebration message.
Our Community (That’s You!)
You’re not just reading our content – you’re part of a community of cottage food entrepreneurs who share resources, celebrate wins, and help each other navigate challenges. Our readers have taught us as much as we’ve taught them.
Like Sarah from Portland, who figured out a brilliant farmers market display system and shared it with everyone. Or Miguel from Austin, who cracked the code on cottage food social media marketing and now helps other entrepreneurs with their online presence. Or Jennifer from Denver, who successfully appealed a rejected license application and documented the process so others could learn from her experience.
Every question you ask, every success you share, and every challenge you overcome adds to the collective wisdom of our community. We’re all figuring this out together, just some of us are a few steps ahead on the path.
Our Promise to You
We fact-check every piece of cottage food law information against current state regulations and maintain updated resources as laws change. When we don’t know something, we say so – and then we find out. When we make mistakes (and we do), we admit them publicly and fix them quickly.
We test every business strategy for both legality and profitability before we share it. We maintain current cottage food licenses ourselves because we believe teachers should be practitioners. And we respond to every single email from cottage food entrepreneurs because we remember what it felt like to have questions and nowhere to turn.
Our editorial standards are simple: if we wouldn’t bet our own cottage food business on the advice, we don’t publish it.
Let’s Stay Connected (We Actually Read Our Emails)
Main Contact: [email protected] (We aim for 24-48 hour responses, though Lucas usually can’t help himself and replies faster)
Phone: +1 (914) 8818255 (Best for urgent licensing questions or complex compliance issues)
Address: 30 W 11th St, New York, NY 10011 (Yes, we’re real people in a real place)
We prefer email for detailed questions because it lets us give you thorough, documented answers you can reference later. But if you’re facing a time-sensitive licensing deadline or having a cottage food crisis, call us.
For Technical Support
Website acting weird? Login issues? Password problems? Our tech support wizard personally handles every technical email at [email protected]. We’re usually pretty quick (24-48 hours max), and yes, we actually enjoy solving these digital puzzles! Include screenshots if possible – they help us help you faster.
Careers
Want to join our beautifully chaotic team? We’re always looking for passionate people who get excited about cottage food entrepreneurship and helping home bakers turn their dreams into profitable businesses. Right now we’re especially interested in finding a cottage food operations specialist and a community manager who understands the unique challenges of home-based food businesses.
We value real experience over perfect resumes, genuine passion over industry connections, and people who aren’t afraid to admit when they don’t know something (then go find out). Check out current opportunities or introduce yourself at [email protected] – and yes, we actually read every application!
For Writers
Love writing about cottage food, home food businesses, or food entrepreneurship? We’re always scouting for contributors who can blend personal experience with solid, actionable advice – and who aren’t afraid to share their cottage food disasters along with their successes.
We look for writers who understand cottage food regulations, have real experience with home food businesses, and can explain complex topics in plain English. Bonus points if you’ve actually navigated the licensing process yourself or currently operate a cottage food business.
Send your pitch to [email protected] with 2-3 published samples and tell us about your cottage food experience. Fair warning: we’re picky about accuracy and compliance, but we’re incredibly supportive of our contributor family and will help you develop content that truly serves our community.