Grove City College’s Richard G. Staley ’62 Visionary Entrepreneur Speaker Series features alumna and entrepreneur Kelly Costello ’07 at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 29 in Sticht Lecture Hall of the Staley Hall of Arts and Letters.
Costello, owner and Founder of Puppy Cake LLC , will present “I Survived the Shark Tank — A GCC Entrepreneur’s Success Story.” Costello has seen her business grow from the kitchen of her apartment to a 20,000-square-foot factory that cranks out cake mixes and treats geared for dogs.
In 2007, Costello, an International Business major, was looking at old cake mix advertisements for a client. “Wouldn’t it be great if they made that for dogs?” she thought. That was her light bulb moment. She realized that dog owners across the globe wanted to treat their dogs like family and give them safe and healthy cakes. She started with a few flavors and worked out of her kitchen in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Bellevue, Pa.Costello’s big break came in 2012 when she appeared on television’s “Shark Tank.” The exposure and advice she received there was the springboard to take the company to the next level. Little by little, Puppy Cake grew and began launching a whole line of treats. Since 2013, all their products are made in their factory in Portersville, Pa.
The Richard G. Staley ’62 Visionary Entrepreneur Speaker Series is presented by The Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation and brings experienced entrepreneurs to campus to share their insights and wisdom. The series was endowed in 2013 by Richard G. Staley ’62 to enable the Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation to bring guest speakers to campus to explore topics related to entrepreneurship and innovation.
The lecture will be livestreamed at gccentrepreneurship.com.