"I was really optimistic. I'm like, 'I know that it's going to happen at some point. It's going to blow up,' she told Business Insider. I just had a feeling. A few weeks later, an opportunity emerged. Nemandoust had noticed videos of a thick, pistachio-filled Dubai chocolate bar flooding TikTok. Influencers were trying to recreate it at home, and comment sections were filled with the same questions: Where do you get these ingredients? How do you make this?"
"Unlike most viewers, she already ran a chocolate kit business. Plus, years earlier, she had custom-designed a chocolate mold that was 20-30% thicker than standard molds - originally, she said, because she felt customers deserved a more substantial bar. That thickness turned out to be exactly what the viral Dubai bar required."
Brittany Nemandoust founded Chocbox, a DIY chocolate-making kit company, during the pandemic as a side project. Despite returning to her dental hygiene career, the business struggled with inconsistent sales and mounting expenses including office rent and employee payroll, forcing her to accumulate credit card debt. By April 2024, she and her husband considered shutting down. However, they noticed videos of viral Dubai chocolate bars flooding TikTok, with viewers seeking ingredient and recipe information. Nemandoust recognized an opportunity: her existing chocolate kit business and custom-designed molds—which were 20-30% thicker than standard molds—were perfectly suited to create this trending product. They sourced pistachio cream and kataifi pastry from a local Middle Eastern grocery store, tested their version, and filmed a raw video showcasing the product.
Read at Business Insider
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