Like many great business ideas, True Dough started simply as a fun activity with the family.
Beth Aarness had just moved back to Minnesota from Arizona with her husband and two sons, and she was pregnant with their third child. Unable to jump into a job, she spent a lot of time with her sister, Becky Biederman, who was also staying home with her kids.
“We’d get together for a whole day and we’d make pizza dough,” Aarness says. “Just regular pizza dough, and I’d freeze dough balls because we’d want to do family pizza night.” Then Christmas rolled around and they started giving away the frozen dough as gifts, “and people loved it,” she says.
Biederman had it on her bucket list to own her own business, and brought it up to Aarness: “Have you ever seen good pizza dough at a grocery store?”
“For a whole summer we’d just joke about starting a business and what it was going to be like,” Aarness says. And finally, they did it. “We both put in a really small amount of money, got our licenses and found a little church to make our dough, and we signed up for [the Saint Paul] farmers market.”
The two had no idea what to expect, and truly thought they’d be standing at the booth for a few hours and watch people walk by. “We went and we sold everything we brought,” Aarness says. “We looked at each other like, did that really just happen?”
So they picked a few more farmers markets, and found a commercial kitchen in Saint Paul with larger mixers and walk-in freezers. Shortly after the business took off, Biederman decided to return to her first career. “Her kids were all in school and she is, by trade, a teacher,” Aarness says. “She was like, ‘Do you mind if I just leave you? You seem like you like this.’ I [said], ‘I do!’ ” During school breaks, Biederman steps in and helps with high-level planning operations and events.
After farmers markets, expansion started with their hometown co-op in Hastings, and branched out to Kowalski’s, Lunds & Byerlys, Whole Foods, Jerry’s Foods, and Hy-Vee. Three years after starting at the Saint Paul farmers market, True Dough can be found in more than 100 stores in seven states.
While the business changes, the dough remains the same. “Becky came up with all the recipes,” Aarness says. And the process was much as you’d expect. “We just kind of sat down and said, what would be good?” They knew they wanted a whole wheat dough, so they learned how to soak grains and came up with a five-grain whole grain dough. “And then we obviously knew we were going to have an Italian dough because it just makes sense. They also created the Spicy 3-Pepper Style dough, with ancho, chipotle and red pepper trends. True Dough also offers a range of gluten-free doughs.
The next big accomplishment for the company was getting its organic certification. “That was our goal,” Aarness says. “We always knew we wanted our products to be organic.”
The dough can be used for more than just pizza. Aarness says they make strombolis and calzones or roll the dough around hot dogs for the kids.
The journey has been a whirlwind. “We’re part of this super-cool Minnesota food culture,” Aarness says. “We’ve met all these people on this journey—amazing people helping us and mentoring us in what to do. I didn’t even know [this culture] existed, and it’s amazing to be a part of it.”
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Learn more at truedough.com, including where to find True Dough in local stores.
