Sunny Vibes and Pie for the People


Meet Caitlin Hubner, the Brooklyn-based chef using Universe to grow a key lime pie business from the ground up.

About a month and a half into quarantine, I woke up one day to an email saying it was time for me to check in to my flight to Florida. In the chaos of those early pandemic days, I had completely forgotten I had planned to be in Florida in April—so had forgotten to cancel my flight. After getting that email, I went on this nostalgic trip down memory lane revisiting my previous trips to Florida when I was younger, and the whole experience just triggered a strong craving for key lime pie.


That same day, I tried to seek one out in New York, but things were mostly still closed at that time. So, I decided that I would make one, which was my last resort because although I'm a professional chef, I'm definitely not a baker. I did a little research and I found a good-looking recipe, and I made it. It was good, but it didn't totally scratch my itch. So I tried a couple more recipes throughout that week, and kept trying to find the perfect pie. With each new recipe, there were certain things I liked and certain things I didn't like—but none of them quite hit all the marks.


At that point I decided to work on developing my own recipe. I'm more of a savory person than a sweet person, so I wanted more salt in the crust, less sweetness throughout, and more tartness overall. Once I felt like I struck a good balance, I took a picture of the pie and posted it to my Instagram and was like, "Who wants key lime pie?" So many people wanted one that within a few weeks I was up and running, baking tons of pies and already planning pop-ups.


At what point did you realize it was time to get a website going?

Managing orders through Instagram comments, DMs, and texts became a huge pain pretty quickly. A friend told me about Universe, and said it was a way to build a website and easily sell things from your phone. That sounded great to me, because I sometimes struggle with digital tools that are too complex, or just too time consuming.


So I downloaded the app and tried it, and it was just so easy to use. I built a really great site very quickly, and then started selling that way. At this point, I definitely credit Universe with helping me to grow, because all aspects of order management are such a no-brainer now. By taking care of this huge piece that normally would have been so time consuming, it’s allowed me to focus my energy on the parts of the business I love, like the product and branding and events.


How did you come up with the branding? It’s such an iconic and happy feeling logo.

A lot of my food projects and passions are driven by nostalgia, and the iconic smiley face is such a timeless symbol. When I was a kid, I remember I had a big yellow smiley face patch on my JanSport backpack that said "have a nice day.” For some reason I just had that smiley face stuck in my mind, and was thinking, "How can I integrate it into my branding?"


Eventually I thought of putting Cait's Key Lime as the smile. So I asked my graphic designer friend, Dave Chang, to mock it up for me. I wanted a '70's-inspired trippy font, and Dave just nailed it on the first try. So I got stickers made, and I found a lime green vintage cooler online, and I slapped the logo on the side of it and I was ready to go.


Now that you’re about ten months into this venture, what’s the scale like? How many pies are you baking a week?


It definitely depends. January was a little slow, but apparently it's always a really slow month for bakeries because of people’s new year’s resolutions. The warmer months are definitely busier for key lime pie demand, and then the holidays were super busy as well. Overall though, the flow has been pretty steady, and since I started in May, I think I’ve sold over 3,000 pies. That translates to about 75 pies a week.

How do you make all these pies? What's the baking process like?

It's just me doing everything, so I try to break up the process. If I have a lot of pies to get through, I'll do all the crusts one day, and then do the filling the next day and just knock it out. This has definitely taken some discipline, because my brain wants to be like, "I'll do a little bit of this, and then a little bit of that." But now I've conditioned myself to work through the process in a more methodical way. What's cool about it is that I've done it so many times now that I can just zone out. Certain parts of the process have become really zen for me, and I’m almost training myself to practice meditation in the baking process.


Sometimes when I have a lot of pies to make, I'll wake up in a panic and be like, "Oh my God, I didn't make any pie yet." But then I’ll get up and look in my refrigerator, and it’ll already be filled with pie. It’s like I just blacked out while I baked it, or was on total autopilot. But I do find it relaxing, and 3,000 pies later, I still really enjoy doing it.


What are the key lessons you've learned about entrepreneurship so far?

Definitely just the power of getting assistance with organization, which Universe has helped me out with big time. I've always been the kind of person who tries to do everything myself, very DIY. In the past I’ve been resistant to looking for ways to help myself or make certain things easier—especially software or other tools. But using Universe has definitely taught me to rely on things for help when I need it, and in turn, that’s freed up so much of my brain to focus on more exciting things.

As we head into spring and warmer weather, what’s next for Cait’s Key Lime?

I just confirmed that this spring and summer I'll have a permanent presence at the Hester Street Fair in New York, which I'm really excited about. That's definitely a big next step for me—having more of a regular presence somewhere, instead of just doing one-off pop-ups.


I would also love to take the show on the road, so to speak. I'm looking into doing some pop-ups in other cities, and right now I’m trying to gauge interest to see if there are local businesses in other cities I could partner with.


After that, and once the season is over for Hester Street, I would love to focus on establishing more of a long-term presence somewhere. I think that there's a real opportunity now to do your thing in food, without taking the huge leaps that were once associated with it. Not so long ago, if you wanted to have a place to operate out of, you had to sign your own lease to open your own space. Now, it’s much more common to carve out a little space inside someone's existing space, or to partner with a local business to set up shop without necessarily opening an entire pie factory.


Eventually, I would love to have a small luncheonette-type place of my own with a counter where we always serve breakfast, good coffee, ice cream, and pie. That's a super long-term goal. But I love the idea that this key lime pie could be the cornerstone of something bigger.


What advice do you have for other up-and-coming food entrepreneurs?

Lean on people who are doing the same thing as you, and ask them for help when you need it. The independent food community is super connected, so that has really been a way to ask people for advice. I’ve also learned that if you support other people’s work, then they will support you in return. And it's just such a rich community to be a part of. If you just stay autonomous and in your own bubble, you’re not taking advantage of the rich world of community knowledge and support and potential partnerships that working with other people can offer you.


I've received so much support and guidance and love from other small businesses, and now that my business is a little bit bigger, I'm so happy to give that back. I get so excited to see other people who are doing their own thing, and it's so cool how many more people I've discovered through this process. I've met new friends, I've tried so many amazing foods, and I’ve gotten so many cool products. All this has happened over the past year, just through networking with other people starting or running small businesses.


It sounds like your pie venture has really brightened up your pandemic year!

Yeah, it's been great. With the events and the logo and really every part of it, I wanted it to be this really happy, sunny thing in an otherwise dark and uncertain time. Throughout this past year, just having these colorful events and being able to do that and share pie with people who are excited to eat it, that has been a really bright spot in a fucking wild year.