Student-founded pastry app launched

Jack Heneghan, Staff Reporter

There’s an app for everything these days: dating, streaming, ride-sharing and, now, pastries.  PastryNow is the self-proclaimed “bakery of the future” started by Case Western Reserve University students Igor Tutelman and Aaron George that delivers locally sourced baked goods. A launch event for the service was held at The Jolly Scholar on Saturday, March 23.

The company has a board of eight people, most of whom are CWRU students. It was founded 11 months ago and began taking orders through their website, pastrynow.com, on Thursday, March 28. The service is now available on campus and after the end of the semester, it will be available in downtown Cleveland. The baked goods are locally sourced from “certified home bakers and small bakeries,” said Igor Tutelman, one of the founders of the app.

Customers can order through the app or website and get catering, subscriptions or individual orders. Their Facebook page also urges customers to “try out [their] new Breakfast Anywhere subscription available at pastrynow.com for only $5 for the next 2 weeks.”

“PastryNow will be competing at Kent State University in the LaunchTown Startup Competition” according to their Facebook page. They are one of three student-led startups from CWRU that will be competing as finalists at the competition. Think[box] says the other two startups are Repowered Robotics and Boundary Labs.

The launch event at The Jolly Scholar offered free pastries as well as beer and live music.  Between 300 and 400 guests attended the event and Tutelman, said “[the event] had a great turnout and attendees loved the cupcakes.” At the event “an attendee could get two PastryNow cupcakes and two Jolly Scholar beers for free” if they downloaded the app or followed the company on social media.

According to Matt Vann, the owner of The Jolly Scholar, PastryNow was the best launch event that has been held there to date, and he hopes to work more with student run companies and organizations in the future.

Tutelman explained that they held the event there because they “are a CWRU-founded startup and [they] wanted to work with a local business to represents our Spartan spirit.” Vann was also able to give the start-up insights into the food industry. The “bakery of the future” has plans to continue working with the Jolly Scholar and other local businesses as they launch in the area.