Rising Stars: Meet Dennis Looney of Greater Cleveland Metro Area

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dennis Looney

Dennis, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My wife, Janette, introduced me to Nothing Bundt Cakes when we first began dating in Las Vegas back in 2008. She was a middle school math teacher at the time but said it was her dream to own a Nothing Bundt Cakes bakery.

We moved to the Portland, Oregon area in 2010 and she had hopes of bringing Nothing Bundt Cakes to the area, only to find that there was already a location close to our new home there. She was still excited that she could get Nothing Bundt Cakes locally.

In 2015, the company I worked for at the time, promoted me to a vice president role and relocated me to the Cleveland area, where the company is headquartered. We lived in the area for about two years when, one day, we were going over our finances and realized we now had the resources to apply to be Nothing Bundt Cakes franchisees. We were lucky enough to be approved and we opened our first bakery in Avon in December of 2017.

An opportunity presented itself to open a second location on the east side of Cleveland and I made the decision to leave the company I had worked for for 21 years in order to help my wife open our second location in South Euclid in 2019.

In 2021, we acquired the Nothing Bundt Cakes bakery in Strongsville from a different owner. This acquisition gave us all of the Cleveland-area Nothing Bundt Cakes bakeries.

We expanded again in 2022 with our furthest-east location in Mentor.

My wife passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Mother’s Day of this year. We were right in the middle of building out two new locations, one in Mayfield Heights, and one in Amherst. Both of those bakeries are now open, giving us six locations at the moment.

Janette was an organ donor and, with the help of Lifebanc, was able to help over 120 people. Lifebanc was instrumental in helping my family get through such a tough event and they have become our preferred charity-based organization.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Some of the toughest challenges have been:

– Opening a location where team members often didn’t have transportation to get to work (South Euclid)
– Learning to navigate business through the COVID era
– Walking away from a “secure” paycheck, health insurance, etc.
– Learning how challenging it is to get a home loan as a business owner
– Learning how to systematize and scale a business after realizing we can’t be everywhere at once
– Learning to operate the business without my wife, who was the spirit of the entire business

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My background is in business-to-business sales. I started as a sales rep and worked my way through various sales-related roles, including management and leadership. Today, I am primarily involved in a financial capacity, creating compensation programs, working with accountants, lenders, attorneys, construction firms, etc.

I’m most proud of what my wife and I were able to build, a six-bakery business that employees approximately 150 people. We are compelled to open additional locations in order to provide career opportunities for team members who love working at Nothing Bundt Cakes.

One thing that surprises most people I meet is the fact that I do not have a college degree and don’t believe a degree is necessary to be successful in life.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the 4 seasons and especially the fall colors. I love college football and love that my beloved Oregon Ducks are now part of the Big 10 and I can now see them more often. I love that this town has embraced our bakeries and have made our cakes part of their lives, their traditions, and their great memories.

I could do without shoveling snow. 🙂

Pricing:

• Bundtlet (individual sized cake) $5.75
• Bundtinis (bite-size by the dozen) from $28
• 8″ cakes (serve about 8) $31
• 10″ cakes (serve about 18) $42

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nothingbundtcakes.com
• Instagram: @nothingbundtcakes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nothingbundtcakes