Today we’d like to introduce you to Raphael Harlan.
Hi Raphael, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
So, I’m Raphael T. Harlan, and I’m the face & owner/founder, and masterbaker of Raphael’s Donuts! We do delicious and healthy vegan gluten-free donuts that are tree nut, soy, yeast, peanut, coconut, refined sugar, and GMO-free, and we have been in business since May 2014. We’ve been a vegan donut brand since June 2017, and even though we’ve been offering gluten-free donuts since August 2014, we’ve been an entirely gluten-free vegan brand since June 14 last year. We’re also the world’s first-ever diabetic-safe donut brand in history! Personally, I’ve been an ethical vegan since September 5, 2016, and have been living gluten-free since New Year’s Day of last year, but I have always, since the latter part of my teenage years — I’m 30 currently, been a healthnut.
I launched RD in Flint, Michigan in May 2014 out of inspiration from my late adoptive mom who was diabetic and a donut fan. Her name was Cora Lee Harlan and she adopted me in February 2001 in my hometown of Detroit after three years of fostering me; she took me in when my birth mom was addicted to cocaine and heroin and was unable to care for me in the first six years of life. As a result, for my birth mom’s drug addiction, I had ADHD which I was diagnosed with at the age of 7, and a mental delay in which I wasn’t able to do the basic life skills like dressing up, using the bathroom, speaking and eating solid foods till Mom whom I called my adoptive mom took me into her family — my current family. Then I, over time, improved on those life skills plus more my childhood and teenage years. She was a great mom to me and her adult children. She passed away at age 75 in December 2011. She spiritually came into my dreams on a Fall night in 2013, and she was eating an actual diabetic-safe donut. She loved diabetic-safe desserts, but she never had donuts that were safe for her as a diabetic because no company in the donut industry — vegan or non-vegan — ever did one, not in world history and in the history of the donut industry. That was what fueled me, along with encouragement from an ex-girlfriend to invent one.
First, I had always been a home-baker who loves healthy desserts, plus at the time of the inspiration, I was on a refined-sugar-free omnivorous diet and lifestyle for 5 years. But donuts weren’t part of my lifestyle for the same reason, even though I’d never been a diabetic. So fueled by my inspiration from Mom, I imagined and test my donut recipes and afterward, had my professors and classmates at the University of Michigan-Flint test-tasted them and they absolutely loved my refined-sugar-free donuts. Secondly, after they enjoyed my donuts, I received business mentoring from a wonderful friend of mine — Denise Michaels — a Michigan native and Las Vegas, Nevada resident whose business background is on book mentoring and business mentoring. With her mentoring, I did market research on the grocery stores and donut shops and found that no donut company of any kind have done a diabetic-safe donut at the time or ever. Before Raphael’s Donuts, I’d owned and run three businesses from 2012-13 and even wrote and self-published three books, but none of them were as successful as Raphael’s Donuts. At the cusp of launching RD, knowing that I’d never owned and run a food business, I got training at the Mid-Michigan SBC. And finally, after six months of testing recipes, business mentoring and training and market research, I launched Raphael’s Donuts on May 3, 2014.
We became our existence as a cottage food business making our diabetic-safe donuts out of my Flint apartments and selling them at Genesee County Michigan farmers markets and events. Eventually, as we grew, we would do more vendor events in many cities such as Owosso, Shelby Township, Detroit, and even Clarkston and many more in the Southeastern and Mid-Michigan areas. Plus, in Fall 2015, we expanded to do e-commerce with our home delivery service, selling them on our website and delivering them by car with our team of delivery drivers within a 70-mile car-delivery radius from Flint (also remained the same when we relocated to Pontiac in Fall 2019 but would shrink to 35 miles in Fall 2021). Then we expanded to do nationwide mail order in 2018, mailing our donuts to individuals across the USA. To this day we’ve mailed online orders to individuals in 20 states including Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Alabama, California, New Jersey, Florida, and many more. Also, after a set of customers sent me videos of slaughtering footages of animals being tortured in factory farms, cuz we weren’t a vegan company and nor was I during our first two-plus years of existence, not only I went vegan in September 2016, but in June 2017, RD finally became a vegan donut brand and company. In early winter 2019-2020, we expanded to debut our second product, the donut ballz! They are essentially donut holes that we love calling them donut ballz cuz they’re like a ball of our always-famous, always-loved donuts, and many people enjoy them including the children and teenagers.
I invented RD to fill the donut need for diabetics, but we’ve over time grown to include gluten-free and vegan people as well as people with tree nut, soy, yeast, peanut, and coconut-related allergies and intolerances. We’ve been baking in Pontiac Michigan since November 2019 (also the same time period as I’ve been living in Pontiac). We do home delivery within a 35-mile car delivery radius from Pontiac (used to be 70-mile car delivery radius for individual home delivery orders), pick-up as well as do nationwide shipping across US selling our lovely donuts on our website at www.raphaelsdonuts.com but as of July 15th, of last year, we’re now doing wholesale baking in our new rental kitchen at Pontiac’s very own New Mount Moriah International Church. And our Raphael’s Donuts are sold in 6 American retailers (5 Michigan retailers and one California retailer), which are all listed on the List of Retailers section of our RD website.
Our current wholesale production stint is our third in our history, and so far, it’s the most successful stint we’ve had in our history. We had two previous wholesale production stints in 2015 and 2018, but 2015 was a total failure as we couldn’t get more than one retailer to carry our product, and even though people enjoy them, emotionally and mentally, they had a hard time getting into us and our products as being diabetic-safe within the first 17 months of business. Eventually, their perspective in those two areas would change for the better, especially with changes to our business model and base recipe. They would mentally and emotionally get used to our donuts being the way they are, and our business was like a rocket blasting off! We had three consecutive years of high annual sales, with 2018 being our best year. 2018 was the year we got back on shelves! We had Dexter Cider Mill carrying them for six weekends in Fall 2018, and they were a big hit with one weekend selling out 45 dozen! That indicated that our donuts were destined to be in retailers in the United States!
We’re well known, well-respected, well-trusted, and well-beloved by our customers in Michigan and even in 19 other states across the USA, including Ohio. You may have heard of us in several media like YouTube, Oakland Press, Fox 2 News, and even Flint Journal (Mlive). Our donuts are very popular to many people in 20 states across United States and also beloved as well.
We even won three business grant awards in our history including two from last year: Firestar Bank’s Pontiac’s Big Idea Program and Pontiac Community Foundation.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The main challenge, in the beginning, was getting people used to our diabetic-safe donuts. Even though, from a taste perspective, they enjoyed them, emotionally and mentally, they had a hard time getting into us and our products as being diabetic-safe within the first 17 months of business. Eventually, their perspective in those two areas would change for the better, especially with changes to our business model and base recipe. They would mentally and emotionally get used to our donuts being the way they are, and our business was like a rocket blasting off! Even our marketing had even improved throughout.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Raphael’s Donuts?
So, as I said, All of Raphael’s Donuts products — donuts and donut ballz — are always gluten-free & vegan, always oven-baked, and always free of refined sugars, soy, yeast, tree nuts, peanuts, and coconuts. Our natural sweeteners of choice are agave nectar and stevia, and chickpea flour is our gluten-free flour of choice. Some of our natural non-GMO ingredients we use include various 100% fruit juices, unsweetened flax milk, various fruit-flavored herbal teas & various fruits & various seeds like flax and chia seeds. We have 12 year-round flavors of our donuts and donut ballz: Agave Cinnamon Spiced, Apple Cinnamon Spiced, Banana Grapefruit, Blueberry Cake, Chocolate Cherry Express, Chocolate Paprika, Dark Blueberry, Green Lemon, Peach Mango Explosion, Pumpkin Spiced, Strawberry Lemon Delight, and Vanilla Passion. Our donuts and donut ballz range inglycemic load of 3-16, with three flavors having the lowest net carb counts: Pumpkin Spiced with 4, Chocolate Paprika with 6, and Green Lemon with 10.
As aforementioned, we do sell them on our website on www.raphaelsdonuts.com for nationwide shipping across all 50 states, as well as for wholesale shipping to current retailers and potential retailers. Currently, our Raphael’s Donuts are sold in 6 retailers in two states: five in Michigan and one in California. We don’t currently have an Ohio retailer carrying our products, but we are constantly working on getting them in ideal Ohio retailers. Our ultimate goal long term is to have our Raphael’s Donuts in every like-minded retailer in America.
In 2014 pre-vegan, we were the first-ever diabetic-safe donut brand and company in world’s history, and in 2017, when we became a vegan donut brand, we were the world’s first and only diabetic-safe vegan donut brand and company. Fast-forward to today, we are no longer the only diabetic-safe donut brand and company in the world or even in America. However, we are the world’s only diabetic-safe, major allergy-safe gluten-free, vegan donut company, and brand. There are no other diabetic-safe donut companies that make oven-baked low glycemic donut flavors in multiple flavor varieties without tree nuts, peanuts, coconuts, yeast, GMOs, and soy. Also, there are other no diabetic-safe donut companies or even gluten-free, vegan donut companies in the world today that makes donut holes, aka donut ballz, especially allergy-safe ones without tree nuts, peanuts, coconuts, soy, yeast, and GMOs. Our donuts and donut ballz are mildly sweet with a wonderful burst of healthy unique flavor! We are the most established diabetic-safe donut brand and company in the world, especially in the donut industry and in the gluten-free and vegan categories.
If you’re someone that is living a vegan and/or gluten-free lifestyle, a diabetic life and looking for refined sugar-free and low glycemic or keto-friendly treats, or someone with tree nuts, peanuts, soy, coconut, or yeast intolerances or allergies looking for allergy-safe donuts and want to experience wonderfulness in unique taste and health benefits and enjoyment and love, you should consider our Raphael’s Donuts! Our donuts and donut ballz are beloved by many and you’ll not only fall in love, but you’ll feel the amazing positive changes that our donut products bring to you and your lifestyles and/or diets! We’re definitely changing the donut industry for the better and elevating the vegan movement, as well as people’s lives!
RETAILERS: If you have a vegan-friendly, gluten-free friendly restaurant, a health food store (chain or non-chain), a grocery co-op, or even a grocery store chain, and you feel the instinct and the deep passion for healthy donuts especially vegan, gluten-free and diabetic-safe donuts and want to consider carrying them in your retail establishments, feel free to consider Raphael’s Donuts and reach out to us via our website or simply order them for your establishments!
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Denise Michaels, she was a big-time mentor of mine as she mentored me to get Raphael’s Donuts rolling and launched. Plus, I have to once again thank my classmates and professors at UM-Flint, for they gave me honest feedback that they enjoyed my flagship product on the testing stage and encouraged me to go on to launch RD, as well as my first ex-girlfriend.
I definitely have to give thanks to my entire Raphael’s Donuts customers as well as my entire set of countless friends and family members, for no matter if we ran into difficult obstacles, they didn’t let me or RD quit or throw down the towel. If I was depressed, they would motivate me to keep going, and even if we were on the right path, they’d encourage me to keep going upwards with RD!
I definitely have to thank my sweetie, aka girlfriend Dawn Puzjak for always giving me strong support and love, and encouragement! She is a type 2 diabetic who is a big fan of RD as well as me and loves me, and she definitely cheers me on! We’ve been together as a couple for a year and a half.
I also have to thank my former and current employees, for they have always did their roles to get our donuts into the hands of our customers and fans. Whether they were/are delivering donut orders to customers and retailers or doing customer service at our booth or tent at various Michigan vendor events, they always did their job absolutely spotless in the highest level! They should be proud of themselves, and so am I of them! I also thank UPS and USPS as their mail delivery people because for the most part, they’ve done their job right delivering RD orders to our customers and retailers!
Most importantly, if you’re religious or believe in Gods, you would understand what I’ll say next: I most definitely thank the Creator of all beings and our Heavenly Father, Jehovah God. My strong relationship with him over the course of my existence definitely led me, with the inspiration from my late Mom, to move from my previous business venture to create and launch Raphael’s Donuts!
Pricing:
- Our half-dozen pack of Raphael’s Donuts are $13, up to two flavors of your choice when ordering them on website. They’re also $13 or higher when sold in retailers, depending on retailer.
- Our dozen pack of Raphael’s Donuts is $26, up to four flavors of your choice when ordering on our website.
- Our donut ballz are $13 a pack and they come in a 16-count, with up to four flavors of your choice when ordering them on website.
- When sold in retailers, our three-count packs or triples (which we call them) of Raphael’s Donuts is $6.50 or higher, depending on retailer. Also the single pack or one-count pack of Raphael’s Donuts is $2.50 or higher in retailers, depending on retailer
- For retailers and potential distributors: wholesale (for retailers) and distributor pricing can be found on our online store part of our website, and our wholesale info can be found on the Raphael’s Donuts wholesale info section of our website. If you want a digital copy of our wholesale info flyer, feel free to email us or message us thru Facebook or thru our website.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.raphaelsdonuts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raphaelsdonuts
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raphaeldonuts
Image Credits
VegMichigan
Raphael’s Donuts
