Joel

Hi, I’m Joel, and I’m applying for a Kiva loan to support Pastazerts, which is a dessert brand I founded with my wife, Stephanie, back in 2024. Pastazerts is best known for our signature Chocolate Ravioli: a fun, innovative frozen dessert made with chocolate pasta dough and nostalgic, creamy fillings like Strawberry Cheesecake and our newest flavor, Cannoli.

In a short time, Pastazerts has grown into 200+ retail and foodservice locations, with continued expansion underway. As we scale, we’re focused on staying consistent with quality, improving operational efficiency, and meeting demand without overextending ourselves and, at least for now, without giving up company ownership. This way we can build the foundational vision without compromise, even if it’s a slower growth rate than other capitalized brands. We believe in our vision and have confidence in our own “playbooks” that highlight and leverage our skills in the best way.

This Kiva loan will help us bridge a critical growth period and support the next stage of retail expansion, distribution and production planning. We evaluate every expansion opportunity, especially in retail where the costs of entry are steep. There’s an opportunity in the Midwest we’d like to say yes to as it’s a strategic investment that’s well aligned with our target audience and consumer. This loan would allow us to do so, provide marketing support to ensure it’s successful, and open additional footprint in a new area where consumers will appreciate our creative desserts.

We’re grateful to have a community behind us - from customers who love the product to entrepreneurs and supporters in our NYC community of Queens and beyond. And we’re excited to build this business in a responsible way and repay the loan reliably.

Thank you for supporting our family and our mission to make indulgence fun, bold, and a little surprising. This is what we’re all about and the journey has been and continues to be nothing short of incredible.