Tasty! Olin entrepreneur student Leah Yeh finds the sweet spot at The Foundry Bakery

It was at WashU that Ray and Leah Yeh first considered becoming entrepreneurs. Years before opening The Foundry Bakery in 2018—named by Eater as one of 26 essential St. Louis restaurants—they were WashU students signing up for the Skandalaris Venture Competition, which provides mentorship and resources to early-stage WashU ventures and startups.

“The entrepreneurial bug caught us back then,” says Leah, MBA ’11. The project they entered into the competition wasn’t selected, but their participation still proved instrumental. “It gave us a lot of experience and also a lot of courage to start another business.”

Ray earned his master of arts in biology and biomedical science from WashU in 2010.

Today, The Foundry Bakery, in Maryland Heights, is the kind of place where you want to become a regular. Establishing meaningful relationships with customers is at the core of their business model. WashU Chancellor Emeritus Mark Wrighton stops by almost every week to pick up his usual order of Berry Trio Walnut Bread and Taiwan Toast, a soft loaf perfect for making French toast.

Read the full story on WashU’s Fuse website celebrating university entrepreneurship.