It all started with 2 idiots, us.
They never dreamed of all this...
We came from a small town, in the district of Santarém called Rio Maior.
Many may know it for its salt pans without the sea.
October 2023, after finishing college, we were sunbathing and contemplating the future, like so many other recent graduates.
After several failed ideas throughout high school and university, we came up with the idea of starting a small donut business — it wasn't the first, but it was the most successful so far.
This idea allowed us to combine the best of our backgrounds — design, web development, and social media — with a local business with a traditional soul.
We started with tests at home. Created a visual identity,
a website for orders and a Facebook page to spread the word.
Until Hora H - Bar & Bistro approached us with one of the first big orders.
People joined in, and ended up boosting our business. But the big boom was yet to come.
This was when we had the idea for the affiliate program.
A small group of people who helped us spread the brand around Rio Maior and nearby areas.
They created content about the donuts and shared it on social media.
They all helped us become known throughout the city. They were:
Last but not least, the most important, @Ariana Nalha
A professional makeup artist, eyebrow specialist, entrepreneur, digital influencer, mother, and everything you can imagine.
Without her, we wouldn't have made it this far. We will be forever grateful 🤍 and to Cris as well, of course 🤫
With growth, we had to leave our home kitchen,
with what little we had, we set up an annex.
As we expanded the brand and increased production capacity, we found new partners.
Some were pick-up points where we left orders for customers to collect, others were resellers where donuts were occasionally available for on-site consumption.
And we also allowed our customers to make a charitable round-up to the local animal association.
We did the Frimor 2024 and we got overwhelmed
It was our first contact with the public and we were amazed. Daily stocks sold out, extras too, and we were left with nothing (which was great, of course).
We expanded the kitchen but realized it wasn't enough to make the business profitable.
On paper, the numbers could work, but in practice, an artisanal product with a lengthy process had no room to grow.
That's when we felt the need to find a space that could serve as both a factory and a point of sale.
We searched and searched, but couldn't find any viable space. 😭
We found the 2030 grants, started researching but it was a fruitless search. ❌
Tasquinhas 2025,
we learned our lesson
At this fair, the story was different — we knew what to expect and brought enough to satisfy everyone. There were some sleepless nights, many defective units, and an almost impossible struggle against the lack of conditions to guarantee a perfect product.
More than 800 units sold 🏆
We saw the opportunity to industrialize our product and seized it
The decision wasn't made blindly; it was carefully thought out and discussed.
We already felt we had too much on our hands: management, customer support, social media, website maintenance, accounting, brand development, and the constant search for new things.
We realized that to guarantee a quality, consistent, and flawless donut for the customer, we would have to give up our own production. So, we chose to find an industry capable of replicating the Pals donut — and doing it even better.
This allowed us to free up time and energy to focus on what we really want: a Pals ‘n Co.®
Thank you dear people of Rio Maior 🫡🧂🍩
