Road Dogs

What: Get Kookie, a colored cookie dough
Who: Susan Pasarow and Jill Schiff of Van Gogh's Kitchen Inc.
Where: Studio City, California
When: Started in 2000

For all those kids out there who are tempted to eat modeling clay, now's their big chance to munch away and have fun without getting scolded by concerned moms.

Get Kookie--a colorful, refrigerated cookie dough created by Jill Schiff, 32, and Susan Pasarow, 36--was designed specifically to be played with, sculpted, molded and even baked and eaten. And because the product contains no eggs, it won't spoil.

At first, the partners worked toward creating a cookie-decoration kit. But before long, they changed their minds: While experimenting in the kitchen one day, Schiff and Pasarow added some food coloring to their cookie mix just for fun. When their kids went wild over the Play-Doh-like cookie dough, Schiff and Pasarow knew they were on to something big and set out a new course of action.

In May 2002, Schiff and Pasarow plan to release a nonrefrigerated, powdered version of the dough, a new formula the founders hope to sell in strategic locations such as toy stores and through fund-raising programs. "We're moms," says Pasarow. "We are our customer, so we know what moms would look for and where moms look to buy products."

Get Kookie is currently available at a variety of grocery stores nationwide and is also sold on QVC and in 1,000 Super Wal-Marts and Super Targets. To date, the colorful concoction has made lots of dough-sales hit $750,000 in 2001, and Schiff and Pasarow expect twice that amount this year.

This article was originally published in the May 2002 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Road Dogs.