December 2024 Startup Grant Awarded to Muse Cheesecake & Bakery

We’re excited to announce the $10,000 Startup Grant recipient for December 2024. Congratulations to Lada Sadovnyk, founder of Muse Cheesecakes & Bakery.

Recently, WomensNet Advisory Board member Jama Hernandez sat down with Benita for an exclusive interview. You can listen to their conversation and view the transcript below.

Video Transcript

WomensNet: Welcome to our Women’s Net Winner video series. We are so excited to today to introduce to you our Amber Grant winner for the month of December. As you know, we offer three grants each month. The first one being our Amber Grant, the second one being a business category grant, and then the third being a startup grant. We’re excited to talk to the winners for this month. We have Lada with Muse Cheesecakes, and she’s our Startup grant winner. Can you tell us a little bit about your business and then share with us a little bit about who or what inspired your business?

Lada: Hello! First of all, It’s nice to meet you and very nice to see such amazing women today. And at let To answer the question, two things inspired me to start my own business- the first thing was the product itself. All my life, I really love cheesecakes and I baked them for all family celebrations while working in a completely different field in Ukraine. In Ukraine, I worked as a content creator. So when we came to United States one year ago, I noticed that most desserts here had too much sugars and artificial additives. And that’s when I decided to create a healthier alternative. We bake Spanish style cheesecakes with a burned top and a soft creamy center. And we use only high quality ingredients for it. And the second thing that really inspires me is women themselves. Because when we moved to San Diego, I found myself in a really hard depression because of war. Because I need to start a completely new life in a completely different country. And with my low English level, I just didn’t know what to do. But at the same time, I saw many women who truly inspired me. They worked in successfully companies or running their own businesses taking care of children. They were soldiers! So for me, every woman is a muse. And because of that I decided to name my company Muse cheesecakes.

WomensNet: An awesome story. And we’re so happy that you are bringing some healthier, high quality cheesecakes to all of us. Thank you so much. What makes Muse cheesecakes different from other cheesecake businesses?

Lada: I try to run my business as honestly and openly as possible. And my main focus is on quality. We bake cheesecakes for our customers with the same attention and the same high-quality ingredients that I use when baking for my family. And it means too much for me that in a really short time several major magazines and our local magazines wrote articles about my business and mentioned us as the must try dessert in San Diego. I highly appreciate it. And I have the main goal this year  to expand my business. I want to obtain two more licenses- for wholesale and for catering. I want to hire more strong Ukrainian women and I want to help them with adapting to the United States. So they will have another experience, not like mine. This is my  main goal for this year. I really want to help other women. 

WomensNet: That’s great. And it’s not just producing more cheesecake, but then it’s also giving other women an education and skill that they can use, not just with you, but even it could take them elsewhere! And so that’s, that’s a beautiful thing. Thank you for sharing a little bit about what you’re doing. We can’t wait to hear what you’re going to be doing throughout the year. Thank you and congratulations!