Secret Ingredients: The Power of Mentorship in EO

Daniella Landau (EO New York) had just started as an accountability coach for her local EO Accelerator (EOA) program when Loren Brill Castle, the founder of the start-up cookie company Sweet Loren’s, joined her accountability group.

Over the following months, it became clear that Loren, a former college yoga instructor and cancer survivor who had started baking cookies in her mother's kitchen, had a fire that set her apart. "She would say to me, 'I cannot fail. I cannot fail. This has to work," Daniella recalls. "She tirelessly pounded the pavement in New York City with huge freezer bags of sample cookies and cookie dough slung over both shoulders. I hardly ever saw her with just a purse.”

Still, Daniella says, Loren had the typical issues of a first-time founder. She knew how to bake and sell to customers, but she did not have experience building a team, raising capital, managing cash flow, or landing on a positioning strategy. EOA’s purpose is to help first-time founders scale quickly by supporting them with the tools that every business needs. After a two years in the program, Loren successfully scaled from $80,000 to $1 million, which allowed her to join EO as a full member.

But that was just the beginning of Daniella and Loren’s journey together. 

Daniella Landau (EO New York)

The Benefits of Mentoring

Daniella met Loren at a time when Daniella was no longer enamored with her own healthcare marketing and technology business. She had an impressive entrepreneurial career, and now she was eager for the opportunity to give back. Working with Loren was refreshing. “It was cookies,” she says, “something totally different.”

Mentoring allowed Daniella to flex her leadership muscle in a different way than running her own company. She had started her career working as an account executive for major advertising agencies, including BBDO, Ketchum, and Grey Healthcare. She struck out on her own in 1997, drawn by the dual pull of new motherhood and the dot-com boom. "I got really caught up with the late 90s," she says. "Everything was booming." She built a direct marketing agency and grew to six employees. Then, in a single phone call, it was over. Her largest client pulled out, and the startup collapsed overnight. Daniella had to let everyone go the next day.

Rather than retreat, she went back to her healthcare roots and spotted a new opportunity. As the internet matured, pharmaceutical companies desperately needed a HIPAA-compliant way to communicate with patients by email. Nothing off the shelf existed, so her team built it.

EOA is designed to help startup founders and new business owners worldwide scale their companies from promising startups to businesses that generate over US$1 million in annual revenue. Its structured learning program includes full-day learning events, monthly Accountability Group meetings led by an EO Member, use of EO goal-setting and tracking tools, access to local and global EO events, and, of course, access to mentors like Daniella, who are passionate about helping first-time founders succeed.

Around that time, Daniella first heard about EO. Mike Michalowicz, today an Elumni and the author of “Profit First,” tracked her down after seeing her featured in a local newspaper story about entrepreneurs. "He came to my office and pitched EO," she recalls. "At the time, my business was probably around US$2-3 million dollars in revenue, and I was just shooting from the hip. Joining EO changed everything for me." 

She vividly remembers going to her first EO event and seeing a presentation by Michael Gerber, the author of “The E-Myth,” and thinking, “Oh my God — this resonates. I cannot believe I am sitting in a room where everybody is going through something similar.” 

She went on to launch two more businesses, including a media company she co-founded in 2008 and the strategic consultancy, Entrada, which she exited in 2023. Today, she runs MyCare Compass, a software platform that helps cancer centers prepare patients for procedures by reducing fear and anxiety through targeted digital communications. She also remains an EO member and has served as EO New York’s Accelerator chair, which was how she met Loren.

Loren Brill Castle (EOA graduate and Elumni)

The "E-Myth" Personified

By the time Loren landed in Daniella's Accelerator group, she was already getting meetings at Target, Walmart, Kroger, and Whole Foods. Their year together centered on business fundamentals: strategy, people, execution, and cash. “It was just like ‘The E-Myth,’” Daniella recalls, citing the book about a pie maker who cannot extricate herself from the business’s day-to-day. She loved the irony that the very book presentation that made her fall in love with EO was so relevant to both her and Loren’s journey.  

After the program ended, Loren and Daniella remained friends. Loren, now an Elumni, was weighing whether to bring in a co-founder, and Daniella asked to meet the potential partner first. She invited them both to dinner. The verdict was swift. The next morning, Daniella texted Lauren and asked to meet for coffee.

"I told her, 'You cannot partner with this woman,'" Daniella recalls, having seen too many red flags. She said, "I know you are craving support, but I will help you. I will be your mentor after the program. We will meet once a week.”

Those weekly meetings led to a formal advisor agreement with equity. Then Daniella wrote a check as an angel investor. When early investors began hassling Lauren about financial reporting, Daniella bought out their shares. She introduced friends who wrote additional checks. She helped Loren craft job descriptions, conduct interviews, and think through fundraising strategy as Sweet Loren’s continued to scale.

But Daniella is careful to define the limits of what she brought. "I did not help her sell her cookies," she emphasizes. That was all Loren, a powerhouse who brought incredible sales skills, drive, and charisma to the table. 

When Daniella's two-year advisor commitment ended, she took Loren to lunch and told her it was time to find someone who knew more about operations, co-packing, and trade discounts than she did. "I helped you for two years do really important stuff," she told Loren. "Now it is time to find somebody more useful at the next phase."

Loren did — and the company kept growing. In 2025, Sweet Loren's passed US$100 million in annual revenue. Loren and Daniella remain close: “Family,” as Daniella describes it.

"I want to be clear that I got as much out of it as she did," Daniella says.

In fact, the mentoring experience had planted a seed.

The Mentorship Multiplier

Daniella recently launched an initiative she calls Angel Advisors, a group of women who do not just write checks to support burgeoning businesses: They also advise and coach alongside their investment. "It is mentorship, money, influence, contacts, and impact," she explains. "The combination is so powerful for both the angel and the founder."

She calls it the “Mentorship Multiplier”— the right program, at the right time, with the right people around a founder. Still, Daniella continues to mentor for the EOA. “These," she says, "are my people." 

Daniella Landau (EO New York) is the founder of MyCare Compass and a longtime EO Accelerator coach and angel investor. Interested in becoming an EO member like Daniella? Learn more here.