A Goldman Sachs employee who built a social media following as the “Investment Baker” says repeated scrutiny from the firm’s compliance department helped push her to leave Wall Street last year and pursue baking full time.
Allison Sheehan, 27, told Fortune that Goldman compliance officials took issue with her use of the word “investment” in her social media handles and instructed her to remove posts documenting her life as a baker while working as a wealth manager.
At the time, Sheehan, who spent four years at Goldman beginning in 2021, was waking up at 5 a.m. to make elaborate cakes before heading to work and sharing the process online.
The side hustle was gaining traction. She told Fortune she had landed clients including Goop, Valentino, LoveShackFancy, Brooke Shields and Gigi Hadid.
“I did not think that anything was wrong with what I was doing,” Sheehan told the magazine.
She said coworkers embraced her baking venture.
“They loved it, always asking, ‘Allison, what did you make this morning? Show us! Are you gonna bring one in?’” she said.
According to Fortune, Sheehan initially complied with the firm’s request and removed her content. She later restored the posts because she wanted to demonstrate her entrepreneurial track record while applying to Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
The compliance team contacted her again several months later, according to the report.
After that second confrontation, Sheehan decided to leave Goldman and focus on growing her business.
“I got fed up by denying like 90% of my orders while I was sitting at my desk at work, doing some dumb estate planning that I didn’t care about,” Sheehan told Fortune.
“I just wanted to be baking.”
Sheehan’s path to entrepreneurship began while she was a student at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business in Dallas.
What started as a small operation selling cakes to sorority sisters for about $100 apiece quickly expanded beyond campus.
Despite the early success, Sheehan pursued a finance career and landed a job at Goldman immediately after graduation.
She first worked in equity trading operations at the firm’s Salt Lake City office before transferring to New York in 2022.
Once in Manhattan, she revived her baking-focused Instagram account and began posting regularly about her double life as a banker and baker.
The business grew largely through word of mouth, according to the report.
As demand increased, Sheehan rented commercial kitchen space on the Lower East Side and steadily expanded production.
After leaving Goldman, she threw herself into the business full time.
Cake output increased by roughly 300%, with Sheehan producing between 10 and 30 desserts each week, ranging from miniature treats to elaborate wedding cakes.
Without a Wall Street paycheck, however, she had to get creative.
She told Fortune she arranged to use a neighbor’s kitchen during the day in exchange for walking the neighbor’s dog.
Since leaving Wall Street, Sheehan has increased production and is now exploring a broader consumer-products business under the name Alleycat Baking Co. while pursuing an MBA at Northwestern.
“I could either open a storefront and open a bakery, maybe become the next SusieCakes or Baked by Melissa,” Sheehan said.
“Or I could launch in retail and try to just expand my footprint via baking mixes and frostings.”
The Post has sought comment from Goldman and Sheehan.
