We started Kora during the early days of the pandemic—just two out-of-work hospitality professionals frying brioche doughnuts in a Queens apartment. What began as a short-term passion project quickly turned into something so much bigger than we could have ever imagined.
From the beginning, we knew we wanted this business to be rooted in love and legacy. We named it Kora—short for Corazon, Kimberly’s late grandmother, whose name means “heart” in Spanish. We spelled it with a K, for Kimberly and Kevin, the two of us behind the dream. Kora was our way of honoring her memory, celebrating Filipino culture, and bringing people joy in the form of one perfectly made doughnut.
We started selling online, never expecting what would come next. The response was overwhelming—within months, we had a 10,000-person waitlist and doughnuts that sold out in minutes. But even as demand skyrocketed, we were still working out of borrowed kitchens, making everything by hand, and trying to keep up. It became clear that if we wanted to grow—and keep the heart of Kora alive—we needed a real home for our bakery.
Opening our first brick-and-mortar bakery felt both essential and out of reach…
That’s where the Hebrew Free Loan Society came in.
HFLS’s interest-free loan gave us exactly what we needed: the confidence and financial boost to say yes to our first storefront. It helped us bridge the gap between dreaming and doing—without compromising our values or putting the business in danger.
