- Goldman Sachs employee Allison Sheehan quit after compliance questioned her baking posts
- Sheehan ran a popular baking channel called Investment Baker alongside her wealth manager role
- Her baking videos attracted clients like Goop, Valentino, and Gigi Hadid and were loved by coworkers
A young Goldman Sachs employee quit the firm after her social media presence was flagged by the company's compliance department, Fortune reported. The employee, Allison Sheehan, a 27-year-old, ran an online channel called "Investment Baker". She gained widespread popularity for the elaborate cakes she baked every morning before heading to her corporate job.
Little did she know, however, that the word "investment" in her channel's name would cause a problem. She told the media outlet that compliance officials asked her to remove posts documenting her life as a baker while she was employed as a wealth manager.
"I did not think that anything was wrong with what I was doing," Sheehan told the magazine.
Her online popularity even helped her land high-profile clients, including Goop, Valentino, LoveShackFancy, Brooke Shields, and Gigi Hadid. She noted that her co-workers also loved her baking videos.
"They loved it, always asking, 'Allison, what did you make this morning? Show us! Are you gonna bring one in?'" she was quoted as saying.
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The Gen Z started working at Goldman Sachs in 2021 and spent four years there. According to the report, she regularly woke up at 5:00 am to bake and film her videos before the workday began.
According to the former banker, the clash wasn't about her performance at work, but rather how the firm viewed her side hustle. Instead of scaling it back, she chose to leave Goldman Sachs to focus on her content full-time.
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She had previously complied with the company's demands, temporarily removing her videos and other content when compliance first asked her to do so. However, the magazine noted that she later restored the videos when applying to Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management to demonstrate her entrepreneurial track record.
When management reached out a second time regarding the videos, she decided it was time to quit. "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."
After leaving Goldman Sachs, she officially launched a business under the name Alleycat Baking Co. She is now looking to increase production and expand her brand while simultaneously 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."
