Rising Stars: Meet Amanda Slater and Tenley Sanderson of Cherry Creek

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Slater and Tenley Sanderson.

Hi Amanda and Tenley, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We came up with Have Dates from our shared love of dates with nut butter and a little chocolate, our go-to late-night treat that always felt indulgent yet nourishing. One night in New York, we were talking about snacks and dating, and kept mixing up “date” the food with “date” the person. We laughed and said, “Wait, why doesn’t this exist in stores already? And wouldn’t Have Dates be the perfect name?”

We headed straight to a coffee shop, opened our laptops, and started mapping out what it could become. That moment sparked Have Dates, a brand built to blend function with feeling, transforming a simple snack into an intentional ritual. We’re currently soft launching in a curated selection of Denver retailers to build early excitement and brand awareness ahead of our official rollout.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We’re Tenley and Amanda, co-founders of Have Dates, a wellness snack brand reimagining what indulgence looks and feels like. We create clean, functional date snacks filled with nut butter, half-dipped in chocolate, available in three flavors: Matcha Strawberry, Coconut, and Crunchy Peanut Butter.

Our backgrounds blend wellness, entrepreneurship, and design, and together we saw an opportunity to bring beauty and intention into a space that often feels purely functional. We specialize in snacks that don’t just taste good, they look good, feel good, and align with a lifestyle rooted in wellness and self-nourishment.

We’re most proud of building something that feels both elevated and accessible: a product that supports health without sacrificing pleasure. From ingredient integrity to brand design, we’ve poured care into every detail to create something people genuinely enjoy reaching for. Even when it posed challenges, like finding a manufacturer willing to execute our half-dipped design, we stayed true to the qualities that matter most and found partners who share our vision.

What sets us apart is our belief that snacks can belong in both your gym bag and on your vanity. We merge the functionality of health food with the aesthetics of the beauty world, creating a snack that’s as intentional as it is indulgent.

What does success mean to you?
For us, success isn’t just about scale, it’s about impact. We want to help transform the better-for-you snack space here in Denver, and we know that takes time, patience, and consistency.

Right now, we define success through real feedback, hearing from customers who love the product, seeing people reach for it at pop-ups or in stores, and knowing we’ve created something that genuinely resonates. Every time someone tries Have Dates and tells us it’s their new favorite snack, that’s success to us.

We’ve stayed committed to our vision and our ingredients, even when it would’ve been easier to cut corners or compromise. The moment we have a fully packaged product on shelves, made with integrity, loved by our community, that’s when we’ll feel we’ve truly succeeded.

Pricing:

• $14.50/three pack

Contact Info:

• Website: https://havedates.com
• Instagram: @have.dates