For the family behind The Little Norwegian Candle Co., building a business was never simply about selling candles. Inspired by their daughter Rian and her journey with CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, the Malta-based family has transformed love, resilience and purpose into a growing business that is bringing awareness to a rare disorder one candle at a time.
Some businesses begin with a market opportunity. Others begin with an idea scribbled on a piece of paper, a hobby that unexpectedly grows, or a product someone believes the world needs.
For the family behind The Little Norwegian Candle Co., the story begins somewhere much more personal.
It begins with their daughter, Rian.
Rian lives with CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, a rare genetic disorder associated with early-onset seizures and significant developmental challenges. For her parents and family, the diagnosis introduced them to a world they never expected to navigate. It also introduced them to something else: the realization of just how few people had ever heard the name CDKL5.
That lack of awareness would eventually become part of the purpose behind a small family business in Malta, New York.
Today, The Little Norwegian Candle Co. produces organic soy candles that can be found in retailers throughout the Saratoga area and shipped to customers across the United States. But behind every fragrance, every poured candle and every package that leaves their hands is a family hoping the person receiving it learns something beyond the name printed on the label.
They hope that person learns Rian’s name.
And they hope they learn CDKL5.
A Business Built Around Family
The Little Norwegian Candle Co. is run by Rian’s parents, but describing it as simply a husband-and-wife business does not fully capture what happens behind the scenes.
It is a family operation.
Rian’s grandparents have become an important part of the business, helping their daughter and son-in-law as they balance entrepreneurship with the realities of raising a family and caring for a child with a rare genetic disorder.
That family involvement has helped shape the character of the company. There is no sharp separation between the story of the business and the story of the people running it. The two exist together.
Rian’s father is also a service-disabled veteran, adding another layer to a family story shaped by service, perseverance and an understanding that circumstances can change the direction of life without changing its purpose.
For the family, that purpose has increasingly become awareness.
They could have created a candle company and stopped there. Instead, they decided the platform they were building could become an opportunity to introduce people to a condition many would otherwise never encounter.
The candle became the conversation starter.
Spreading Light Beyond Their Home
There is something particularly fitting about a family using candles to tell Rian’s story.
Light has become more than a product characteristic for The Little Norwegian Candle Co. It represents the daughter at the center of everything they are building.
As customers discover the company, some inevitably begin by looking for a fragrance or a candle for their home. But something unexpected has happened as the business has grown.
Customers have started becoming invested in the family behind it.
“There are people who first found us because of a candle and have since become some of Rian’s biggest cheerleaders,” the family shared. “That means more to us than any sale ever could.”
That distinction says a great deal about how they measure success.
Sales matter. Growth matters. Getting onto another retailer’s shelf matters. Like any small business, The Little Norwegian Candle Co. needs customers to continue operating and expanding.
But there is another metric that cannot be found on a sales report.
Awareness.
“Of course we want people to love our candles, but if someone walks away knowing what CDKL5 is because of The Little Norwegian Candle Co., then we’re doing what we set out to do, spreading Rian’s light, love and awareness far beyond our family.”
That is where the company’s product and purpose meet.
Creating Something People Can Feel Good About Bringing Home
Purpose may have inspired the business, but the family also understood that mission alone would not create a lasting company.
The product had to stand on its own.
The Little Norwegian Candle Co. makes its candles using 100 percent organic soy wax without additives. The company also uses fragrance oils that are cruelty-free and phthalate-free, with an emphasis on creating products the family feels comfortable putting into customers’ homes.
That attention to the product is important because the family does not want customers to purchase a candle solely because they sympathize with Rian’s story.
They want people to genuinely love what they purchased.
They hope customers notice the fragrance, appreciate the burn and enjoy the atmosphere the candle creates inside their homes.
Then they hope the experience goes one step further.
“Every candle carries a little piece of our family’s story and the purpose behind why we started,” the family explained. “We hope that somewhere along the way they learn Rian’s name, learn what CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder is, and understand that their purchase is supporting a small family business with a much bigger mission.”
For a small company competing in a crowded candle and home-fragrance market, that connection creates something that cannot easily be replicated.
Customers are not simply meeting a brand. They are meeting a family.
From Malta to Homes Across the Country
What started as a deeply personal mission is gradually reaching beyond the family’s home in Malta.
The company’s candles are now available through multiple retailers around the Saratoga area, while online orders have allowed The Little Norwegian Candle Co. to ship products across the country.
Each new location creates another point of discovery.
Someone may encounter the company while shopping locally without knowing anything about the family. They may pick up a candle because of its fragrance or packaging. That initial interaction can lead them to the story behind it, and suddenly a person who had never heard of CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder knows Rian’s name.
That ripple effect is exactly what her family hopes to create.
The local community has become an important part of that journey. What began as support for a small business has, in many cases, developed into support for the people behind it.
For families living with rare disorders, awareness can be powerful. Rare conditions often exist outside everyday conversations precisely because relatively few families are affected by them. That makes each new person willing to listen, learn and share part of a much larger effort.
The Little Norwegian Candle Co. has found its own way to contribute to that conversation.
Not through statistics alone.
Through Rian.
Growing Without Forgetting Why They Started
The family’s ambitions for the company are not small.
They want The Little Norwegian Candle Co. to continue growing. They hope to enter more retail locations, introduce the brand to more customers across the country and continue developing products people are excited to bring into their homes.
But growth comes with one condition.
The mission has to grow with it.
“As the business grows, we want our mission to grow right alongside it,” the family shared. “Every new retailer, customer and candle gives us another opportunity to share Rian’s story and introduce someone to Rian and CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder.”
It is a vision of entrepreneurship where success and impact are not competing ideas.
A larger business means a larger audience.
A larger audience means more people hearing Rian’s story.
And every person who remembers the letters CDKL5 represents another small step toward making a rare disorder a little less unknown.
“Ultimately, we hope to build a successful family business that creates a lasting impact, one that spreads Rian’s light and love, gives back, and helps make CDKL5 a name that more people recognize and understand.”
That may ultimately be the clearest way to understand The Little Norwegian Candle Co.
Yes, they make candles.
Yes, they are building a business.
But behind the wax, fragrances, retail shelves and packages traveling across the country is a family trying to make sure their daughter’s light reaches places she may never physically visit.
Some customers will discover them because they were looking for a candle.
If Rian’s family has its way, they will leave knowing her name.