Hardware Podcasts

Perfect Snacks: Bill and Leigh Keith

How I Built This · 9 Jun 2025 · 1h 26m

What this episode covers

Bill and Leigh Keith, co-founders of Perfect Bars, explain how they turned their father's homemade peanut butter and honey recipe into a major CPG brand, eventually selling to Mondelēz International. They detail the bootstrapped journey from hand-rolling bars in a Sacramento warehouse to securing deals with Whole Foods and Costco, and the critical decision to introduce a chocolate chip flavor to meet investor metrics. The episode highlights a major crisis when a false positive salmonella test forced a massive recall, nearly shutting down the company before they secured $15 million in investment from VMG Partners.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Mondelēz International, Whole Foods, Costco, VMG Partners, Starbucks
Products
Perfect Bars, Kind Bar, Clif Bar, Laura Bar, Green Fat

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • People of Packaging · 47m

    354 - Beyond the dieline with the incomparable Jake Karls from Mid-Day Squares

    Jake Karls, co-founder of Mid-Day Squares, explains how the company evolved from hand-making bars in a condo kitchen to building a custom manufacturing facility producing 150,000 squares daily after facing rejection from 26 co-packers. He details the strategic decision to place their refrigerated snacks in the fresh aisle to avoid the 'sea of sameness' in dry nutrition bars and discusses the launch of their viral 'No-Bread PB&J' line, which was developed to mitigate cocoa price surges. Karls emphasizes the importance of radical social media transparency and storytelling to build an emotional connection with consumers, turning early pandemic crises into growth opportunities by going 'on offense.'

    Scaling productionMarketing & brand
    7 chapters

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 44m

    #100 Toasting to 100 Episodes of The Startup CPG Podcast with Our Favorite Moments

    Host Jessi Freitag counts down the top 10 moments from 100 episodes of The Startup CPG Podcast, featuring insights from founders like Seth Goldman of Honest Tea, Alexiou Gibson of The Sea Moss Transformation Factory, and Rosa Li of wildwonder. The episode highlights strategic decisions in fundraising, marketing, and product launches, including Sandra Velasquez’s Shark Tank experience with Nopalera and the collaboration between Partake Foods and Ben & Jerry’s. It emphasizes the importance of resilience, storytelling, and direct outreach in scaling consumer brands.

    Crowdfunding & preordersFundraising & investors
    10 chapters

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 38m

    Founder Feature: Leanne Viola and Jesse Barruch of WHIMS

    Leanne Viola and Jesse Barruch, co-founders of WHIMS Delights, explain how personal health crises led them to create low-sugar, gluten-free, and dairy-free confectionery products like peanut butter cups and caramel cookie bars. They detail their journey from prototyping in a home kitchen to securing a pastry chef and manufacturing partners, emphasizing the importance of financial responsibility and unit economics from day one. The founders discuss their retail strategy of self-distributing to independent stores, using aggressive sampling to drive trial, and preparing for Expo West 2025 to expand distribution partnerships while maintaining long-term relationships.

    Validation & product-market fitManufacturing partners & offshoring
    8 chapters

  • People of Packaging · 1h 10m

    350 - Beyond the Dieline - Dr Juan from PNuff Crunch joins Tom Seymour

    Dr. Juan Salinas, founder of Pnuff Crunch, discusses his transition from food science roles at Nabisco, Cadbury, Kraft, and Nestle to launching his own functional snack brand. He details the operational challenges of scaling production, specifically the costly mistake of over-purchasing long-run packaging film rolls and the strategic pivot to digital printing and smart plate design to manage inventory. Salinas also recounts his viral Shark Tank appearance, where Mark Cuban’s intervention saved the pitch, leading to Cuban’s investment, and explains how Pnuff Crunch’s high-protein, high-fiber formulation targets modern dietary trends including GLP-1 companion foods.

    Crowdfunding & preordersPricing, margins & unit economics
    7 chapters

  • People of Packaging · 59m

    345 - Beyond the Dieline - The secret success behind Junebar! Tom Seymour and Keith McCullough

    Keith McCullough, founder of Junebar, explains his pivot from a 20-year career in video game development to creating high-fiber, plant-based snack bars. He details the product's formulation, focusing on clean ingredients and a 4-month refrigerated shelf life, and discusses the strategic importance of fiber in the current CPG landscape. McCullough shares critical advice for early-stage founders, emphasizing the need for small initial packaging orders, the benefits of co-packing, and the emotional resilience required to handle consumer feedback and imposter syndrome.

    Starting a product companyPackaging design
    6 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by How I Built This. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.