# SkinnyDipped: Breezy and Val Griffith. The Flourishing Snack Company That Almost Failed

- Show: [How I Built This](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this)
- Published: 2025-12-29
- Length: 1h 24m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f

## Summary

Val and Breezy Griffith, the mother-daughter founders of SkinnyDipped, explain how they developed a thinly coated chocolate almond to reduce sugar content, navigating early failures like a Home Depot paint sprayer experiment and a converted chicken coop facility. They recount a critical near-disaster when 40,000 pounds of rancid almonds threatened a chain-wide Target launch, forcing a frantic scramble to secure fresh inventory. The episode details how the company later faced a financial crisis in 2022 due to low gross margins, leading to ruthless cost-cutting and a pivot to profitability that allowed them to become a multimillion-dollar brand.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f#t=0) Introduction: Breezy and Val Griffith and SkinnyDipped
- [5:12](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f#t=312) Breezy's early food business failures in Miami and New York
- [11:45](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f#t=705) Val and Breezy team up after a family tragedy
- [20:45](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f#t=1245) Developing the recipe: Road trips and the paint sprayer failure
- [31:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f#t=1875) Manufacturing in a converted chicken coop and co-packing
- [49:28](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f#t=2968) The Target deal and the 40,000 pounds of rancid almonds
- [1:07:40](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f#t=4060) Financial crisis, cutting costs, and achieving profitability
- [1:20:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2025-12-29-skinnydipped-breezy-and-val-griffith-the-flourishing-snack-company-that-almost-f#t=4837) The mother-daughter dynamic and long-term vision

## Topics

- [Materials & manufacturing processes](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/materials-and-processes)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Pricing, margins & unit economics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pricing-and-unit-economics)
- [Retail, wholesale & distribution](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/retail-and-distribution)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Fundraising & investors](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/fundraising)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- SkinnyDipped (product)
- Target (company)
- Kroger (company)
- Costco (company)
- Whole Foods (company)
- Home Depot (company)
- eBay (company)
- Pop Chips (company)
- Vitamin Water (product)
- Kind (product)
- Lara Bar (product)
- Ollipop (company)
- Smart Sweets (company)
- Simple Mills (company)
- France (company)
- Franz (company)

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