KIND Bars: The Main Ingredient Fueling Success
KIND Snacks Founder Daniel Lubetzky says he has the right recipe to take on the big guns in the food industry without sacrificing values.
“I was personally still struggling to find a product that I could feel good about eating for myself,” Founder and CEO Daniel Lubetsky explained as he described the ah-ha moment that led to the start of KIND Snacks. Lubetsky credits the success of the brand to the many others that were also searching for a healthy, wholesome snack.
The brand’s success did not come easy, though. Lubetsky chronicles the 10 to 12 years of failed efforts breaking into the food industry. “Right when we launched KIND, we were about to go out of business. I could barely make payroll.”
The KIND Commitment
At the start of the company, Lubetsky did everything short of growing the almonds on the trees. This includes book keeping, taking orders, even delivering the product - with a hustle motivated by the need to avoid tickets, which could eliminate his profits for the week. Despite limited resources and manpower, Lubetsky acknowledges the company’s commitment to never sacrificing on quality as the main ingredient to its explosion in the food space. “I think what drew the customers to KIND is the same thing that draws them today: being able to look at craftily, beautifully made products with your own eyes and knowing instinctively that it’s an authentic product from an authentic company that’s very transparent, that’s very straight forward.”
Never Satisfied
There’s always more to be done – at least, that’s Lubetsky’s attitude. He calls KIND “the baby” in the food space, taking on goliath conglomerates. Lubetsky addresses the challenges that face companies as they scale from five to 600 employees, “It’s a very interesting time where you need to maintain that entrepreneurship spirit, but also recognize that you need to learn to adopt certain systems to be able to continue growing.”
Lubetsky has big goals for KIND, but they aren’t necessarily attached to making money. “My dream for KIND is to reinvent how people see businesses and to move beyond being a product that people love and a company that they respect, to a movement that they feel like they belong.”