How She Built a $100 Million Better-for-You Business in 7 Years

She began with a wood tray from Mattress Tub & Past, a handful of protein bars and a easy proposition for native companies: Put these on the counter, and see if prospects purchase them.

They did. Then the small companies ordered extra.

That scrappy take a look at would change into the muse of Trubar, the better-for-you snack firm Erica Groussman constructed right into a enterprise now in 32,000 U.S. retail places. The corporate’s journey has included early retail wins, a stint beneath the umbrella of a public firm and an eventual $173 million acquisition. Trubar has shipped almost 46 million protein bars in 2026, and the enterprise grossed about $100 million in 2025. 

By all of it, Groussman says that her secret is difficult work. 

“I believe that one of many greatest secrets and techniques is working your butt off,” Groussman says. “Actually getting it into each hand that you could presumably get it into.”

The origins of a greater protein bar

Groussman didn’t begin out within the meals trade. Early in her childhood, her mom gave her a newspaper route, an early lesson in incomes cash and exhibiting up for work. 

Groussman ended up learning communications at UCLA, then labored in movie finance and actual property earlier than getting married and having youngsters. She was a stay-at-home mother elevating two youngsters when she acquired the concept for Trubar.

All of it started throughout a household journey to Disney. Groussman had packed snacks, together with a protein bar from a longtime model. It tasted good, she recollects, but it surely didn’t make her really feel good afterward.

“I keep in mind simply feeling very ucky,” she says. “My stomach was very distended and uncomfortable. That was my epiphany. There needs to be a greater method.”

Her aim was not merely to develop a protein bar with a health-forward label. It needed to fulfill a tougher customary: tasting like a dessert whereas avoiding the disagreeable aftermath she related to different bars in the marketplace.

To create it, Groussman labored with a meals scientist, counting on analysis, conversations and other people in her private community to seek out the proper collaborator. The work was iterative and sensory. She nonetheless approaches product improvement by tasting, evaluating texture and diagnosing aftertastes.

“We’ll style the bar, and I’ll say what I style,” she says. “What am I getting afterwards? What’s the aftertaste? What do I wish to see extra of? Do I would like extra crunchy?”

Getting merchandise to prospects

After creating the idea, Groussman raised funds from household and associates and partnered with a meals scientist and co-manufacturer to carry the product to life. Trubar formally launched in 2018, with Groussman serving as CEO.

The earliest flavors included Daydreaming About Donuts, Oh Oh Cookie Dough, Saltylicious Almond Love and Smother Fudger Peanut Butter. The cookie dough taste was an early bestseller. 

Groussman’s early proof of demand got here from getting merchandise into individuals’s fingers. She positioned bars on counters wherever native companies would let her. Juice retailers, delis, magnificence salons and impartial shops grew to become her first gross sales channels.

“I put it on any counter I might presumably get, and I might simply be like, ‘Right here, promote these,’” she says.

The retailers set their very own costs, typically round $3 to $4 a bar, and ordered extra when the preliminary inventory offered via. For Groussman, that easy loop validated the idea.

“That’s how I knew it was good as a result of they have been promoting,” she says. “Folks have been shopping for them after which asking to purchase extra.”

Making a expensive mistake

Groussman felt it was time to develop past small shops. She says she initially sought assist from a person she believed had extra expertise operating a protein bar enterprise. On the time, she was balancing operating the corporate with elevating her youngsters and constructing a house.

Groussman introduced the person on to assist handle Trubar, although she remained CEO. The association finally proved expensive; the particular person’s spending outpaced the corporate’s early gross sales.

Looking back, she says, she underestimated her personal capabilities.

“I knew greater than I assumed I knew,” Groussman says. “We all the time doubt ourselves.”

The skin operator, she says, “ran it into the bottom,” leaving the enterprise with $7 million in debt. Trubar had made some early gross sales to smaller retailers, however that paled compared to the tens of millions of {dollars} of debt the enterprise had accrued.

Groussman’s husband urged her to view the enterprise as a loss and transfer on. However she couldn’t let it go.

“It’s part of me,” she recollects telling him. “I actually wish to hold it going.”

Increasing into Entire Meals and Costco

Groussman turned to scrappy ways to get Trubar into larger retailers. One pivotal breakthrough got here at Entire Meals. Groussman says she reached out persistently to a contact on LinkedIn and secured a trial in 30 places round 2020. With no advertising finances, Trubar grew to become the top-selling bar in these shops, she says, competing alongside established manufacturers comparable to RXBAR and Variety.

Costco was one other early milestone, although not an instantaneous victory. Trubar first entered Costco in Canada with a single truckload throughout the Covid-19 interval, Groussman says. The model struggled there, partly as a result of it was much less established within the Canadian market and will have confronted a pricing drawback as a U.S. model.

The U.S. rollout got here later and proved much more profitable. That have strengthened a sensible level for CPG founders: A tough launch in a single market doesn’t essentially invalidate the product. Distribution technique, model familiarity, worth positioning and timing all matter.

Turning into the CEO of a public firm

Whereas Trubar was increasing into bigger retailers, Groussman was concurrently making behind-the-scenes modifications.

In 2021, Trubar was acquired by a publicly traded holding firm as a part of a broader company transaction. Groussman agreed to this construction as a result of it allowed the enterprise to develop and her to stay CEO with out taking up private debt.

The holding firm had a portfolio that included a skincare model and a CBD firm. Ultimately, the opposite companies failed whereas Trubar emerged because the strongest model within the group.

Groussman says the expertise was irritating. She describes a interval when cash generated by Trubar was used to assist different companies within the portfolio, at the same time as her personal model was gaining traction.

However the upheaval additionally reshaped her function. She remained founder and CEO of Trubar, a title she had held for the reason that model’s inception. In 2024, she added an extra function. She grew to become CEO of the publicly traded firm, which was renamed across the Trubar enterprise and included Trubar alongside different companies in its portfolio.

“I used to be the one one standing,” she says. “I used to be a CEO of a publicly traded firm.”

A hands-on CEO

Right this moment, Groussman says Trubar has roughly 28 workers. Her administration strategy is intentionally hands-on. Relatively than positioning herself as a distant govt with a high-level view of the enterprise, she stays intently concerned in operations, product selections and emergencies.

She says workers can come to her once they need assistance, and he or she tries to steer by instance. “I can’t ask you to do one thing that I wouldn’t do myself,” she says.

That philosophy not too long ago performed out throughout a brand new product launch for Walmart. One of many shipments was anticipated to reach late, threatening the timeline. Groussman started calling packaging contacts exterior the corporate’s regular provider community and located a supplier that might full the job in two weeks.

“I like to verify the wheels are transferring,” she says. “When something is barely going flawed, I’m like mama bear. What do I gotta do? Who do I want to speak to?”

One other concern concerned a mislabeled product field. The merchandise and ingredient listing have been right, she says, however a front-facing component incorrectly referred to cashews as an alternative of almonds, or vice versa. The crew instantly sourced inexperienced round stickers from close by Staples shops and utilized them on-site to right the error earlier than supply.

The quick response mattered, however so did the follow-up investigation. “The following week after we fastened all of it and it’s all okay, that’s if you return, and also you say, ‘The place did this error occur?’” she says. “What’s damaged in our path?”

Recommendation for CEOs

Groussman’s bigger working philosophy is to unravel first and diagnose issues second. She says groups can change into paralyzed by a want to have each element in place earlier than appearing. She says that intuition can change into a legal responsibility for founders.

“Simply get 80%, simply go,” she says. “Simply begin, simply do what you are able to do and simply begin etching away and transferring within the path.”

She has a equally pragmatic view of hiring. “You interview to your resume; you rent for chemistry,” Groussman says. In a fast-moving and generally chaotic atmosphere, she seems for individuals who could make selections, take initiative and thrive. 

“I would like my crew to have the ability to make selections and to develop,” she says. “In the event that they provide you with an concept, attempt it. What’s the hurt?”

Scaling after an acquisition 

Earlier this 12 months, Trubar was acquired by Eti Gida, a Turkish snack firm, for $173 million, in response to Groussman. She stays on the helm as CEO and continues to run day-to-day operations. Her crew can be nonetheless intact, a situation she seen as important in evaluating potential companions.

For Groussman, the acquisition marks a brand new stage quite than an ending. Trubar launched Trubar Youngsters final 12 months and not too long ago launched Trubar Professional. She additionally sees room to increase the model into different classes. 

“It was all the time identified that they needed to maintain me in addition to my crew,” she says. “I’m not carried out. It’s my child.”