Key Takeaways
The thought for Trubar emerged throughout a household journey to Disney, the place current snack choices left Groussman feeling “ucky” and “uncomfortable.”
She began promoting protein bars by the checkout counter at native shops.
Groussman bought Trubar for $173 million earlier this 12 months, and he or she stayed on as CEO.
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 check would turn into the inspiration 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 underneath the umbrella of a public firm and an eventual $173 million acquisition. Trubar has shipped practically 46 million protein bars in 2026, and the enterprise grossed about $100 million in 2025.
Erica Groussman holding a Daydreaming About Donuts bar. Credit score: Trubar
By way of all of it, Groussman says that her secret is difficult work.
“I feel that one of many greatest secrets and techniques is working your butt off,” Groussman says. “Actually getting it into each hand that you could probably get it into.”
The origins of a greater protein bar
Groussman didn’t begin out within the meals business. 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 kids. She was a stay-at-home mother elevating two kids 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 remembers, nevertheless it didn’t make her really feel good afterward.
“I bear in mind simply feeling very ucky,” she says. “My stomach was very distended and uncomfortable. That was my epiphany. There must be a greater method.”
Her purpose 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 precise collaborator. The work was iterative and sensory. She nonetheless approaches product growth 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 need to see extra of? Do I need extra crunchy?”
Getting merchandise to prospects
After creating the idea, Groussman raised funds from household and buddies and partnered with a meals scientist and co-manufacturer to deliver 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.
In style Trubar flavors, together with Get in My Stomach PB & Jelly, Oh Oh Cookie Dough and Daydreaming About Donuts. Credit score: Trubar
Groussman’s early proof of demand got here from getting merchandise into individuals’s arms. She positioned bars on counters wherever native companies would let her. Juice retailers, delis, magnificence salons and unbiased shops turned her first gross sales channels.
“I put it on any counter I might probably 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 bought by way of. For Groussman, that straightforward 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 kids and constructing a house.
Groussman introduced the person on to assist handle Trubar, although she remained CEO. The association in the end 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 at all times doubt ourselves.”
The surface 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 hundreds of thousands 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 remembers telling him. “I actually need to maintain it going.”
Increasing into Entire Meals and Costco
Groussman turned to scrappy techniques to get Trubar into greater 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 turned the top-selling bar in these shops, she says, competing alongside established manufacturers equivalent to RXBAR and Sort.
Costco was one other early milestone, although not a right away 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 should have confronted a pricing drawback as a U.S. model.
The U.S. rollout got here later and proved way more profitable. That have bolstered a sensible level for CPG founders: A troublesome 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 adjustments.
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 position. 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 position. She turned 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
At this time, Groussman says Trubar has roughly 28 staff. Her administration method is intentionally hands-on. Reasonably 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 staff can come to her once they need assistance, and he or she tries to steer by instance. “I cannot ask you to do one thing that I wouldn’t do myself,” she says.
That philosophy lately 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 outdoors 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 unsuitable, I’m like mama bear. What do I gotta do? Who do I would like to speak to?”
One other difficulty concerned a mislabeled product field. The merchandise and ingredient listing have been appropriate, she says, however a front-facing ingredient incorrectly referred to cashews as a substitute of almonds, or vice versa. The staff instantly sourced inexperienced round stickers from close by Staples shops and utilized them on-site to appropriate the error earlier than supply.
The instant response mattered, however so did the follow-up investigation. “The following week after we mounted all of it and it’s all okay, that’s while 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 turn into paralyzed by a need to have each element in place earlier than appearing. She says that intuition can turn 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 course.”
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 surroundings, she appears to be like for individuals who could make selections, take initiative and thrive.
“I need my staff 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 line with Groussman. She stays on the helm as CEO and continues to run day-to-day operations. Her staff can also be nonetheless intact, a situation she seen as important in evaluating potential companions.
For Groussman, the acquisition marks a brand new stage fairly than an ending. Trubar launched Trubar Children final 12 months and lately launched Trubar Professional. She additionally sees room to increase the model into different classes.
“It was at all times identified that they needed to maintain me in addition to my staff,” she says. “I’m not carried out. It’s my child.”
