Mar 9, 2026 · 58m · how-i-built-this
Bobo’s: Beryl Stafford. A Single Mom Turns a Baking Project into a $100M Business
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In this episode of How I Built This, founder Beryl Stafford shares how she bootstrapped Bobo's Oat Bars from a home-baking project into a $100 million natural food powerhouse following a midlife divorce. Through relentless grit, smart retail expansion, and a steadfast commitment to wholesome ingredients, Stafford overcame personal self-doubt and operational hurdles to build a nationally recognized brand.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 37.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.9 Guest teaching 1.9 Guest disagreement 0.6 Guy pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 27:30 Defying Industry Advice on Co-Packing
Stafford firmly rejects the consensus advice of veteran food entrepreneurs who told her to outsource baking, insisting on preserving her unique imperfect bar shape.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 50:30 Probing Investor Dilution and Power StrugglesRaz directly outlines the venture playbook where investors demand more equity whenever capital is needed, pressing Stafford on board tensions.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 52:42 The Operational Reality of Costco RotationStafford educates Raz on how Costco intentionally takes products off shelves to create artificial scarcity, causing havoc for dedicated manufacturing plants.
Guy holds their own ▶ 54:24 Detailed Context on CPG M&A LandscapeRaz lays out a comprehensive list of major industry acquisitions (Lärabar, RXBAR, KIND, Clif Bar to Mondelēz) and highlights the recent macroeconomic slowdown in deals.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louisiana Childhood and Transition to Boulder College Life | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Guy Raz gently probes Beryl's background moving from Louisiana to Boulder and her post-divorce situation. Beryl shares personal history openly in an amicable, narrative style. | |
| Lifelong Cooking Passions and Early Catering Experiments | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raz and Stafford bond over favorite cookbook authors like Marcella Hazan before discussing the origin of the oat bar recipe. Stafford clarifies how the original butter/corn syrup recipe evolved into healthier ingredients. | |
| Designing the Original Logo and First Coffee Shop Sales | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Stafford recounts the impromptu creation of the logo and her nervous first drop-off at a local coffee shop. The tone is highly collaborative and storytelling-focused. | |
| Mid-Episode Break: Growth and Operational Hurdles Ahead | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Raz briefly tees up the next chapter before Stafford describes selling out of the back door to local grocers while feeling self-conscious about her social standing in Boulder. | |
| Commercial Kitchen Sharing and Teaming with Justin's Nut Butter | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Stafford details how she partnered with Justin Gold of Justin's Nut Butter to share an LLC and commercial kitchen space. Raz tracks the operational logistics closely. | |
| Supply Chain Learning Curve and Maintaining Homemade Texture | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Stafford explains buying ingredients at full retail at Whole Foods before learning distribution. She also emphasizes refusing industry advice to co-pack because she insisted on retaining the handmade, imperfect texture. | |
| Landing Regional Whole Foods Placement and Packaging Upgrades | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Stafford describes walking into the Boulder Whole Foods and securing regional shelf space, along with the subsequent scramble to get freezer-safe packaging. | |
| In-Store Demos, Trade Shows, and Lean Operations | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks about Stafford overcoming her introversion to demo bars and attend trade shows. Stafford explains finding confidence behind the demo table. | |
| Securing National Distribution and Transitioning to Gluten-Free | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Stafford shares how an unexpected encounter at Expo West landed her national distribution via UNFI East and discusses moving exclusively to certified gluten-free oats. | |
| Scaling Revenue to $5M and Confronting Naysayers | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Raz and Stafford review scaling to millions in sales while operating lean. Stafford recounts ignoring family members who questioned the business model. | |
| Mid-Episode Break: Outside Investment and Pressure | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Raz inquires about marketing tactics and resisting health food fads. Stafford asserts that Bobo's deliberately avoided protein or superfood fads to remain a timeless baked treat. | |
| Founder Burnout and Hiring CEO TJ McIntyre | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Stafford details experiencing burnout after a decade and meeting TJ McIntyre, who persuaded her to bring him on as CEO rather than selling the business prematurely. | |
| Institutional Fundraising and Managing Board Dynamics | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raz explores the tension of taking institutional capital and dilution dynamics. Stafford candidly admits the intimidation of having outside board members and fighting over economic terms. | |
| Navigating Costco Partnerships and Vertical Manufacturing | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Raz touches on Costco's tough pricing requirements and Stafford explains the operational strains Costco creates by pausing orders while Bobo's maintains vertical bakeries. | |
| Capital Strategy and Future Acquisition Considerations | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz contextualizes the current acquisition landscape in consumer packaged goods. Stafford shares her closing philosophy on grit and the ability of anyone to figure things out. |
Statements from this episode (27)
Stafford worked at Peppercorn for $7.45 an hour during her divorce
“I did get a job making seven dollars and 45 cents an hour, At this kind of gourmet cooking store called Peppercorn here in Boulder.”
Stafford: Bobo's reformulated bars with sucanat, coconut oil, and brown rice syrup
“Well, what I picked was sucanat. It's a less processed brown sugar than brown sugar. And so I picked that, and now we use coconut oil, but coconut oil was one of the first oils that I used, and instead of corn syrup, I used brown rice syrup. And it wasn't so e…”
Stafford: Bobo's launched during the emergence of vegan and natural snack bars
“That's when Laura Bar had just come around, and Cliff Bar was here, but we're all kind of new, you know, and vegan was new. And they said, you know, go to Whole Foods and see what the bars are like. There's, it's growing. It's becoming a bigger category.”
Stafford: Bobo's iconic logo character was drawn in five minutes
“She right there drew on a piece of paper the girl that's on the bar to this day, I mean, in five minutes, and she was trained in graphic design”
Early Bobo's bars sold in plastic wrap with a three-day shelf life
“Very granola-ish, and they didn't mind that I was wrapped in saran wrap with a three-day shelf life.”
Stafford: Bobo's first packaging machine cost $25,000
“And I finally ended up with my first packaging machine, the biggest piece of equipment that I bought for 25,000 dollars.”
Stafford: Bobo's was funded via second mortgage, credit cards, and $100k loan
“I went to the bank back then. It was easier, and they gave me a loan for a 100,000 dollars, but first, up until then, I took a second mortgage on my home, and I used credit cards, and I just was very frugal, and I mean, this was all just very scrappy.”
Stafford: Bobo's and Justin's Nut Butter formed joint LLC to share kitchen
“And so he and I jointly took this new space, bigger, and it was just the two of us, And we formed a little LLC. It was crazy. And we shared employees, and we shared the space.”
Stafford bought Bobo's ingredients at Whole Foods for nearly a year
“And then I started buying it in bigger bulk, but at Whole Foods, until I figured out the food distribution network. But crazy expensive. But I did that for almost a year. Just figuring out the ingredients.”
Stafford rejected outsourcing baking to keep Bobo's homemade texture
“Most of them advised me to stop baking and Have somebody else make this, and you focus on sales and marketing. And I said, no, I want to control this, and I don't want them to look like they're guillotine cut with four square corners. They're imperfect, each b…”
Bobo's reached profitability six or seven years after launch
“So I was, I became profitable probably six years after I started, six or seven years.”
Whole Foods initial pitch landed Bobo's in 12 Colorado stores
“She said, yes, I want these. Tell me everything, but you're going to have to get your packaging together. In other words, I need a freezer safe packaging. And I said, you got it. And she goes, I'm going to get you in 12 of the Colorado stores.”
Stafford: In-store demo tables give founders control because customers want free food
“I always tell people when you're standing behind that table, you know, you're kind of in charge, and they don't know anything about you, and they're happy to eat free food, and I got good at it.”
Stafford: Bobo's had one full-time employee for years after Whole Foods launch
“Yes for a few years, and then I hired a marketing assistant slash sales assistant, and she did the trade shows with me, and then I had my bookkeeper, who was a contract laborer.
Well, they're all part-time, though.”
Stafford: Family is the worst source of advice for new founders
“And family, I always say family is the worst person to get advice from in the beginning, because they don't want you to fail.”
Stafford: Bobo's will become a 100-year brand by resisting food trends
“We are sticking with what the bar was in the beginning, which is just an old-fashioned cookie that your grandmother could bake in her oven, and we'll be a hundred-year-old brand. We're not trendy, and we're not adding any superfoods to it.”
Bobo's generated $8M in annual sales in 2015
“You get to 2015, and you are doing eight million dollars in sales that year.”
Stafford took secondary liquidity in Bobo's initial institutional round
“I took some money off the table when the investor came in.”
Stafford: Investor conflicts centered on economic terms when raising follow-on capital
“Well, I would say mostly the economic terms of their investment. That, that has been a struggle each time we ran out of money.”
Costco rotates products out to make shoppers miss them and get excited
“Costco likes to find the newest best thing and be the first to market with it. They will bring you in and then want the customer to miss you and then be excited when you're back.”
Stafford: Bobo's operates a 125,000-square-foot facility with 500 employees
“We've got 500 employees, and It's a 125,000 square feet, which sounds enormous to me.”
Stafford: Bobo's bakes in-house and relies on co-packers during Costco spikes
“We have a little bit of co-packing, but mostly we do all of our own baking. And when things get very busy, when we're heavy with Costco, we use our co-packer.”
Stafford: CPG buyers now demand profitability over rapid revenue growth
“It has gotten a lot harder to sell and sell for a figure that you're happy with. Like you said, it used to be profitable. Who cares? As long as you're showing fast growth. And now it's different. It's a lot harder to sell your company now.”
Stafford: Bobo's will eventually be sold to an acquirer
“So, so yes, we will be selling at some point.”