Oct 28, 2019 · 54m · how-i-built-this
LÄRABAR: Lara Merriken (2018)
Lara Merriken · 31m spoken Guy Raz · 14m spoken Jerry Stellenberg · 1m spoken Embedded Podcast · 17s spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of NPR's 'How I Built This,' host Guy Raz interviews entrepreneur Lara Merriken, exploring how she turned a kitchen food processor experiment into LÄRABAR, navigated severe trademark and manufacturing hurdles, and ultimately achieved widespread national distribution and acquisition by General Mills.
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 31.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.5 Guest teaching 1.0 Guest disagreement 0.6 Guy pushing back 0.7
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 27:15 Lara corrects Guy on initial fundraising status
Lara immediately interrupts and corrects Guy when he assumes she had already raised investment money before the launch delays, clarifying that all initial investors backed out.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 40:30 Guy challenges Lara on whether success brought relaxationGuy asks if reaching millions in revenue allowed her and her father to kick back and drink champagne, directly testing her work ethic narrative.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 33:55 Lara explains the reality of early batch manufacturingWhen Guy assumes an outside facility manufactured the initial retail run, Lara schools him on the gritty reality that she and her father hand-made all 500 initial bars.
Guy holds their own ▶ 19:17 Guy connects Whole Foods strategy to Ben and Jerry's case studyGuy displays deep historical business knowledge across his interviews by linking Lara's tactical retail employment to Ben & Jerry's market research methods.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NPR Live Show Announcement: Denver | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz delivers an introductory monologue and promo for an upcoming live show in Denver, followed by framing the history of the energy bar industry before transitioning to the interview. | |
| Early Career in Social Work and Health Transformation | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Lara Merriken shares her early background in social work and her dietary transformation through collegiate volleyball and wheat intolerance. The dynamic is conversational, with Guy prompting her on her career burnout and dietary discoveries. | |
| Life Transitions and the Trailside Epiphany | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Lara narrates getting divorced, exploring naturopathic medical school, and having the sudden epiphany to create a clean-ingredient energy bar during a hike. Guy acts purely as an engaged, supportive listener. | |
| Cuisinart Recipe Development and Working at Whole Foods | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Lara discusses testing recipes with a Cuisinart and getting a job at Whole Foods to learn retail from the inside. Guy compares her forward-thinking approach to the founders of Ben & Jerry's doing pedestrian counts. | |
| Equipment Hunting, Emotional Ups and Downs, and Tenacity | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Guy probes into Lara's emotional state, asking if she felt insecure when running into high school acquaintances while working retail. Lara affirms she chose to fully embrace her unorthodox path. | |
| Trademark Hurdles, Rebranding to LÄRABAR, and Family Backing | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Lara explains the trademark conflict over the original name 'Manabar' and how initial friends-and-family investors backed out when launch was delayed. Lara firmly corrects Guy's assumption that she had successfully raised seed funds prior to the delays. | |
| Raising Seed Capital and the Crucial Whole Foods Pitch | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Lara recounts raising $150,000, hauling a 400-pound mixer in her vehicle, and pitching a Whole Foods regional buyer on the loading dock. Guy listens with enthusiasm as she describes securing store placement. | |
| Hand-Producing First Batches and In-Store Sampling Triumph | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Lara describes hand-rolling and packaging the first 500 bars and doing in-store demos during the Atkins diet craze, quickly becoming a top seller. Guy clarifies product details and the nutritional landscape of the early 2000s. | |
| Regional Expansion, Media Breakthrough, and Explosive Growth | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Lara explains how a local newspaper feature catalyzed viral retail interest, scaling company revenue to $5 million by year two. Guy asks whether they ever relaxed once reaching millions in sales, which Lara rejects by emphasizing the unrelenting workload. | |
| Acquisition by General Mills and Reflections on Entrepreneurship | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Lara describes the acquisition interest from major food conglomerates and the confidential sale to General Mills. Guy asks his signature concluding question about luck versus skill in building the business. | |
| Promotional Feature: NPR's Embedded Podcast | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | An NPR Embedded promo airs, followed by the 'How You Built That' segment featuring Jerry Stellenberg of Multimorphic describing his interactive digital pinball machine. |
Statements from this episode (9)
Merriken worked at Whole Foods to study CPG retail before launching LÄRABAR
“Whole Foods opened their first store in Denver. At exactly the same time, and I started seeing the building go up in the, in, in the neighborhood I grew up in, actually, and I thought, huh, I'm gonna get a job with them. I'm gonna work in their nutrition depar…”
Merriken bootstrapped LÄRABAR's early development using her Whole Foods job and credit cards
“You know, I had a job at Whole Foods, and then I had a credit card.”
A last-minute trademark dispute forced Merriken to rename MANABAR to LÄRABAR
“Well, the trademarking attorney called me at the 11th hour, and we were getting ready to launch. It was the year 2002, summer, and she said, I think there's gonna be a problem. And she said, there's actually mana bread, M-A-N-N-A. And I think it could be confu…”
LÄRABAR's initial packaging print run cost up to $150,000
“Okay, cashew cookie, cherry pie, apple pie, banana bread, and chocolate coconut chew, and there was a minimum print run of all of those, and I actually printed at this company in Minnesota And I remember it costing somewhere around, you know, a hundred, a 150,…”
Merriken raised LÄRABAR's seed funding from six yoga and Whole Foods friends
“So, I started talking to some other friends about it, friends in yoga class, friends I worked with at Whole Foods, and then all of a sudden, a whole new group of people came that were just thrilled, like, six, six people, and said, we'd love to invest.”
Whole Foods regional buyer called LÄRABAR the most innovative product in years
“And then like an hour later, he's sitting there, and he goes, Lara, this is the most innovative product I've tried In years.”
LÄRABAR occupied Whole Foods' top five best-selling spots within two weeks
“Within two, two weeks of being in Whole Foods, because one of my friends still worked there, he said, Lara, you have to go look at the movement chart upstairs, and I said, what? And he said, Larabar is the top five One through five selling products in the enti…”