Lara Merriken, founder of LÄRABAR, reflects on how skepticism from her family and friends when she decided to launch her snack company helped solidify her commitment to the idea.
What-if
Merriken: Placing LÄRABAR in the candy aisle would have killed the product
“I remember we were getting into a major retailer, and at the time, I wasn't clear about where I saw Larabar, and they decided out of nowhere to put it near candy bars. That would have been the kiss of death for us in terms of going straight out of that store, …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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…”
Disclosure
Merriken worked at Whole Foods to gain ground-level retail industry knowledge
“For me, I realized that I knew very little about the actual business. I knew that I was kind of my own core consumer, but I also, I guess the way I would liken it is I wanted to put my fantasy into a reality check. And so by getting into the business at Whole …”
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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…”
Disclosure
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”