AI Summary
5 min readAdvice Line with Tara Bosch of SmartSweets
Tara Bosch started SmartSweets in her kitchen at 21, with no food science background, experimenting with gummy bear recipes. The company grew into a major low-sugar candy brand before she sold a majority stake reportedly for $360 million. Now she's building a new venture called Snackish, a high-protein potato chip brand inspired by her five-year-old daughter's obsession with a yellow chip bag. On this episode of the Advice Line, she helps three founders navigate the gap between what they've built and what comes next.
The grocery question
Lindsay founded XO Marshmallow, a gourmet better-for-you marshmallow brand based in Chicago. After ten years in business and nearly $5 million in annual revenue—90 percent from direct-to-consumer sales—she's reformulating her product to remove corn and extend shelf life from four months to 18 months. Grocery chains are interested, but she's unsure how to drive retail velocity without cannibalizing her high-margin DTC business.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (06:07) **Tara Bosch & Snackish Intro** - Guy introduces Tara Bosch, founder of SmartSweets, who shares the origin story of her new venture Snackish, a high-protein potato chip brand.
- 2 (11:57) **Caller 1: Lindsay from XO Marshmallows** - Lindsay, founder of XO Marshmallow, a gourmet better-for-you marshmallow brand based in Chicago, introduces her business doing nearly $5M in revenue, 90% D2C.
- 3 (15:00) **The Grocery vs. D2C Cannibalization Question** - Lindsay asks how to leverage her D2C community to drive grocery sales without cannibalizing her high-margin direct channel.
- 4 (19:45) **Sugar Threshold & Permissibility** - The conversation shifts to finding the right sugar level that gives consumers permission to eat marshmallows every day as a snack.
- 5 (23:30) **Manufacturing Lessons from Failed Competitors** - Lindsay discusses her biggest concern: manufacturing capacity and learning from a failed competitor in the same space.
- 6 (28:48) **Caller 2: Vivi from Vivi's Vacation** - Vivi, founder of Vivi's Vacation, a sustainable swimwear label made in Brazil, calls from Hawaii to ask about editing down a product's value proposition for packaging and social media.
- 7 (33:17) **The Art of the Three-Second Value Prop** - Tara advises Vivi on communicating her core differentiator instantly across every channel.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Today’s callers: Lindzi from Chicago wants to expand her gourmet marshmallow brand into retail without cannibalizing her high-margin DTC sales. Then, Vivi from Hawaii considers how to best tell her sustainable swimwear brand’s story to a digital audience. And Aly from Los Angeles wonders whether a subscription model is best for her whimsical curated experiences.
Plus, Tara talks about her latest entrepreneurial venture, Snackish, and how starting a new company feels different the second time around...
Thank you to the founders of XO Marshmallows, Vivi’s Vacation, and Romanticize Collective for being a part of our show.
Be sure to listen to SmartSweets’ founding story as told by Tara on the show in 2024.
This episode was produced by Chris Maccini with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Annlie Huang.
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