Health Warrior: The Company That Put Chia Seeds On The Map

I hate to run. And on more than one occasion, I've found myself in this conversation: Me: "I hate to run." Multiple other humans: "I hated running, too. But then I read "Born to Run," and now I love running. I run every day. It changed my life." For Shane Emmett, the CEO of Health Warrior, the book "Born to Run" didn't only inspire him to pick up a pair of sneakers -- it also spurred him into entrepreneurship. The Tarahumara people are the focus of the book "Born to Run." And while many people who read this book focused on how the Tarahumara run barefoot, Shane zeroed in on another interesting tidbit: their diets. Turns out chia seeds are a huge part of the Tarahumara diet -- and a huge reason why they're able to run such impressive distances. But when Shane discovered this, chia seeds were weird to Americans. You couldn't find them in every store across the country, and they certainly weren't being heralded as a superfood. So, Shane and his co-founders decided that chia needed to be shared with the people, and Health Warrior was born. And while Shane had no experience in the food business, four years later, Health Warrior is in over 10,000 stores nationally, including Target, Whole Foods and Wegmans. The team has also ballooned to 50 people, though that doesn't mean it was smooth sailing. Shane walks me through the mistakes made, capital raised, and just how hard it is to get a food company off the ground Full show notes: wecouldmakethat.com/chia

You can listen to Health Warrior: The Company That Put Chia Seeds On The Map online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Health Warrior: The Company That Put Chia Seeds On The Map is an episode from We Could Make That by Andrea Wien.

This episode is 54:17 long.

This episode was published on Jan 20, 2017.

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