At 25, Justin Gold was making experimental peanut butter in his home kitchen with a food processor and a stack of recipe journals. His singular obsession: bring new life to a tired lunchtime staple.What started as late-night experiments with honey, cinnamon and banana eventually became Justin's — one of the most influential natural food brands of the last two decades.At first, Justin got rejected by most grocery stores he approached. He worked overnight in a shared industrial kitchen, hand-filling jars one at a time. He couldn’t get a distributor, so he stocked the shelves at the Boulder Whole Foods himself.And when growth stalled… he had an idea during a mountain bike ride that would transform the company: What if peanut butter came in a squeeze pack?In this episode, Justin explains how relentless experimentation and stubbornness helped him build a category-defining brand — and how, with each entrepreneurial milestone, an even more challenging one emerged.YOU’LL LEARN:&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>How Justin reverse-engineered flavored peanut butter in his apartment</li><li>How launching in Boulder gave him a big advantage</li><li>How he learned when to listen to feedback, and when to ignore it&nbsp;</li><li>The deal he made with Whole Foods: “I’ll stock the shelves myself.”</li><li>How the squeeze pack transformed the business, and why it almost didn’t work&nbsp;</li><li>The power of naïve persistence in entrepreneurship</li></ul>Timestamps:<ul><li>00:09:35 — The obsessive recipe experiments that became Justin’s edge</li><li>00:16:25 — Getting support from Boulder’s startup food community&nbsp;</li><li>00:21:28 — Raising $35,000– and shocking his family: “I wanna make peanut butter!”&nbsp;</li><li>00:42:51 —&nbsp;The farmers market feedback that changed the product line</li><li>00:46:56 —&nbsp;Justin talks his way into the first Whole Foods&nbsp;</li><li>00:51:47 —&nbsp;Justin’s gets into more stores, but sales start to stagnate&nbsp;</li><li>00:53:35 —&nbsp;The mountain bike ride that sparked the squeeze-pack idea&nbsp;</li><li>01:19:43 —&nbsp;The brand gets sold, Justin gets fired…and invited back</li></ul>This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Alex Cheng.Follow How I Built This:Instagram → <a href="https://www.instagram.com/howibuiltthis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@howibuiltthis</a>X → <a href="https://x.com/howibuiltthis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@HowIBuiltThis</a>Facebook → <a href="https://www.facebook.com/howibuiltthis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">How I Built This</a>Follow Guy Raz:Instagram → <a href="https://www.instagram.com/guy.raz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@guy.raz</a>Youtube →<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNSfrxNEmCruNtjIzxCBHjg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> guy_raz</a>X → <a href="https://x.com/guyraz" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@guyraz</a>Substack →<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/guyraz.substack.com__;!!Iwwt!RZoD751oWzUzoqqdJiqaoL6HdJfRHDUO1TKvYJ424d3Udn7-Pw9Nj6nEsauh9zcgEvLjUEc$" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://guyraz.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guyraz.substack.com</a>Website →<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/guyraz.substack.com__;!!Iwwt!RZoD751oWzUzoqqdJiqaoL6HdJfRHDUO1TKvYJ424d3Udn7-Pw9Nj6nEsauh9zcgEvLjUEc$" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://guyraz.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guyraz.com</a>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.

Podurama

Home

Trending

Personal

Your Podcasts

New Episodes

My Files

Favourite Episodes

Tags (Folders)

Recently Played

Bookmarks

Followed Playlists

Justin’s Nut Butter: Justin Gold. He Was Waiting Tables, Then...He Reinvented Peanut Butter.

How I Built This with Guy Raz

AI Chapters

AI Insights

Reviews