My Oma was my best friend. She fled Germany during the war and arrived in Canada with nothing. Candy was our love language—we ate it together constantly. At the same time, I had an unhealthy relationship with food. I loved candy but not how I felt about myself after. For years I thought the answer was restriction. Then I got a job at a supplement store; my boss, my first real mentor, showed me feeling good didn't mean giving up what you love. 

Courtesy of SmartSweets

Later, my Oma told me she regretted all the sugar she'd eaten over her lifetime. I remember thinking, “Holy smokes, you can go your whole life feeling bad about what's going into your body. Why should something that brings us this much joy come with that tradeoff?” That inspired the mission to kick sugar and keep candy.

I bought a gummy-bear mold and experimented, with zero food-science background. Hundreds of recipes were horrible, but I could see the end so clearly that the failures never touched my belief in where it could go. By the end of that summer, dropping out of college didn't feel risky. Living with the “what if” did.

People assume there's a moment where fear goes away and you finally feel you belong in the room. There wasn't. The imposter syndrome I felt on day one in my kitchen was the same I’d felt walking into the room where we signed the deal. It never left; I just stopped waiting for it to. That's the thing I most want to say out loud, especially to other women: the people you think have it figured out feel the same fear you do. They take the step anyway. 

I wasn't trying to build a small candy company. The vision was to revolutionize the candy aisle. What I learned is that the impossible thing becomes normal shockingly fast. The first national retailer felt unreal; then it was just a Tuesday. Next, $100 million felt unreal; then it was the plan. Something that once terrified me becoming ordinary was one of the most incredible things I've ever experienced. Think big. Then think bigger. Whatever you're picturing, you're almost certainly underestimating what's possible, and what you'll get used to.

Courtesy of SmartSweets

My other big lesson was that leadership isn't about carrying everything yourself. I used to think carrying the most meant caring the most. I don't believe that anymore.

I never wanted to build again unless it came from an authentic “why,” so I set an intention—how lucky it would be if there was ever a visceral pull towards a vision again, and if I found an extraordinary group of women I genuinely wanted to build alongside?

Courtesy of Snackish

Then Willa turned four, fell in love with potato chips, and started carrying a yellow chip bag everywhere. That was the pull to change what a chip could be and innovate the everyday snack for a new generation.

I don't start with a market gap. I start with someone I love who's failed by what exists, then I get obsessed with changing it. SmartSweets started with my Oma. Snackish started with my daughter. I wanted to eat candy every day and feel good about it with my grandmother. Now I want to eat chips every day and feel good about it with my daughter.

We're building the everyday snack for a new generation, starting with potato chips. The promise is simple: eat chips every day. We vertically integrated and built our own first-of-its-kind facility, the Snacktory, giving us the ability to innovate from the ground up and change what a chip can be.

Courtesy of Snackish

We are bringing fun back to the category and building an emotional world around something everyone knows: feeling snackish. Snackish is entertainment-first, community-led, and social-native. We call our consumers our friends because they are our North Star. With SmartSweets, everyone knew what it felt like to want to kick sugar. Everyone knows what it feels like to be a little snackish.

The gift of being a second-time founder is knowing which lessons to carry forward and having the humility to know how much I still don’t know.

If we’re going to become the everyday snack for a new generation, we have to meet them where they are. They discover brands on social, send to the group chat, and expect to find them where they already shop. Snackish was built to be social-first, culturally relevant, and nationally accessible across the U.S. and Canada. We’re not convincing people why they should eat Snackish. We’re building a brand they want to belong to, and a snack they want to reach for every day.

The other lesson I’m carrying forward is proudly being the “stupidest” person in the room—surrounding myself with extraordinary people, giving them ownership, and trusting them to be better than me at what they do.

What’s next for Snackish is moving with speed and intention to become the everyday snack for a new generation. Think of the salty snack you’ve loved forever, the one you’d happily eat every day. We are reimagining those favorites into something you can feel good about eating every day.