Page 12 - INC Magazine-November 2018

meat across the grass. When they needed samples anatomy of a package
for their debut trade show, they packaged their first epic broke the first rule of meat-industry package design: Don’t show the animal.
“We were like, ‘Let’s give it to them straight,’ ” says Forrest. “This needs to be an
batch of bars in their guest kitchen—only to find out anatomically correct animal in its natural setting. I think one of the bulls has a
two days before the show that not all the bars penis.” Concurs Collins: “yeah, big ol’ balls hanging out.”
were sealed properly, which created “the most
disgusting mold I’ve ever seen,” Collins says.
Despite the setback, the trade show was a
success, and they returned with $100,000
worth of order commitments from retailers.
Forrest and Collins had hit on a powerful
formula for new food brands. It was a novel
product concept that fused two hot catego-
ries, protein bars and meat snacks like jerky.
There was their mission for a larger pur-
pose—sustainable sourcing—and, of course,
the couple’s own compelling story. It all
added up to exactly the kind of authenticity once, when they were
that legacy companies only wish they could
create on their own. experimenting with an
extruder in their backyard,
he first time Forrest real-
ized General Mills was nuts clogged the system
sniffing around was only a
few months into the busi- and caused an explosion
ness. She noticed that
someone in Minneapolis that sprayed 10 pounds of
kept ordering multiple raw meat across the grass.
tboxes of bars on a daily
basis. Assuming it was a General Mills
product-development person trying to copy
their concept, she started canceling the orders
as they came through online. Eventually a woman from General ment at General Mills. And Annie’s was thriving, launching
Mills contacted Epic and explained that she was actually from new products and becoming the flagship of a growing family
the company’s VC arm, 301 Inc (see “Destination: Minneapolis,” of natural brands at General Mills that included Cascadian
page 27). Forrest agreed to stop canceling the orders. Soon, Farm, Muir Glen, and Lärabar.
General Mills went quiet. Collins and Forrest couldn’t have invented a better mentor
Two years after that, in late 2015, the food giant surfaced and protector. “If we do this deal, you will report up to me and
again, and Forrest and Collins accepted an invitation to visit never have to talk to anyone else in Minneapolis,” they remem-
its headquarters. “We went there as a joke, to see the inside ber Foraker telling them. “We do this right.” It was everything
of this mega-corporation and understand what we were up the Epic founders wanted to hear. Foraker, who has a degree
against,” remembers Collins. The experience ended up being in agricultural economics, also felt strongly about GMOs and
revelatory. Other large food companies had reached out to organics—one of Forrest and Collins’s highest priorities when
E
Epic over the previous three years, and every conversation felt pic over the previous three years, and every conversation felt they thought about how General Mills could help them muscle
like the start of a transaction, not a relationship. suppliers to adopt more regenerative practices.
General Mills seemed different. Rather than sitting down When Epic agreed to a deal in January 2016, the three-
with a bunch of suits pumping them for financial informa- year-old company had a dozen employees and had brought in
tion, “we spent the whole afternoon talking about values and a reported $20 million in revenue the prior year. Things started
mission and founding principles,” says Collins. The differ- out promisingly. Epic had long exhausted the meager North
ence was even more striking when an executive named John American supply of meat from grass-fed, grass-finished bison
Foraker stepped in to become Epic’s main contact. Rather for making its most popular bar, and the company lacked the
than being rolled up into the giant’s snack division—the leverage to get ranchers to change. Forrest and Collins had
home of such brands as Bugles and Chex Mix—Epic would started selling two versions of the bison bar—one of which
align with other natural and organic brands inside the con- contained grain-supplemented bison, a move that neither
glomerate. Foraker, 55, had been the CEO of Annie’s Home- founder felt particularly good about.
grown for a decade when that brand was acquired by General A year after the acquisition, though, Epic’s CFO and COO,
courtesy company Mills in 2014, for $820 million. Foraker, who was supposed Robby Sansom, traveled to Wisconsin with General Mills’
head of natural and organic ingredient sourcing to visit
to stick around only a year after the acquisition, had instead
NorthStar Bison, a well-respected family-run farm. As they
settled in for what looked to be much longer-term involve-
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