Katlin Smith: Founder and CEO of Simple Mills

Katlin Smith is the founder and CEO of Simple Mills, a food company that makes a wide array of delicious gluten-free, grain-free, paleo-friendly, and non-GMO foods. Before starting her own company from scratch, Smith was a strategy and operations consultant. After years of relying on processed foods because of her demanding job, she switched to a Paleo diet in hopes of reaping the health benefits. Disappointed with the lack of store-bought options for her new lifestyle, Smith started making recipes of her own using healthier ingredients like almond flour and coconut sugar. With no background in food production or distribution, Smith reached out to her local Whole Foods when she was ready to sell her now-famous Almond Flour Muffin Mix. When the chain agreed to sell it on its shelves, Smith was eager to grow her business. She went back to school to build on the skills she acquired as a consultant and develop new ones so she could expand her line of products and distribute them widely. Today, Simple Mills is sold in over 30,000 stores nationwide, and Flowers Foods recently acquired the business for $795 million, marking one of the biggest female-founder exits in recent CPG history.