Made Good's Nima Fotovat: Burning The Boats To Build An Allergen-Free Snack Empire

When Nima Fotovat and his three sisters launched Made Good in 2014, they made a bet that parents, kids, and classroom allergy rules could all be satisfied by the same snack. Twelve years later, Made Good is in tens of thousands of doors, manufactures everything in-house at roughly 500,000 square feet, and was just named the snack served on every Delta flight.In this conversation, Nima walks through why the family insisted on owning manufacturing from day one, how he holds a challenger mindset together at a thousand employees, why a "trust but verify" gut beats expensive consumer research, and the drastic founder advice he gives anyone serious about building a real CPG brand: burn the boats.Key topics discussed:The three-stakeholder tension (kid, parent, classroom) that launched Made GoodBuilding a snack brand with sisters and a wife, and why family forces commitmentThe case for owning a 500,000-square-foot factory instead of using a co-packerHow Made Good landed on every Delta flight by being the one snack almost any passenger can eat"Trust but verify": how 100 phone calls to schools beat formal researchBurning the boats: putting every family home and retirement dollar on the lineAbout the guest: Nima Fotovat is co-founder of Made Good, the Toronto-based, family-owned maker of allergen-free, organic granola bars, granola minis, and granola bites. Made Good is sold across North America in mass, club, grocery, and now on every Delta flight.