She Started Selling Candy at 22—Four Years Later, Her Biz Sold for $360M
Tara Bosch was 22 and on the heels of a failed first venture when she started SmartSweets. With a mission to “kick sugar and keep candy”, Tara took out a $150k loan and got to work. In three short years they went from $0 to $125M in annual revenue. The next year, Tara sold the majority of her business for $360M. Read on to see how she did it.
From day one, Tara got super clear on her mission and end goal. She wanted her low-sugar candies to be the global leader in their category; making SmartSweets as accessible with the same produce lines as traditional candy. Then, she reverse engineered what it would take to get hit her goals.
As a first step, Tara bought a gummy bear mould and started recipe testing in her kitchen. Without a strong network, Tara was Googing for food industry experts in her area and sending tons of cold emails. Eventually this turned into formal mentors with loads of experience that proved to be super valuable in getting things off the ground.
Only three months into the business Tara secured a nationwide retailer. In alignment with her big goal of SmartSweets being super accessible to customers, Tara knew she didn’t want to just launch regionally. The retailer, Bed Bath & Beyond, was a less-obvious choice, but Tara sold them on the mission and knew that her ideal customer would be there.
While launching their first nationwide retailer, Tara was also knocking on doors, sending tons of emails, and making cold calls to land SmartSweets on grocery shelves everywhere. Today they’re in over 150,000 stores across the US and Canada including Whole Foods, Target and CVS.
“I like to always think that no one is ignoring you [when they don’t answer your pitch]. It's not personal. When you make that mindset shift, it's a lot easier to be absolutely relentless. Until someone's saying, no, go away. Just assume that it's fine.”
Some marketing moments that helped SmartSweets hit include features in Megan Trainer’s music video “Made You Look,” and Kourtney Kardashian’s Poosh Holiday Gift Basket, wrapping checkout registers in its branded logo at retailers, and an early focus on Instagram content when the brand launched.
Early on Tara knew she wanted to reward each one of her employees. Through an employee stock option pool, Tara’s win became everyone’s win. Last year, when a majority stake in SmartSweets sold for $360M, staff were able to buy their dream car or put a down payment on a house. Yep, we love that.
