This is how Justin gold built a peanut butter company and sold it for $281 million

Have you ever gotten a million dollar idea while riding your bike? That's exactly what happened to Justin Gold, the founder of Justin's nut butter.

How it started?

Back in 2006, Justin was cruising on his mountain bike in Boulder, Colorado, when he noticed something strange. He was munching on an energy gel, that gooey packet of fuel athletes use, and it got him thinking: why couldn't peanut butter or almond butter be in a similar package?

This was a time when peanut butter choices were pretty boring, and nut butters like almond or fancy flavors were practically unheard of. Justin, however, had been selling his homemade nut butters with fun flavors like maple almond or chocolate hazelnut at a local farmer's market for a couple of years already. Even though customers seemed to love them, Justin's business wasn't quite making a profit yet. He even had to work other jobs to keep things going.

Two years after introducing nut butters in small pouches, Justin’s became profitable. Gold quit his other jobs and focused on his business full-time. By 2016, the company was acquired by Hormel Foods for $280.9 million.

So, what changed everything? Those single-serving nut butter pouches Justin dreamt up on his bike ride.

Attracting new customers with a fresh design!

Gold began making nut butters for himself in a food processor after graduating from college in 2000. His roommates enjoyed his creations so much that Gold had to label his jars with “Justin’s” to prevent them from taking his stash. The name stuck, and he raised about $50,000 to turn his hobby into a business.

Packaging the nut butters in pouches presented an initial challenge. Manufacturers were reluctant to risk allergen contamination. Undeterred, Gold borrowed $75,000 from his roommate’s parents to buy an old commercial machine and made the squeeze packs himself. The portable pouches allowed new customers to try almond butter for just 99 cents, leading many to buy full-sized jars later.

Getting noticed by a food giant

In 2009, Gold secured nearly $1 million from angel investors, enabling Justin’s to expand nationally and develop new products like the now-popular chocolate nut butter cups. By 2015, Justin’s had become a national brand with over $50 million in annual revenue.

Big companies began to notice. Initially hesitant to sell, Gold eventually accepted an offer from Hormel Foods in 2016, with the condition that the business and its employees remain in Boulder. Gold continued to work with Justin’s under Hormel until 2021 and is now the chief innovation and strategy officer for Rudi’s Rocky Mountain Bakery.

Reflecting on the acquisition, Gold emphasized the importance of building a business that others want to buy rather than creating one just to sell. “You never want to build something that you want to sell. You want to build something that somebody wants to buy,” he said.