In 2010, Lauren Fleshman, a 2x USA 5k and 5x NCAA champion, and her husband Jesse Thomas, a professional triathlete, realized that the power bars they were eating weren’t getting it done.  They found that there were two types of post workout nutrition bars, ‘performance bars filled with gnarly ingredients’ and ‘real food bars not balanced for sport.’  They decided that they could make something better.  Later that year, they teamed up with pro marathoner Steph Rothstien, and founded Picky Bars.  Picky Bars makes dairy and gluten-free bars using real food ingredients instead of the fake stuff other companies use.

It makes sense that professional athletes would come up with this idea.  Nutrition is a very important aspect of athletics and especially endurance athletics.  Lauren, Jesse, and Steph are very driven people.  Many aspire to be pro athletes but not many get there.  They are driven mostly by joy.  They love endurance sports and when they realized something was missing they took action to fix it.  Its a great idea because it solved a problem they were personally dealing with.  Steph Rothstien has celiac disease and most every thing marketed as gluten-free is not made out of real food.  Recreational athletes see a company like this as a part of endurance sports culture and tend to identify with it better than a company such as Gatorade that sells drinks in vending machines in airports and gas stations.  You can get your bars straight from Picky Bars with a monthly order of pick some up in your local specialty running shop.

Picky Bars doesn’t need to be sold in Wall-Mart or Costco to reach its intended market.  You can join the Picky Club and get a set amount of bars sent out to you monthly directly from the company.  The bars are also sold in specialty running and endurance sports shops around the country.

Picky Bars reminds me that there are an infinite amount of ways that entrepreneurs can make the world better.

Check it out at http://pickybars.com/