Last year, the protein bar company, “RxBar”, was acquired by Kellogg for a sum of $600 million.   At the time it was bought, the company was fairly young.  The company was founded in 2013 and was only 4 years old at the time it was sold.  CEO Peter Rahal and his co-founder Jared Smith have a dedication to quality that has driven their success.  The sheer number of protein bar brands seems overwhelming, yet RxBar was able to penetrate this market due to the organization’s unwavering commitment to quality and excellence.  The founder duo reportedly didn’t take a vacation for the four years the business was being run.  They personally tested out ingredients. created recipes, packaged, labeled, and sold their protein packed nutrition bars.  Peter Rahal went as far to fire his own mother for doing a poor job at applying the label stickers to the individual bar packaging because the stickers were too “un-centered”.  Their commitment to excellence is also exhibited in the work they put into creating the bars.  The team that created the coconut chocolate bar tested recipes until perfecting it after over 250 attempts.  The incredible commitment to the customer that drives this company is astounding.  In early stages of the company Peter Rahal’s personal phone number was printed on the back of the bars so customers could ask questions or directly report concerns.  The product would have been nothing if it wasn’t for the founders’ incredible drive and passion for quality and excellence.  I believe the bars themselves are, in fact, a wonderful product.  However, the product was only so successful because of the founders’ commitment.  The fact that I can walk in to a grocery store protein bar aisle and witness numerous well established industry powerhouses in competition with a 4 year old company started in the kitchen of one of the founder’s basement is truly inspiring and motivational.