How I Built This with Guy Raz · Oct 15, 2026 · 46m · 36m saved
With Tara Bosch, Founder of SmartSweets and Snackish
Photo via smartsweets.com
Tara Bosch, founder of SmartSweets and Snackish, sold a majority stake in her low-sugar candy brand for a reported $360 million. On the Advice Line episode of How I Built This with Guy Raz, she coached three founders and talked about her second company, a high-protein potato chip.
Tara now has the money and the retail relationships she lacked the first time. She said the second company still feels as uncertain as the first, and that the change is in how she handles it.
"I don't feel that I'm experienced this time around. I have the blessing of some pre-existing relationships, but I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm waking up every day putting one foot in front of the other." — Tara Bosch
Tara took SmartSweets into natural-food stores before mass retail, sold mostly through wholesale, and worked out which retailers to pursue by fixing a five-year picture of the business early. Those are the calls the callers asked her about.
The full episode is covered here so you can skip it. 46 minutes of audio, 10 minutes of reading.
Here are the 14 lessons that matter.
Key Takeaways
SmartSweets sold about 70% wholesale and 30% DTC, and Tara saw the two channels serving different purchases
Natural-food stores are more forgiving than mass retail for a brand without a merchandising budget
A rival marshmallow brand stalled on manufacturing, the risk XO Marshmallows is raising money to avoid
Ten-minute calls with customers showed Tara the emotional reasons people bought SmartSweets
"Sustainable swimwear" is not a story on its own, Guy told a founder charging premium prices
Referrals from current members are the test of product-market fit for a subscription box
Tara's main regret is not defining the five-year picture sooner
1. Snackish Started With Willa
Snackish, Tara's new company, makes high-protein potato chips. The idea came from her daughter Willa, who at four carried a bag of chips everywhere.
Tara Bosch traced Snackish to the same pull that started SmartSweets
"My daughter, who was four at the time, became obsessed with the yellow chip bag and was carrying it everywhere with her. It was the same visceral pull I had with SmartSweets: why can't you feel good about eating chips every single day?" — Tara Bosch
SmartSweets began with candy and Snackish with chips, but the question was the same: whether a snack people eat daily can be one they feel good about. Willa, now five, sits in on retailer meetings.
