From Debt to Multi-Millions: How Erica Groussman Rebuilt TRUBAR
Dear FoundHer...Real Founder Stories for Women Small Business Owners
Lindsay Pinchuk
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Subscribe to The FoundHer Files for weekly no-fluff business tips for women 40+ building on their own terms.
Erica Groussman went from zero sales and deep debt to getting TRUBAR into Whole Foods, Target, and thousands of stores across North America, all by staying committed to a vision she wasn’t willing to give up on.
In this episode, Lindsay Pinchuk talks with Erica about how a simple desire for a clean, delicious protein bar led to one of the fastest-growing plant-based snack brands on the shelf. Erica shares what those early days really looked like, driving around with samples in the backseat, asking salons and yoga studios to take a chance on her product, and putting marketing expenses on her personal credit card. She also opens up about the moment everything nearly fell apart after bringing in a partner who mismanaged the business, and what it took to take back control and keep going.
Where do you draw the line between persistence and letting go? How do you rebuild when trust is broken and the money has run out? Erica talks through those moments with honesty, alongside the decisions that helped her move forward, building supplier relationships, testing in-store demos, and staying close to the product every step of the way. Her story is a grounded look at what it really takes to grow something from nothing and keep it alive through the hard parts.
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 Introduction
04:15 How TRUBAR Got Started
08:44 Recovering from Financial Failure
11:08 Breaking Into Whole Foods
14:51 TRUBAR’s Retail Expansion
19:05 From Three People to a National Team
20:40 Scrappy Marketing and Product Trial
24:18 Getting Acquired by a Public Company
27:31 The Long-Term Vision for TRUBAR
33:43 Advice for Aspiring Founders
Connect with Erica Groussman:
http://www.instagram.com/ericatrubar
http://www.instagram.com/trubar.brands
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to another episode of Dear Founder. |
| 0:02.9 | I'm your host, Lindsay Pinchuk, and in just a minute, you're going to hear today's guest, |
| 0:07.2 | Erica Grousman, founder of True Bars, share how she started. |
| 0:10.9 | And that meant driving around and asking anyone and everyone to set up her bars and sell |
| 0:15.7 | them in their stores, yoga studios, hair salons, anywhere were her customer patronized. |
| 0:21.3 | She met her customer where they were and after a bunch of hardships and no sales, |
| 0:26.1 | this is how she started to sell her product. |
| 0:28.7 | You have to meet your target customer where they are. |
| 0:31.5 | This is a strategy I've used since I became an entrepreneur 15 years ago. |
| 0:35.3 | When I was targeting expectant parents, I made sure to show up |
| 0:38.8 | at maternity stores, prenatal yoga classes, and baby gear retailers. And now, as I share my |
| 0:44.3 | experience and knowledge of building, scaling and selling a business here on your founder, |
| 0:48.2 | I've met you here on the podcast, on Instagram, and online where many of you look for information, |
| 0:54.1 | resources, and connections. |
| 0:56.1 | And now I'm meeting you in your inboxes each and every week with my newsletter, |
| 1:01.2 | The Found Her Files. You've asked for more in-depth strategies, female founded brands and |
| 1:06.4 | stories to watch and support, and ways to promote your own business. And so we recently launched the Found |
| 1:12.2 | Her Files to continue our mantra of no fluff, no gatekeeping, just what works because we're |
| 1:17.1 | better together. Make sure that you subscribe to our new newsletter, The Found Her Files, which I've |
| 1:21.5 | linked in the show notes. There's, of course, an always free version, and now there's a paid |
| 1:25.7 | version where you can ask questions, |
| 1:31.4 | join our once a month Zoom Q&A with guests from the show and more. |
... |
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