TRUBAR - How Bold Packaging and Clean Ingredients Win

The Story of a Brand

Ramon Vela

Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 145 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I had an absolute blast chatting with Erica Groussman, the bold and fearless founder of TRUBAR. Erica’s energy is infectious, and her story is a masterclass in trusting your gut, listening to your body, and never settling for the status quo.

What started as a personal journey to clean up her own nutrition turned into a full-on movement—and a fast-growing brand that’s flipping the protein bar category on its head.

TRUBAR isn’t just another snack—it’s a delicious, clean-label product with a powerful “no BS” message at the center. In our conversation, Erica opens up about the highs and lows of building a better-for-you brand, how she broke into mass retail on her own terms, and what it really takes to stand out on shelf and online in a crowded CPG space.

Here are a few highlights from our conversation:

* Why Erica believes "permissionless entry" is the key to innovation

* How she went from her kitchen to national retail distribution

* The truth about navigating manufacturing, scaling, and keeping your standards

* Why brand voice and bold packaging are non-negotiables in today’s market

* The importance of staying raw, real, and mission-driven—no matter the pressure

Join me, Ramon Vela, in listening to the episode and hear how Erica turned a personal health need into a fearless brand that’s changing the snack game—one unapologetically clean bite at a time.

For more on TRUBAR, visit: https://www.trubar.com/

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave The Story of a Brand a rating and review.

Plus, don’t forget to follow us on Apple and Spotify.

Your support helps us bring you more content like this!

Today’s Sponsors:

Augmentum Media - Influencer Marketing for Consumer Brands: https://www.augmentum-media.com/story

What secret do fast-growing Health and Wellness brands like Xtendlife, Nourished, and Hunter & Gather share? They all outsource their influencer marketing to the experts at Augmentum. Augmentum is offering "The Story of a Brand Show" listeners a 30-minute consulting session AND a personalized influencer strategy plan built by their experts for you to implement either with them or in-house. Visit the link above to learn more.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Yeah, so True Bar is, it's a vegan plant-based protein bar with 12 grams of protein, 11 grams of fiber,
0:08.4	and we're vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, no sugar alcohols, no seed oils, and most importantly,
0:14.5	they taste delicious. So they're all dessert-inspired, and all of them are really truly delicious, this amazing texture.
0:23.5	So the whole concept behind it is something that you can't wait to enjoy that's good and clean,
0:30.4	and then you feel good afterwards. And to hit all of those notes, it's just not really out there
0:35.7	in the market. So they're believing in the vision of having
0:39.3	something that everyone can enjoy that's a better for you item, right? Like you can go get a candy
0:45.7	bar that tastes good, but then you feel not so great afterwards. And even maybe your body's
0:52.0	doesn't feel bad, but you're, like, regretting it.
0:55.1	Like, did I really just eat that?
0:57.3	You know, now I got to go for a walker.
0:59.7	So they're believing in the bigger picture that you can have a better for you item that tastes good that people are going to enjoy.
1:05.5	But they could still use it as, like, a dessert.
1:18.0	Yeah. as like a dessert. Hey, everyone.
1:19.0	This is Ramon Vela, and this is another episode of the story of a brand.
1:23.5	Like always, we have an amazing guest and brand that we're going to feature on today's show.
1:27.6	But before we do, what is the secret shared by fast-growing health and wellness brands like
1:32.6	extend life, nourished, and hunter and gather? They all outsource their influencer marketing
1:37.7	to the experts at Augmentum. Augmentum Media Profitably Skills Influencer programs for the fastest growing health brands worldwide.
1:47.0	Their team of specialists runs every part of your influencer program for you,
1:51.0	while ensuring you don't have to pay six figures to influencers to see the returns.
1:57.0	Are you curious about how Augmentum can help your brand grow?
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 17 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ramon Vela, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ramon Vela and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.