Maker: Grüns

I had the idea for Grüns two weeks before coming to Stanford GSB. I was drinking a greens powder, and I remember thinking, “There is no way I’m keeping this habit past 30 days.” I started thinking about how to take the concept of daily comprehensive nutrition and make it into something that people would actually enjoy and look forward to every day.

I am a longtime self-proclaimed gummy connoisseur. I grew up eating gummies and would sometimes take down an entire pack of Sour Patch Kids Watermelon in a day.

I spent weeks researching how I wanted to formulate the product and what I needed it to include. I reached out to 20 different manufacturing partners, and every single one told me that it was a bad idea, it wouldn’t work, and it would taste disgusting. Finally, one was willing to give it a try, and I’m grateful they took a chance on it with me.

“Grün” means green in German, but adding an S at the end doesn’t actually mean anything. I grew up Mormon and served a two-year service mission living in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, so I am fluent in German. The idea came to me, I checked really quickly online, and Gruns.co was available. And the umlaut fits into our playful image, looking like a smiley.

I spent my entire first year at the GSB working on the first rounds of production. About a quarter of my GSB class were among the first to try the original product and give me feedback ahead of our launch in August 2023. By the time I left the GSB, the company was doing $50 million in revenue, had about seven employees, and was about to hit profitability. This was all built from the little room in Escondido Village where I lived with my family.

In June, we became part of Unilever. You’re going to see more innovation from us in the gummy space, more retail expansion, and a bigger business. We want to do more. We want to serve and meet more people with their comprehensive nutrition needs. — Told to Dave Gilson