Erica Groussman came up with her business idea during a family trip to Disney.
She started with a wooden tray from Bed Bath & Beyond, a handful of protein bars and a simple proposition for local businesses: Put these on the counter, and see if customers buy them.
That scrappy test would become the foundation of Trubar, the better-for-you snack company Erica Groussman built into a business now in 32,000 U.S. retail locations. The company’s journey has included early retail wins, a stint under the umbrella of a public company and an eventual $173 million acquisition. Trubar has shipped nearly 46 million protein bars in 2026, and the business grossed about $100 million in 2025.
Through it all, Groussman says that her secret is hard work.
“I think that one of the biggest secrets is working your butt off,” Groussman says. “Really getting it into every hand that you can possibly get it into.”
Groussman didn’t start out in the food industry. Early in her childhood, her mother gave her a newspaper route, an early lesson in earning money and showing up for work.
Groussman ended up studying communications at UCLA, then worked in film finance and real estate before getting married and having children. She was a stay-at-home mom raising two children when she got the idea for Trubar.
It all began during a family trip to Disney . Groussman had packed snacks, including a protein bar from an established brand. It tasted good, she recalls, but it did not make her feel good afterward.
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