More than a decade ago, Kyle Kaler was working in finance in New York City and trying to live healthier.
I took a lot of things out of my diet, you know, grains, wheat, corn, soy, like all of these things.
I took a lot of processed foods out of my diet and couldn't find a whole lot on store shelves that tasted really good as well.
So Kyle tried to solve this problem in his own kitchen.
And so, yeah,
through all these dried fruits and nuts and seeds and like a food processor and like blended it together and just ate it like that for a snack.
This snack became life-changing for Kyle.
He moved to San Antonio, Texas and started a food company.
He named it Wild Way Foods and began selling his granola at farmer's markets.
And after sales went well, Kyle thought about going bigger.
So, he headed to the biggest health food store he could think of.
I just walked in to Whole Foods's markets headquarters in Austin with this product in the bag and was like,
hey, I have a product that I think would sell well in your shelves.
And there was a woman at like the front desk that was like, what do you have in a appointment or like anything?
And I was like, no, I just, I think this would sell well in your stores.
And she was like, to make sure I was a little crazy and was like, okay,
and we'll give it to me and I'll give it to the buyer a few days later.
Got an email from the serial buyer and said, hey, I got your product and I think this is great.
Let's talk about if you guys want to be on shelves.
Kyle's granola was going to be on Whole Foods shelves.