Forbes - USA (2019-06-30)

46

FORBES.COM JUNE 30, 20 19

Bittersweet Success

CONTRARIAN ENTREPRENEURS

As their father lay dying, the 13 Keith siblings took his recipe for a snack no one could sell—a

refrigerated protein bar—and built it into a $300 million startup.

By Chloe Sorvino

siblings worked through the night to fill orders for

their peanut-butter bars 14 years ago, when they

were starting Perfect Snacks. “We didn’t even have

the recipe written down,” the 33-year-old says, her

wavy hair—blond, like nearly all the Keiths—fas-

tened securely by a hair net. “We started out with

a whole lot of ambition. The harder we worked,

the more we put into the business, the more we

could try and control our destiny.”

Leigh Keith is taking her

time flattening a mound of peanut butter, honey,

cranberries and chocolate chips with a wooden

rolling pin, before cutting it into 4-inch rectangles.

She used to do this at race speed, when she and her

L Food Fighters

From left: Leigh,

Zane, Bill, Heather

and Charisse Keith

in their San Diego

headquarters’ kitchen.

Photograph by Tim Pannell for Forbes