Seeds of Growth: Dan Gluck’s Lessons from Building a Multi-Million Dollar CPG Business

Dan Gluck — March 19, 2025

Build­ing a suc­cess­ful CPG brand is no small feat. It requires vision, adapt­abil­i­ty, and resilience. Over the years, I’ve learned count­less lessons while grow­ing Health War­rior from an idea into a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized brand acquired by Pep­si. Below are some of the most impact­ful insights from that journey—lessons that any entre­pre­neur can apply to build a brand that stands the test of time.

1. Your Brand Should Reflect Your Authen­tic Self

When we first set out to build Health War­rior, we brain­stormed numer­ous brand identities—including one called The Seed Nuts—a quirky nod to our obses­sion with chia seeds. It was fun, but it didn’t align with our deep­er pur­pose. Ulti­mate­ly, we land­ed on Health War­rior, inspired by the Aztec war­riors who fueled them­selves with chia seeds. The name embod­ied our mis­sion: empow­er­ing peo­ple to win the dai­ly bat­tle of health and well­ness. Brand­ing isn’t just about being clever—it’s about being authen­tic.

Your brand should be an exten­sion of your authen­tic self. When it reflects your val­ues and mis­sion, it will res­onate with the right audi­ence.

2. There Is Pow­er in a Piv­ot

We ini­tial­ly planned to launch Health War­rior as a chia-based bev­er­age, inspired by the Tarahu­mara tribe’s tra­di­tion­al endurance drink. After work­ing with a top bev­er­age for­mu­la­tor, we learned the drink’s gelati­nous tex­ture and com­plex mes­sag­ing would like­ly alien­ate con­sumers. Instead of forc­ing our orig­i­nal vision, we piv­ot­ed to a more acces­si­ble for­mat: the chia bar. That piv­ot paid off—our bars quick­ly became the best-sell­ing prod­uct in their cat­e­go­ry at Whole Foods.

Lis­ten to mar­ket feed­back and stay flex­i­ble. The abil­i­ty to piv­ot can be the dif­fer­ence between fail­ure and a break­through.

 3. Sur­round Your­self with Smart Peo­ple

Despite hav­ing back­grounds in busi­ness, finance, and law, my co-founders and I had no expe­ri­ence in food and bev­er­age. Instead of try­ing to fig­ure every­thing out on our own, we sought guid­ance from indus­try vet­er­ans, includ­ing Kel­ly Flat­ley (Bear Naked Gra­nola), Jesse Itzler, Mark Ram­pol­la, and the team at VMG Part­ners.

You don’t have to know everything—just sur­round your­self with peo­ple who do. The right men­tors and advi­sors can accel­er­ate your learn­ing and suc­cess.

 4. Stick to Your Prin­ci­ples

As we grew, we faced pres­sure to make our bars big­ger, sweet­er, and cheap­er. While it was tempt­ing to fol­low the mar­ket trends, we held firm to our mis­sion: offer­ing tru­ly healthy food. We kept our bars small (100 calo­ries), used organ­ic chia seeds, and avoid­ed unnec­es­sary addi­tives. Ulti­mate­ly, our com­mit­ment to authen­tic­i­ty helped us stand out and led to our acqui­si­tion by Pep­si.

Stay­ing true to your val­ues builds long-term trust with cus­tomers. Short-term com­pro­mis­es can dilute your brand’s iden­ti­ty and mis­sion.

 5. Build Bonds in the Trench­es

True lead­er­ship reveals itself dur­ing tough times. One of our most trust­ed advi­sors, Brad Barn­horn, showed up for us in cru­cial moments—whether it was catch­ing an error in our cap table or help­ing us regroup after a failed prod­uct launch. His unwa­ver­ing sup­port was invalu­able.

Find peo­ple who will stand by you in the hard­est moments. Strong rela­tion­ships can make all the dif­fer­ence in nav­i­gat­ing chal­lenges.

6. Cre­ate a Cult Brand with a Real Fol­low­ing

Health War­rior wasn’t just a product—it was a move­ment. As ath­letes our­selves, we knew our audi­ence and got our bars into the hands of top pro­fes­sion­al ath­letes. When the Wall Street Jour­nal high­light­ed the grow­ing chia trend, they men­tioned Health War­rior, fuel­ing mas­sive demand. That moment wasn’t luck—it was the result of build­ing an authen­tic brand with a loy­al fol­low­ing.

Know your tribe and serve them authen­ti­cal­ly. When your brand tru­ly res­onates, your cus­tomers will become your biggest advo­cates.

7. Long-Term Rela­tion­ships Dri­ve Suc­cess

Work­ing with friends and fam­i­ly in busi­ness is risky, but I got lucky with my co-founders, Shane and Nick. Despite occa­sion­al dis­agree­ments, we always respect­ed each oth­er and worked through chal­lenges. To this day, they remain among my clos­est friends. Beyond co-founders, Health War­rior was built on the backs of incred­i­ble people—from ear­ly advi­sors like Kel­ly Flat­ley to our investors, employ­ees, and board mem­bers. Their con­tri­bu­tions made all the dif­fer­ence.

Suc­cess is rarely a solo jour­ney. Long-term rela­tion­ships with the right peo­ple will be one of your great­est assets in busi­ness and life.

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Build­ing a brand is a jour­ney filled with ups and downs. The lessons above—staying authen­tic, being adapt­able, sur­round­ing your­self with the right peo­ple, and stay­ing true to your mission—are what helped Health War­rior grow from an idea to an acqui­si­tion.

For aspir­ing founders, these insights can serve as guide­posts on your own entre­pre­neur­ial path. The road isn’t always easy, but with the right mind­set and sup­port, you can cre­ate some­thing tru­ly last­ing.