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The University of Richmond entrepreneurship students who developed Absurd Snacks; CEO Grace Mittl is pictured sixth from left in the back row.
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Absurd Snacks offer a nut-free granola alternative made with roasted beans.
On her second day as the chief executive officer of a startup snack company, Grace Mittl is exhilarated and exhausted.
Mittl, a senior at the University of Richmond, and 15 of her fellow college students are all co-founders of Absurd Snacks, an alternative trail mix brand that replaces nuts with crunchy beans, seeds and oats and recently landed on store shelves around the region. The goal behind the snack was to create a product that is high in protein, free of refined sugars, gut-friendly and allergen-friendly.
Absurd Snacks, which launched at the end of March, is the result of work completed through Bench Top Innovations, a UR entrepreneurship class that was newly introduced to the university’s business school curriculum this academic year. Students spend the first four weeks of the course learning about entrepreneurship and startups and then get to work in the kitchen creating their product. In the second half of the course, the class becomes a company, with a CEO and marketing, finance, sales, tech and operations teams.
The inspiration for the trail mix came from team member Dan Wolfeiler, who was frustrated that his nut allergy prevented him from eating the majority of trail mixes on the market. Anything without nuts either didn’t taste good to him or was not filling. So, as a team, the class found that roasted beans were the perfect substitute.
Now that the product has launched, the company is celebrating the start of its “selling season,” Mittl says.
“In class, we put our web store up on the projector and saw our first order come in,” she says. “It was just really special.”
Absurd Snacks are sold online and at a number of local stores including Libbie Market, Good Foods Grocery, Shore Dog Cafe, Shields Market, Stella’s Grocery, River City Market, Lombardy Market, St. Stephen’s Farmers Market and the RVA Big Market. The bean- and seed-based granola is currently available in two flavors, maple-cinnamon and chocolate, and can also be purchased online.
Looking forward, some members of the team are considering continuing the company after the class ends in May, Mittl said. Absurd Snacks hopes to expand by working with a manufacturer who can do larger production runs, and the team is looking to get more retail accounts.
“In order to really scale and be intentional about where we want the brand to go, I think we need to take a step back and see what we can do better,” Mittl says. “That way [Absurd Snacks] can be successful a year from now, and two years from now.”
