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Key Takeaways Nima Fotovat co-founded MadeGood to create organic, allergen-free snacks, including granola bars and bites.
He and his sisters raised roughly $5 million from his parents’ retirement funds and loans against their homes to get MadeGood started.
The company now sells its products across about 35,000 U.S. retail locations and generates mid–nine-figure revenue.
As a first-time parent, Nima Fotovat tried to do everything right. He packed fresh apples, oranges and cucumbers for his kids in their lunchboxes instead of processed snacks.
The result was a “high return rate” of uneaten food, Fotovat shares in a new interview with Entrepreneur. His kids wanted something tasty and fun; he wanted something nutrient-dense, organic and safe for every child in the classroom, including those with allergies.
Looking at store shelves, he realized there was nothing that checked all those boxes. That tension between what parents wanted to feed their kids and what kids would actually eat became the foundation of MadeGood.
In 2014, Fotovat and his two sisters, Sahba and Salma, launched MadeGood in Canada, rolling up their sleeves to build not just a brand but a small factory to produce it themselves. Within a couple of years, their organic granola bars and bites landed on shelves at Whole Foods in the U.S., a pivotal validation moment that set the trajectory for the company’s rapid growth.
(left to right) Salma, Nima and Sahba Fotovat. Credit: MadeGood
Fotovat wasn’t coming in cold. He grew up on the production floor of his father’s food manufacturing business, working summers in a canned food factory from the age of 10 and later joining the family company after university.
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