Katie Lefkowitz: Founder & CEO of Harken Sweets

Episode 614

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, Kara is joined by Katie Lefkowitz, Founder and CEO of Harken Sweets. Katie’s entrepreneurial journey is one of resilience, passion, and a drive to create something delicious and healthy. After a health scare related to colon cancer, Katie, a lifelong candy bar lover, realized she needed to find a better way to enjoy her favorite indulgence without sacrificing her health. Determined to recreate the candy bar experience using superfoods, she launched Harken Sweets, a line of 100% plant-based, sugar-free candy bars that are not only delicious but also gut-friendly.
Katie’s story takes us from her kitchen experiments to getting Harken Sweets into 3,500 Walmarts. We dive into how she overcame challenges, the science behind her superfood ingredients like date caramel, and how she’s bringing nostalgia back to candy bars with a healthier twist. Tune in to hear how Katie built Harken Sweets from the ground up, her inspiring personal journey, and what’s next for this exciting brand. Now on The Kara Goldin Show!

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone. It’s Kara Goldin from the Kara Goldin show, and I’m super, super excited to be joined by our next inspiring founder, Katie Lefkowitz, who is the founder and CEO of Harken Sweets. And you are gonna be so excited about this fairly new brand. But boy, is it terrific, and she’s done a an awesome job of not only the product, but also the packaging. It’s it’s really, really great. It’s a story of passion, health and determination, after working as the Chief Operating Officer at another startup, and being a lifelong fan of candy bars, Katie decided I’m going to figure out how to make this much much healthier, and determined to create a much healthier alternative. I cannot even wait to to hear the story how Katie got going, but how it’s going and how she’s been able to scale this incredible line of super food infused products, 100% plant based candy bars made without added sugar, using dates and oat based chocolate. I mean, it’s just so so so good. So welcome, Katie. How are you?

Katie Lefkowitz 1:58
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I’m doing great. I’m excited to tell a little bit more of the Harken story here.

Kara Goldin 2:06
I love it. So let’s start with so how do you describe Harken Sweets?

Katie Lefkowitz 2:11
Yeah. I mean, you know, I describe us as a, you know, truly a better for you, version of the candy bars that we all grew up with. So we are squarely a candy bar in the way that we taste and the texture, but we create those candy bars with much healthier, super food ingredients to make them something that you actually feel good about eating, versus maybe you don’t feel so great eating a classic candy bar afterwards.

Kara Goldin 2:41
So your idea came to reality when you had a bit of a health scare. Do you want to share? Share a little bit about that? Yeah,

Katie Lefkowitz 2:51
yeah. So, you know, I, I created this business as a former Snickers fanatic. I was obsessed with this stuff, until I actually got a health diagnosis related to colon cancer. And it really, as you can imagine, flip my world upside down, but it introduced me to this whole universe of food as medicine and how what we eat has such an impact on our health and on chronic disease. And, you know, after really going through that, I thought there has to be a better way to make candy that you can actually feel really good about, and it’s really good for your gut versus, you know, what was out there before?

Kara Goldin 3:42
So you were, what were you doing before? Harken Sweets? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Katie Lefkowitz 3:48
Yeah. So immediately before this, I was with a brand called caulif power. We were actually the first ever Cauliflower Crust Pizza brand. That’s how we launched. And then since then, we’ve gone into a ton of different product categories, including cauliflower coated chicken tenders. But really, that super foodification, if you will, of a classic comfort food category. So I really saw with caulif power, how us little guys really just rethinking these classic comfort food categories can make a huge difference by just thinking about things very differently than maybe the big businesses out there are.

Kara Goldin 4:30
I remember when caulifier first came out, and I think I saw them at Expo West, the big food show, and I thought it was, I mean, actually the first iteration of it was not perfect, but it was a good try, and it I remember by the second show, it just got better and better and better. And this is what I share with founders all the time that you know you just have to start and the first product run is not going to be perfect. And. And, you know, it’d be great if it was, but it’s definitely something that I think every entrepreneur and every in every industry experiences. How has your product changed? I mean, you’re still pretty new, but what has changed about your product since the first launch?

Katie Lefkowitz 5:18
Yeah, I mean, I will say developing the product took probably about two years in total. So there have been so many different iterations of this. And you know, as you know, it’s one thing to make something in your kitchen or at a really small scale, and it’s another to make product at scale that you can be filling these large purchase orders. So I think that’s really been the biggest transition. Is going from the bench top the kitchen to really a scale manufacturing facility, and getting the product to be really consistent over time is something that’s incredibly important to me. I want to make sure that if you’re having a Harken bar, you’re having the same Harken bar every time that you try it. So we’ve experimented with a lot of different ingredients. Dates have always been really a hero ingredient. It’s they’re near and dear to my heart. I’m a huge date fan, so things have definitely evolved over time, but we’re very happy with where things have landed, and our customers have been really thrilled with our currency.

Kara Goldin 6:26
So you’ve bootstrapped your company to date, right? I have Yes. And so how did you think about that? I think most people think that you, you know, can’t start a company without a silver spoon or you have to have lots of money behind you in order to get started. How are you guys able to do this without any additional funding? Yeah,

Katie Lefkowitz 6:53
it’s a great point, and I’m so happy you brought it up, because I do think many entrepreneurs just start, they have an idea, and then they run out and raise money based on that idea. Was really important to me. I mean, frankly, just to prove to myself that the proof of concept was there, that the consumer demand was there, to start really small, right, and then scale it as profitably as possible from there. So it’s always been really important me to do that. And I think a focus on unit economics is a renewed focus these days, the fundraising environment isn’t what it used to be. It was always really important to me, you know, I want to be able to control the business as much as possible, be able to build it in the vision that I have for it. Now, that’s not to say we would never raise money, but we’ve been very fortunate with, you know, the scale that we’ve been able to achieve and the unit economics we’ve been able to achieve that we haven’t had to do that at this point.

Kara Goldin 7:53
That’s awesome. So how many SKUs Did you launch with? And how many SKUs do you have today? So

Katie Lefkowitz 7:59
it’s not that big of a change. So we just launched with our two skews. Our hero skew is called the nutty one. That’s really our version of the Snipper. So it’s got the date caramel, the peanuts, it has our oat chocolate on it as well. And then our second skew was the gooey one. So our version of kind of a Milky Way, similar to the nutty one, but no peanuts. It’s actually totally allergen free, really popular with parents that want a little treat for their school lunches. So those were our lunch SKUs. And then in March of this past year, we launched the crunchy one. That’s our version of like a take five. So we take our day caramel, we add crunchy, salty pretzel pieces. I have always been a salty, sweet kind of gal, and those are our three SKUs. So they’re all full size candy bars. They’re available in the checkout aisle. So, you know, you just grab one on your way out the store, and that is what we’ve got in our arsenal today, and they’re very hard working. Excuse those three.

Kara Goldin 9:06
That’s awesome. So you launched online first, since then, you’ve gone into over 3500 stores, or actually 3500 Walmarts, right? But also you’ve, you’ve got other distribution as well.

Katie Lefkowitz 9:21
Yes. So we launched, to your point, yes. We launched initially online. Had a great response, great reception from folks there. Then immediately, I mean, we launched into pop up grocery, which is this great store here in New York. They were amazing partners to get us going, as well as a few other stores in the New York area, like ShopRite, fairway, gourmet garage and from there, I mean, things have really expanded. As you mentioned. We’re in Walmarts across the country, again, in that checkout aisle. We also are in Albertson Safeway stores across the country, about 600 of them. That’s great, as well as the Fresh Market, which we are new on shelf at. So things, from a retail perspective, I like to say, if we are not in your neighborhood store, hopefully we will be very, very soon. That’s

Kara Goldin 10:13
awesome. So truly, Omni channel, and I think it’s it’s funny, I would say that maybe 10 years ago, people were like, you have to pick, what’s it going to be. And today, if you’re not omnichannel, it’s just ridiculous, 100%

Katie Lefkowitz 10:30
and the way that people are discovering products, right? Like, what we’re seeing is folks are discovering us online, buying online, and then when they’re going to their typical, you know, grocery shop for the week, they grab one to have in their car on the way home. So I don’t think it’s all or nothing like it used to be. As you said, you can really be everywhere, and it’s a great way, honestly, to start that trial early.

Kara Goldin 10:55
How did you come up with the brand name Park and suites? Yeah.

Katie Lefkowitz 10:59
So, you know, honestly, the purpose of this brand is to allow you to hearken back to the good old days when you could have as much candy as you wanted, and again, not feel bad about it. So hearken really focusing on the nostalgia that we want to evoke when you unwrap one of our candy bars.

Kara Goldin 11:21
I love it. So when you think about those, those first initial runs, I mean, you’re doing something a little bit different, right? You’re you’re putting it into a a form that is like a bar, but you’re using core ingredients that you know, weren’t exactly like what others were doing. How difficult was it to bring your recipe to the manufacturing and getting people to actually do what you wanted to do? I I’ll preface this by saying, when we first started hint, I had the hardest time finding somebody who would produce a product that didn’t have preservatives in it, and this was a long time ago, but that was like, a, you know, that was a must for me. And then finally, and, you know, I share this with friends, and they’re like, why this? I mean, if you want to do it, and you’re willing to pay for it, but there’s so much demand, and you’re, you know, you have no name, your your you know, no experience or whatever, however they’re going to judge you. You know, this just didn’t seem like, at least for me, the bet that many of these manufacturers wanted to make. And I’ve heard this over and over again from other founders who are, you know, have a new idea that they’re starting, but I’m curious if your experience was similar. Oh,

Katie Lefkowitz 12:48
absolutely. And I think one of the most challenging pieces for us is, you know, with the candy bar, there’s lots of components there, so I wanted to have the chocolate itself be plant based. I mean, just that one component in and of itself, having chocolate that’s plant based, that doesn’t have any sugar added. I mean, you would think I am asking for, you know, the nuclear codes, like it was such a process, just to get that piece of it made. Then to our date based, Kara Mel, I mean, again, a whole another manufacturing endeavor. And then to your point, putting it all together into one candy bar. It, there is a reason why it took so long to go from idea to really that scale, level of production. And to your earlier point on, you know, advice for other entrepreneurs. It is one of the biggest challenges to getting started is to finding a way to get your product made. And you are going to hear no nine times out of 10, if not 99 times out of 100 and I always take that as a good thing, in the sense that you’re doing something that nobody else has done, if you’re doing something that a lot of people have done, then, of course, from manufacturing standpoint, the assets will be there, right? The process will be there. But if you’re doing something really different, I I like to think you know, you’re onto something, even though it will be that much harder to get off the ground. When

Kara Goldin 14:23
you think about a I can’t believe we pulled this off time in, I guess, in your timeline along the way, in launching and building Harken suites, what like comes to mind? Oh,

Katie Lefkowitz 14:35
gosh, I feel like that every day. In a way, I think the first thing that popped in my head when you said that was honestly our launch with Walmart. I mean, we meant from, you know, under 100 stores to over 3000 really, overnight and again, getting everything to come together. There to really be able to fulfill their purchase order, which, by the way, kept increasing, kept increasing to get us going. I mean, I spent all of the last Thanksgiving holidays, we were just making as many candy bars as as humanly possible. And there’s always something that goes wrong right, the packaging doesn’t look quite right, and you have to really be there and live it and be obsessive about the product, because at the end of the day, that’s what your brand is, and that’s the experience that customers are having. So I think that’s definitely a crowning achievement, being able to pull off producing on time in full for that first really, really large purchase order.

Kara Goldin 15:38
So do you think that there’s a big trend? I mean, obviously people want healthier and better for you products, but also there’s health issues, including nuts and things that people are maybe trying to avoid because of allergies. Or are you seeing that what you created, and maybe this wasn’t even exactly what you thought you were creating. But the reason why you’ve been able to build and be so so successful is because the market is really headed in the direction that you were at before. And again, it’s like there’s so many things that are healthy, but I feel like yours has your heart, and sweets has really sort of solved this problem for consumers, and that’s why you’re getting these big POS from Walmart. Would you agree? Or what are you hearing?

Katie Lefkowitz 16:29
Yeah. I mean, my favorite thing in the world to do is chat with our shoppers, right? The people that and they’re amazing. I mean, they they try us at Walmart or at Albertsons, and they go to the trouble of looking up our website, finding a way to email us, and we hear so many different things, but it’s not necessarily one health aspect, right? It’s not like every single person is plant based, or every single person is trying to find high fiber products. We have so many different, really unique claims that speak to different people, that are different places in their health journey. One I will say that I found to be not necessarily surprising, but I’ve been so happy to see is really, again, the focus on gut health and prebiotic fiber, and we’ve seen that before, right, like with Lollipop, for instance, in soda, how their prebiotic approach has made such a difference in terms of that nostalgic product that you haven’t been able to have. So we’ve seen a lot of momentum there. But again, some people just are like, look, I don’t even care if this is good for me. This tastes great, and that’s why I’m picking you up every week. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 17:42
I think gone are the days where you could launch a product like you have without it tasting great. So it has to taste great. Would you agree?

Katie Lefkowitz 17:52
Definitely? And I think a lot of people don’t forget, but you get so focused on eating the products they’re in the health food stores that you forget most people are buying the products that are not even necessarily sold in your health food store. So I make a point of it to you know, I’m not eating Snickers by the pound, but I think it’s important to remember what people are really comparing you to and get as close to, if not better than, that standard bearer for the category that you’re

Kara Goldin 18:23
in, definitely. So when you think back on, you know, those early days, I love that you worked for a very entrepreneurial company. It had scaled and got big, but it was, you know, an entrepreneurial company. Would you suggest to anybody listening, we have a lot of, actually, universities and college students who are thinking about getting into entrepreneurship. I think it’s always a great idea to go and work for an entrepreneur, and especially a product that you like, because I think you learn a lot. Would you say that that was like really, really good training for you to be able to it’s different, I’m sure, like you running a company versus actually working inside of a company, for sure, but how do you think that that helped you to kind of understand what you would be up against?

Katie Lefkowitz 19:12
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I could never do what I’m doing today without the experience at calipower. And I mean very specifically with the mentorship of our founder at calipower, Gail Becker. I mean, she’s unbelievable. And, you know, I felt like I was really in, in there with her as we built that company. And I mean, there’s no experience like that. And I completely encourage anybody who’s interested in this space to really go out there and get that boots on the ground experience. There’s there’s nothing you can learn in school that would ever prepare you for what this journey is like. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 19:55
definitely, for sure. So what’s next for how. Suites. I mean, what do you like? What is, what are you most looking forward to? Is there different packaging sizes? Obviously you want to grow. I think this also sort of segues into a question I often ask entrepreneurs, is, when do you know you’re successful? Right? That it’s, it’s a, it’s a tough one, right? And I think most entrepreneurs answered in a very similar way. I’m curious what you would say, hmm,

Katie Lefkowitz 20:30
I mean, honestly, I don’t think there is an end, right? There’s not a oh, now I think I’ll sleep with one eye open for the rest of my life like that’s just innate to who I am, in a way. But you know, we’re really looking to just continue to grow, continue to get our product out there, our name out there. The more people that try it, it becomes this real flywheel effect. So, you know, we’re launching into additional retailers soon. We’re also putting a big push on E commerce, right like on Amazon. We just launched on there, on walmart.com, right for their their version of Amazon. We’re exploring Tiktok shops. So there’s so many different opportunities to grow, and that’s really just been what we’re what we’re focused on in the future. And, you know, I don’t, I don’t like to, to even think about an end point, because, you know, until everybody in this country is loving and enjoying hearken I can’t imagine stopping. That’s,

Kara Goldin 21:37
that’s amazing. I always tell people that, I mean, you touched on the consumers and listening in on what people are saying. But I always say that, you know, those consumer comments are always the things that are the most helpful. They’re like, you know, energy for founders, especially when you’re having those tough days when some run didn’t go the way that you thought, or it was delayed, or something happened along the way. Do you remember any of those love letters that came from consumers? And you know what was? Any of them that came through, through that you thought were just terrific?

Katie Lefkowitz 22:15
All all of them, literally, I have a person who emailed me to say, Hey, I found your product. I never seen anything like this. And then they they were going through their own health journey. They were trying to bring down their A, 1c and they had been eating it for maybe a month. And then they went back to their doctor, and their doctor specifically said, whatever you’re doing, it’s working. You’re really having this is having a really amazing impact on health, burgers that we can monitor and stuff like that. I mean, to your point, gets me up in the morning. Another woman she was trying to buy her niece, had just been diagnosed with diabetes. She hated that she could never bring a healthy candy or anything to parties, and she found herkin, and finally, that was something she could bring her so things like that. I mean, that’s what gets me out every morning. They’re

Kara Goldin 23:08
so key. So you mentioned Tiktok shop. We actually had ASEA on on, which is a beauty brand, and they were talking about, like, massive success on actually, it was, it was a really interesting episode she was talking about. It’s an old brand from, like, the early 90s, and they’ve just gotten this entirely new, much younger consumer on Tiktok shop because of seaweed. And they’ve always been based on seaweed, but seaweed such a hot, yeah, you know, ingredient, right? Not just for beauty, but also for food. So she’s, she said, it’s, it’s been like, a pleasant surprise to grow. Have you had any points of distribution where you’ve been, like, a little bit surprised that you’ve been able to grow the way you have? And I think there’s so much out there that’s just trial and error. You just have to jump in and try things out and But has there been anything that’s been super surprising for you that’s been good?

Katie Lefkowitz 24:10
You know, it is an interesting question. To your point, a lot of this is trial and error. I think people like to think it’s much more, you know, Ivory Tower intentional, but a lot of the times, it’s a matter of getting the product out there. And to be honest, I’ve been surprised by how many people have just seen it and tried it, and maybe they didn’t even hear about it anywhere. They just saw the packaging on the shelf. So honestly, I’ve been amazed at the seller we’ve been able to achieve, again, with the small awareness that we have still in the marketplace. That’s

Kara Goldin 24:43
awesome. How are you mostly getting the word out about your product? All, you know,

Katie Lefkowitz 24:49
organic channels, right? Instagram, tik, Tok, you know, things like this podcast, right? Talking to different entrepreneurs and, you know. We’re not, we’re not putting any ads out there for the Super Bowl anytime soon. So really, it’s this organic word of mouth. And I think when you have a really differentiated product, like I’m I know you have experienced yourself, people talk about it and they want to share it with their friends. And we’ve had really great success just with folks doing exactly that. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 25:20
that’s, that’s awesome. Well, best of luck to you. It is such a great product, and it’s, I mean, you really nailed it. So I always think that I love finding these products that are, you know, obviously better for you, but are a little bit different, and the taste is so so good. So Katie Lefkowitz, you’ve done an amazing job. And Harken Sweets is the name of the product. We will have all the info in the show notes, but thank you so much for sharing your experience and the brand with everybody. And everyone needs to purchase and sign up, go into WalMart, Go into all the other stores that Harken Sweets is in, and we’ll have all the info in the show notes too. So thank you, Katie,

Katie Lefkowitz 26:11
thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This is really fun.

Kara Goldin 26:14
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey. I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now. You.

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