Ep 020 – Disrupting the Protein Bar Market with Resist

Today on The Heart-led Brand Podcast, we’re chatting with Drew Lederman, the CEO and co-founder of Resist!

Resist is a low sugar, vegan protein bar company. Their story started when Drew was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome and insulin resistance at 18. Although there are many “healthy” protein bars out there, she couldn’t find one with clean ingredients that didn't trigger her hormonal symptoms or give her a fast blood sugar spike. So she teamed up with her co-founder, Emily, and a board of medical advisors to create Resist and start offering delicious, doctor-recommended vegan bars with a clinically-backed stable blood sugar response.

In the episode, we talk about:

The steps she took to research, test products and launch the business
An expensive packaging mistake that they made in the early days
Why those “healthy” protein bars aren’t always what they seem and how Resist is filling a gap in the industry by focusing on ingredients that won’t spike your blood sugar
Tips for making the transition from D2C to retail and thinking out of the box when it comes to choosing retail partners

Episode Highlights:

A big packaging mistake that they made:

“One of the early mistakes that we made was buying too much packaging. We were running the numbers on our packaging and we’re like, ‘Okay, if we buy enough packaging for 2 to 3 runs, then the per unit cost will be so much more palatable for us as a young brand’. So that’s what we did. And I’m sure you probably know where this is going… We ended up needing to change our packaging. And in the end, the unit cost was exponentially more. So in the beginning, I highly recommend founders not do that. Don’t overdo it with the packaging until you have a lot more confidence in that design and in the certifications that you want and in your recipe.”

Going from D2C to retail:

“We are very scrappy and we did start D2C. That was our best channel for a very long time. We moved onto Amazon, which quickly became one of our best channels. And then we started going into independent retailers and getting on shelf. And it’s hard! Because you don’t just get on the shelf and you’ve won. You get on the shelf and then you need to fight for those reorders, and you need to do demos, and you need to make sure that you’re getting stocked in the right place, make sure you’re priced correctly, and make sure that you have a good reputation in that store, that you have a relationship with that buyer. The list goes on and on.”

We hope that you enjoy this conversation and make sure to check out and support all that Resist is doing! You can follow them on IG and Tiktok or go shop their products at eatresist.com!

P.S. Drew was kind enough to give our listeners a special discount! Use the code “HEARTLED15” to get 15% off your order ❤️