(From left) Shah, Tak and Elmakis have found some early local success with their new products.
The trio of local mothers recently launched GoFar Snacks, a brand of nut-free energy bars for children that they’re quickly trying to get on store shelves and online.
The idea came after years of having to make snacks from scratch for some of their kids. Each of the three founders had at least one child with food allergies and they said they hadn’t seen many attractive alternatives on the market that could guarantee ingredients hadn’t crossed paths with nuts during manufacturing and thereby posing a potential allergic hazard.
“It’s very difficult to trust products on the shelf these days and to go to restaurants because of cross-contamination,” Tak said. “We talked about it together one day — we make all our snacks at home and there are lots of moms who don’t have the time to make everything from scratch.”
From that, GoFar was born last summer.
A Go-Far brownie crunch bar.
Tak said the goal was to use ingredients that a mother could typically find easily and “that a first-grader could read.”
They incorporated the business in September and began making the bars and packaging them in a commercial kitchen in Goochland while beginning to strike up conversations with local retailers. GoFar bars, which currently come in brownie crunch and oatmeal cookie flavors, landed on store shelves last month at Libbie Market, Shields Market, Elwood Thompson’s and Yellow Umbrella.
They also filed for a trademark for the GoFar brand and hired local marketing firm Elevation.
Though they’ve all been stay-at-home moms in recent years, all three founders have backgrounds they think will help them in the business.
Tak went to Harvard Business School and worked in investment banking in New York for the likes of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Elmakis has an MBA, worked in sales and co-founded Bully Sticks, a fast growing local pet treat company. Shah is a registered dietician, having helped design healthy meal plans for various organizations and pushing for salad bars at schools.
Their kids are all getting older, giving them the chance to focus on the hustle of a startup.
“The time was right for all three of us in terms of getting back into the workforce,” Tak said.
They each also have well-seasoned businessmen behind them. Tak is married to Sahil Tak, an executive at ST Paper, which owns paper mills in Franklin and Wisconsin. Elmakis’ husband is Avrum Elmakis, co-founder of Best Bully Sticks. And Shah is married to Jay Shah, an executive at locally-based Shamin Hotels.
The group would not comment on how much money they’ve put into the venture thus far.
They’ve made more than 1,000 bars so far and will ramp that figure up in a big way once they accomplish their next goal of signing on with a contract manufacturer to produce the bars on a larger scale. That’s necessary, Tak said, to hit the volume required by large online retailers.
“We don’t necessarily want to be in the mainstream market. We like the specialty market,” she said. “But we do want to be available to anyone in the world, so we need to get on Amazon or Jet.com.”
They’ve been out visiting manufacturing facilities but have yet to strike a deal.
“The biggest challenge has been finding a nut-free facility,” Tak said.
They also face the challenge of starting from scratch in a competitive industry.
“None of us necessarily come from a food retail background, so it was new to all of us,” Tak said. “Our challenges keep changing.”
(From left) Shah, Tak and Elmakis have found some early local success with their new products.
The trio of local mothers recently launched GoFar Snacks, a brand of nut-free energy bars for children that they’re quickly trying to get on store shelves and online.
The idea came after years of having to make snacks from scratch for some of their kids. Each of the three founders had at least one child with food allergies and they said they hadn’t seen many attractive alternatives on the market that could guarantee ingredients hadn’t crossed paths with nuts during manufacturing and thereby posing a potential allergic hazard.
“It’s very difficult to trust products on the shelf these days and to go to restaurants because of cross-contamination,” Tak said. “We talked about it together one day — we make all our snacks at home and there are lots of moms who don’t have the time to make everything from scratch.”
From that, GoFar was born last summer.
A Go-Far brownie crunch bar.
Tak said the goal was to use ingredients that a mother could typically find easily and “that a first-grader could read.”
They incorporated the business in September and began making the bars and packaging them in a commercial kitchen in Goochland while beginning to strike up conversations with local retailers. GoFar bars, which currently come in brownie crunch and oatmeal cookie flavors, landed on store shelves last month at Libbie Market, Shields Market, Elwood Thompson’s and Yellow Umbrella.
They also filed for a trademark for the GoFar brand and hired local marketing firm Elevation.
Though they’ve all been stay-at-home moms in recent years, all three founders have backgrounds they think will help them in the business.
Tak went to Harvard Business School and worked in investment banking in New York for the likes of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Elmakis has an MBA, worked in sales and co-founded Bully Sticks, a fast growing local pet treat company. Shah is a registered dietician, having helped design healthy meal plans for various organizations and pushing for salad bars at schools.
Their kids are all getting older, giving them the chance to focus on the hustle of a startup.
“The time was right for all three of us in terms of getting back into the workforce,” Tak said.
They each also have well-seasoned businessmen behind them. Tak is married to Sahil Tak, an executive at ST Paper, which owns paper mills in Franklin and Wisconsin. Elmakis’ husband is Avrum Elmakis, co-founder of Best Bully Sticks. And Shah is married to Jay Shah, an executive at locally-based Shamin Hotels.
The group would not comment on how much money they’ve put into the venture thus far.
They’ve made more than 1,000 bars so far and will ramp that figure up in a big way once they accomplish their next goal of signing on with a contract manufacturer to produce the bars on a larger scale. That’s necessary, Tak said, to hit the volume required by large online retailers.
“We don’t necessarily want to be in the mainstream market. We like the specialty market,” she said. “But we do want to be available to anyone in the world, so we need to get on Amazon or Jet.com.”
They’ve been out visiting manufacturing facilities but have yet to strike a deal.
“The biggest challenge has been finding a nut-free facility,” Tak said.
They also face the challenge of starting from scratch in a competitive industry.
“None of us necessarily come from a food retail background, so it was new to all of us,” Tak said. “Our challenges keep changing.”
I’m rooting for these three businesswomen and mom’s. Wishing you all much success.
Love this idea, brand, and story. Check out Stella’s Market if you aren’t already there-delightful specialty market.
What a great idea and a huge need! As a mother of a child with food allergies it is always a struggle to find safe and healthy snacks. Very happy to know that I can get them from a local company!