#197: Ali Bonar (Oat Haus) — The Granola Butter Company

Ali Bonar — CEO & Co-Founder of Oat Haus, a food company bringing fun and play to eating. Their flagship product, Granola Butter, is the world's first oat-based spread and while Oat Haus was born out of Ali's decade-long battle with an eating disorder, and it's now her mission to help others feel less alone.

Since its beginnings in 2018, Oat Haus has evolved from Ali’s personal project to a Cleveland-based, nationwide company with distribution in over 5,000 stores, including Target, Whole Foods, Publix, and more.

This conversation was a lot of fun — Ali shares the challenges and joys of entrepreneurship, the importance of authenticity in branding, reflecting on scale having packed over 4 million jars of Granola Butter by hand with her team, her experience pitching on Shark Tank, the power of community engagement through social media and growing her base to over 100,000 followers, moving to Cleveland, overcoming adversity, and a whole lot more.

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LINKS:
- www.granolabutter.com

- www.instagram.com/oat.haus

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/alibonar/

- www.instagram.com/alibonar

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Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and over 200 other Cleveland Entrepreneurs.

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