Cracking the Thin-Coating Challenge

For decades, snack companies believed Americans wanted everything sweeter.

More sugar. More chocolate. More indulgence.

But what if that assumption was wrong?

In this episode, a mother-daughter team set out to make a sleeker version of a chocolate almond— and nearly lose everything in the process.

Val Griffith was a longtime TV producer in Seattle. Her daughter Breezy was bouncing between failing business ideas in Miami and New York. When a family tragedy brought Breezy back home, the two began talking about food, snacking, and why chocolate-covered almonds were always so… overdone.

Their insight was deceptively simple: what if you used less sugar, not fake sugar — and a thin coating of chocolate instead of a fat one? 

Turning that idea into SkinnyDipped meant years of failed experiments, dipping almonds by hand, manufacturing out of a converted chicken coop, and demoing almonds one by one. 

When they finally got a breakthrough order from Target, they faced a near-disaster: 40,000 pounds of rancid almonds. 

What followed was a frantic race to save the deal — and later, a far more dangerous question: is this business ever going to make it?

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN: 

• How failing at micro-businesses quietly builds founder skill
• Why manufacturing is often the biggest obstacle in food startups
• The nail-biting risk of saying yes to Target too early
• How growth can mask deeply broken economics
• What it takes to fix a business when funding disappears

TIMESTAMPS: 

• 00:07:25 - How Breezy’s early forays into the food business failed — and why they mattered.
• 00:11:00 - How a family loss brought Breezy and her mom together — and changed the direction of their lives 
• 00:21:07 - Reinventing a stale bulk-bin snack: The road-trip conversations that sparked a new recipe: 
• 00:31:20 - The Home Depot paint sprayer experiment: A brilliant idea that failed spectacularly.
• 00:38:56 - SkinnyDipped’s first “facility:” one oven, no heat, no hot water
•              
• 00:49:28 - How a chance meeting in a bar changed the company’s trajectory
• 00:55:41 - Target takes the plunge and SkinnyDipped nearly drowns: how a chain-wide launch almost breaks the business
• 01:7:47 - Growth without profit: How the founders recover after hitting rock bottom
• 01:21:44 - The mother-daughter equation: wisdom + jet fuel
• 01:26:13 - Small Business Spotlight 

—-----------------------

Hey—want to be a guest on HIBT?

If you’re building a business, why not get advice from some of the greatest entrepreneurs on Earth?

Every Thursday on the HIBT Advice Line, a previous HIBT guest helps new entrepreneurs work through the challenges they’re facing right now. Advice that’s smart, actionable, and absolutely free.

Just call 1-800-433-1298, leave a message, and you may soon get guidance from someone who started where you did, and went on to build something massive.

So—give us a call.

We can’t wait to hear what you’re working on.

—-----------

This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Chris Maccini. Our engineers were Robert Rodriguez and Kwesi Lee.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.