What's the origin story of Patterbar?

• I was one of those crazy moms that made the baby food. When the children got older [my eldest is now 38], trying to find convenient snacks that weren't full of all kinds of junk was challenging. So I made the bars.
• It's really simple stuff: dry fruit with no juice, no sugar, no oil, dry roasted nuts, seed or nut butter, that is rolled together and cut.

How do you build trust with your customers?

• I am all about full-on transparency and authenticity. We do farmers markets, and it's great because it's an opportunity to literally lay out the ingredients, and we say to people, "This is all that's in it."

What's challenging about building a healthy food brand?

• The profit margin for food in general is extremely slim, [and] we're competing against companies like Mondelez and Kellogg's and Hershey's that have so much money for marketing. They'll tell people "these are healthy and natural," but look at what's in the bars.

What advice do you have for aspiring small health business owners?

• No. 1: If you're starting up your own product, you want to have something that's different. We are 100% whole food, and I believe that is a significant differentiator.
• And No. 2, you have to be exceedingly tenacious. It's 24/7 for me, and this is my eighth year. I do a farmers market every Saturday and Sunday for six and a half months. That's a lot.