At a time when their college peers were living off ramen and beer, Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz were scheming to change the way people eat.
The duo were seniors at Brown in 2013 when they first hatched the idea for Exo, a cricket-based protein bar. Lewis, an economics and philosophy major and self-professed CrossFit junkie, had been experimenting with homemade Paleo-friendly protein bar recipes when his roommate Sewitz, a cognitive neuroscience and English major, returned from a conference at M.I.T. that touted the environmental benefits of insects as a food source.
"Greg suggested this crazy notion of adding crickets to the bars, since they're high in the best quality protein," recalls Lewis, 24. "Initially, I thought it was a very strange idea, but after some research, it made total sense."
Crickets, the pair learned, were not only a highly sustainable food source (producing 80 times less methane than cattle and requiring six times less feed), but also an excellent source of calcium, iron and omega-3 fatty acids.
"The only reason we don't eat them here is purely irrational cultural aversion," says Lewis, citing the insects' popularity around the world.
So after tracking down an online recipe for "cricket flour," Lewis and Sewitz ordered 2,000 live chirpers from a cricket farm. ("They arrived when I was at class, so my roommates just saw these chirping shoe boxes — which must have seemed ridiculous," recalls Lewis.)
They then set to work freezing, slow-roasting and grinding the bugs into a powder in their dorm kitchen. Once they added the nutty-tasting mixture to Lewis' existing honey, date and almond butter blend, the duo hit local farmers markets and CrossFit gyms with free samples.
"The taste-testing was so positive, we thought we could definitely make it as a food product if it was marketed correctly," says Sewitz, 23.
That's when the pair decided to put their post-college plans on hold (Sewitz had been accepted to a neuroscience Ph.D. program; Lewis had a job lined up at a hedge fund), move to Williamsburg and spend the summer pursuing the biz full-time.
They started by cold e-mailing Kyle Connaughton, an experimental chef who'd formerly helmed London's famed Fat Duck restaurant. Connaughton, who'd worked with insects before, signed on immediately and set to work developing flavors like Cacao Nut and Apple Cinnamon.
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By late July 2013, Lewis and Sewitz were ready to launch a Kickstarter campaign. Within the first 72 hours, they hit their $20,000 goal; by the end of the month, they raised $55,000.
"The early press coverage that we landed during the campaign's first couple of days was key," explains Lewis. "It created a snowball effect."
"We were blown away by the support," adds Sewitz. "That's when we knew it was totally viable."
The chewy fruit and nut-packed bars sell for $36 a dozen and are popular with diehard CrossFitters and Paleo Diet followers.Photo: Zandy Mangold
But first they had to turn their vision into a real food product — "far harder than I imagined at the time," says Lewis.
Since crickets have an allergen that overlaps with shellfish, the co-CEOs struggled for months to find a suitable production facility before finally settling on a spot upstate. They also had to convince a handful of cricket ranches across the US (most are used for pet feed) to dedicate a special area of their farms to "human-grade" crickets, which would be fed with organic, non-GMO feed.
And then there was the challenge of marketing an insect-based food to the masses.
"We deliberately have no imagery of bugs anywhere near our packaging," notes Lewis.
In March, Exo completed its first large-scale production of 50,000 bars — half of which went to Kickstarter funders, half of which sold out online in a week.
Their early consumers? Mostly diehard CrossFitters and Paleo Diet followers, says Lewis — although the co-founders' ultimate goal is to convince the broader population that insect protein makes sense.
"I'm continually surprised by the fact that pretty much everyone is willing to try it," says Lewis of the chewy fruit and nut-packed bars, which sell for $36 a dozen.
"And if you can get someone to try it, you can get them to buy it because it tastes so good."
A trio of just-launched competitors has only helped to normalize the idea of insect consumption.
At a recent trade show, "We had more people than less who were already into the idea of eating crickets. It was a turning point," says Sewitz.
So far, the challenge has been keeping up with demand: Two subsequent production runs sold out this spring and summer. To date, the company has sold a couple hundred thousand bars through its website; they've also partnered with a handful of select local retailers, including FreshDirect, and the bars have been served as dessert at dinners hosted by the Clinton Global Foundation.
And although the duo cite endless small obstacles — including an early glitch in their warehouse's inventory tracking system — they don't have to worry about short-term funding.
In September, the pair announced they'd closed a $1.2 million seed round from investors, including Tim Ferriss, the "4 Hour Work Week" author and angel investor. Sewitz says they'll use the money to ramp up production of existing flavors, develop new ones and eventually hire more people to add to their four-person team.
In the meantime, they're both enjoying the ride — and the mission at hand.
"We're nudging consumers towards a more sustainable, more nutritious direction in their eating habits," says Lewis. "The more protein bars we sell, the more good we're doing."
Want to start your own business? Don't bug out — just follow this advice:
Don't be afraid to reach out to dream partners. The co-founders connected with both chef Kyle Connaughton and their current head of marketing, a former founding member of Groupon, by cold e-mailing them. "People are irrationally scared of doing something like that, when it's very easy to do," says Lewis.
Keep your focus narrow. Lewis says it's "tempting to do everything" — like developing a creative new way to package protein bars and rethinking what a cricket farm should look like — but the partners recognize the limits of their small start-up. "We stick to one thing, which is building a brand that can make insect protein mainstream," he says.
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