Tara Bosch of SmartSweets: Five Things I Learned As A Twenty-Something Founder
An Interview With Doug Noll
Be Prepared to Step into The Unknown. Looking back to when I first started, I’d say having confidence in yourself and your idea really is everything. You will never know it all — I can’t tell you how many ideas I had, but lacked the confidence to start them for fear of what I didn’t know. Be confident enough to step into the unknown and know that as long as you continue taking a step forward every single day, the universe will guide you to where you are meant to go.
As a part of our series called “My Life as a Twenty-Something Founder”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tara Bosch.
Tara Bosch is on a mission to help people #KickSugar and #KeepCandy with her innovative candy brand, SmartSweets. Inspired by conversations with her grandma surrounding their love of candy, but not their love for the high sugar content, Tara dropped out of college and launched SmartSweets in August 2016. To date, SmartSweets has kicked over 5.8 billion grams of excessive sugar out of traditional candy, developing 11 delicious candy flavors you know and love with less sugar.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”?
Thank you so much for having me! My name is Tara Bosch. I live in Vancouver BC, and I am the Founder of SmartSweets. I’ve always had a love affair with candy. Some of my fondest memories are when my grandma and I would get together and bond over a bag of our favorite candy. A conversation with my grandma where she shared she regretted having so much sugar over the years- especially from candy- was the catalyst that had me asking: Why can’t you feel good about candy? I bought a gummy bear mold from Amazon and after months of recipe testing in my kitchen, I innovated the first delicious candy — without all the sugar — and the global vision to revolutionize candy was born. At age 21, I followed my intuition and dropped out of college to go all-in on bringing SmartSweets to life. I didn’t want to wonder “What If?” for the rest of my life, and I’m so glad I made the jump. Today, SmartSweets has kicked over 5.8 BILLION grams of sugar out of traditional candy since our launch and can be found in over 150,000 stores while cementing our status of being the global leader in revolutionizing candy.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your company? What lessons or takeaways did you take out of that story?
Having a sense of humor while building a company is hugely important- it can be so hard that if you don’t look at things through that lens, it would really take a toll on you. Every single day hilarious things would happen. One memory that stands out is when our very first squad member and I launched a “We Sh** You Not” campaign (complete with poop emojis) to highlight that SmartSweets are free from sugar alcohols. The reception from retailers was amazing and worth the risk, but looking back I can’t believe they agreed to put those marketing materials on shelves!
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I think it is a combination of our commitment to relentlessly researching, testing and choosing the most advanced and innovative ingredients for our products, as well as our ability to connect so deeply with our consumers — aka our Friends. Since the early days of recipe testing in my kitchen at home, we’ve always been dedicated to what we call our pinky promise: delicious candy you know and love with no artificial sweeteners, added sugar or sugar alcohols.
We’ve had such a strong connection with our SmartSweets community since day one. We want every Friend to know how much we appreciate their love and support. We take extra time to engage with our community, respond to their posts, and congratulate them on big life moments — they are the reason why the mission to Kick Sugar, Keep Candy exists and continues to grow. This has allowed us to expand our fan base and have a really engaged audience that tells us what they want to see from SmartSweets, where they’re shopping for our product, and more. It’s really invaluable and has allowed us to grow to over 750K across our social platforms.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I like to think that everyone you encounter has golden nuggets of knowledge that you can take and apply to your own journey- filtering out what doesn’t resonate and applying what does. I also proudly think that NOT being the smartest person in the room is hugely important- surrounding yourself with people whose strengths compliment your weaknesses is crucial for success. I was fortunate to meet two people early on who became fundamental in helping us execute on our rapid growth- they helped me grow as a human and leader and always had the ability to see around the bend so we could set ourselves up for the next stage of growth.
Are you working on any exciting projects now?
On the SmartSweets side, we most recently launched our first-ever non-fruity innovation, Caramels, as well as SmartSweets Jolly GemsTM (joining Lollipops in our hard candy category!). Currently, we continue to explore new categories and innovations we think the world would love. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on kicking sugar out of next!
Personally, I recently launched Bold Beginnings, which is a $25,000 accelerator-impact initiative to empower young women under 30 across North America to know that they are infinitely capable. I understand the challenges that female entrepreneurs face — feelings of self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and questioning their capabilities. My goal is that Bold Beginnings helps to normalize those feelings. Our mission is to allow women to tap into their limitless potential, receive unwavering support, and gain the knowledge necessary to support them in turning their visions into reality. Bold Beginnings is more than just a grant; it’s a transformative accelerator that normalizes the fears and insecurities commonly felt by women entrepreneurs. It’s a celebration of the courage it takes to forge ahead, even in the face of uncertainty. When I think of my younger self — the girl relentlessly recipe testing in her kitchen — I wish this had existed, so I’m very excited to now be creating this impact for others.
I’m a mom to the most incredible little human, Willa Johanna, who recently turned 2. All that she is and how engaged she is with the world inspires me every day, and it’s a special full-circle moment to now see her enjoying SmartSweets.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
One of the best parts of having success in life is to be able to use it for the greater good. No matter how hard one works, the universe — something greater than yourself — supported you to get where you are, and it’s a huge privilege and responsibility to be a good steward of your success to create positive impact in the world. Bold Beginnings is one impact initiative I am really passionate about building to empower the next generation of young women entrepreneurs, and one of the coolest things about SmartSweets is the impact that we create through every bag sold. With the average American consuming about 17 teaspoons of sugar per day — which is 3x more than the recommended amount (source: American Heart Association) -it is critically important that we find ways for people to enjoy the foods they love while reducing the sugar content. When people choose SmartSweets, we help them do just that! To date, we have helped people kick over 5.8 billion grams of sugar. Impact to me is also how you show up for others in your day-to-day life through the small moments — smiling at a stranger, offering a helping hand, serving others every day with an open and kind heart.
Do you have a favorite book that made a deep impact on your life? Can you share a story?
‘How to Get Rich’ by Felix Denis changed my life. The title is super cheesy and makes me cringe (sorry Felix!) but the content was life changing. To this day, I still have framed pages that I ripped out from the book. It talks about the essence of grit and determination, and how if you have those, you will absolutely get to where you are meant to go. A quote in particular that has stuck with me since the moment I read it is: “Stick with me young brother and sister, for you are suffering from nothing more than lack of experience and confusion- two conditions that will pass with time, and who’s passing can be expedited by fierce determination and application”.
Can you share 5 of the most difficult and most rewarding parts of being a “Twenty-Something founder”. Please share an example or story for each.
1 . You’re Going To Feel Lost (and that’s a good thing). When I was in college, I had a hard time finding myself interested in anything I was studying. I actually ended up having a different startup that failed before I came up with the idea for SmartSweets. I’ve learned that failure is just stepping stones to success and where you are meant to go. Figuring out what isn’t going to work for you in life is just as useful as feeling like you’re heading in the right direction. The idea of being “lost” is just part of life and the process of creating. You might feel like at a certain point of success, you’ll have everything figured out, but that just isn’t the reality. You just have to continue pushing forward.
2 . Funding can look how you want it to. At such a young age, it was really hard to gather enough funds to start the manufacturing process. I ended up being able to secure a $105K debt financing loan and did a convertible loan once I initially launched, but then relied on debt financing to scale the business. This allowed me to keep the equity I would have had to give away through equity financing to: 1. maintain majority control of the business, 2. give meaningful equity to every single early day employee, and 3. give equity to advisors whose support for our growth was crucial. There can be a lot of pressure to feel like you have to raise early on and that it’s a magic bullet to success. In reality, there are many different paths to funding your company’s growth, and being crystal clear on the ‘why’ behind the route you choose is so important.
3 . Prepare To Put in The Work. I did not have the life of a typical twenty-year-old. I was working around the clock and I rarely gave myself a weekend off, or even holidays. I felt so lucky to have the opportunity to bring our vision to life — even so, it was still hard to feel like I was missing out on my college years spent with family and friends. At the end of the day, this was an active choice I made for myself and I am so glad I put in all of the hard work I did because it allowed us to expedite the pace at which we grew. There is no right or wrong intensity at which to grow a company, but for me, having patient urgency (running like hell every single day and having the desire to wake up and do it all over again each morning) really paid off in actualizing SmartSweets being the leader in revolutionizing candy and the global sugar reduction movement.
4 . There Are ALWAYS More Lessons to Learn. To be successful, you need to be able to keep progressing. You can’t have the mindset that you have everything figured out. The more you learn, the more you realize that no one has everything figured out! Be open to making mistakes and owning up to them when you do. Ask questions, and be obsessed with learning and improving yourself!
5 . Be Prepared to Step into The Unknown. Looking back to when I first started, I’d say having confidence in yourself and your idea really is everything. You will never know it all — I can’t tell you how many ideas I had, but lacked the confidence to start them for fear of what I didn’t know. Be confident enough to step into the unknown and know that as long as you continue taking a step forward every single day, the universe will guide you to where you are meant to go.
What are the main takeaways that you would advise a twenty-year-old who is looking to found a business?
- You are divinely blessed and infinitely capable.
- Your talents, abilities and way you think are unique to you and are exactly what is needed to bring your idea to life.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)
Jane Goodall has always been a huge inspiration to me. The way she committed herself so passionately and relentlessly to her life’s work and the positive impact it has (and continues to) create is extraordinarily inspiring.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
They can follow me on Instagram (@tarabosch) and TikTok(@tara.bosch)!
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
