PeaceWorks hits the big time: Starbucks

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I just learned that PeaceWorks, the amazing not only for profit founded by entrepreneur Daniel Lubetzky, just started selling its KIND fruit bars in Starbucks. For any small company to get a product in a big box retailer or major chain is a big deal. It’s even a bigger one for a scrappy social enterprise.

How did he do it? Persistence and networking seem to be what did the trick.

For those who don’t know, Lubetzky founded PeaceWorks in 1994 with what you might call a fairly ambitious goal:  addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a social enterprise. The first venture sells  Meditalia tapenades, with olives grown in Palestine, tomatoes from Turkey and the final product made in Israel. In 2002, he started PeaceWorks Foundation, targeting  moderate Palestinians and Israelis working towards a two-state solution. Two years later, the not only for profit started selling KIND bars, giving 5% of profits to the foundation.

The  Starbucks breakthrough didn’t happen overnight. According to a story in the New York Times, Lubetzky kept at it for years, thinking his product was a good match for Starbucks’ corporate philosphy. Then, in 2008, he learned that Starbucks was revising its strategy, looking for healthier food. He emailed an executive he’d already contacted. That person wasn’t with the company anymore, but she sent him over to another former executive, who helped Lubetzky talk to Starbucks’s vice president of global merchandise.  And she thought KIND bars fit quite nicely with the company’s new strategy. (Whew).

This  ingenuity and never-give-up attitude is a necessity for all small businesses trying to break into a major retailer. Lubetzky not only kept his ear to the ground for years, looking for the right opportunity, but he also networked like crazy.  While his product works  nicely with Starbucks’ new food strategy, he might not have hit a home run if he hadn’t already kept in constant touch with contacts at the company.

So, it’s a case study for any entrepreneur looking to crack open the big guys.