Episode 6 – Paving the Way Forward

In this Episode

After spending countless hours working at an organic restaurant, shopping at farmers markets and cooking at home, Kristy Lewis longed for this same deeper connection with natural ingredients in packaged snacks — specifically microwave popcorn. One of her favorite snacks, Lewis always cooked popcorn on the stove with parmesan, rosemary, maple syrup and sea salt. Even though she enjoyed cooking it, she wanted the convenience of popping it in the microwave. Lewis sat on this dream for eight years, waiting for a big CPG company to create a better-for-you option. When she was on maternity leave for her first child Quinn, she began experimenting until she created her beloved company by the same name — Quinn Snacks. With her “first to market” mindset, Lewis reinvented microwaveable popcorn using simple ingredients and paper packaging, all while raising three children. In this episode, Lewis opens up on innovating “farm to bag” snacks, finding her authentic self after spending eight years presenting as the tough, fearless CEO she came to resent, and putting her family first after following the advice: “it will work or it won’t work, but you need your family in either situation”.

SNAC Cast episode 6

kristy lewis, founder & CeO, quinn snacks

“You have to have passion to start a company – I mean to really do anything in life. Because you will hit rock bottom again and again, you will get a door slammed in your face, you will be told “no”, and “it’s not possible.” I think if you have the passion, you’ll just get there. If you don’t have the passion, you can’t pick yourself when you fail, you can’t learn from your mistakes, you can’t adapt, you can’t have that drive to keep going. I’m a big believer that if you can see where you want to go, then you can get there. It’s just that you have the power to believe that you can.”

Kristi Lewis
 

About the Speaker

Kristy Lewis is the Founder/CEO of Quinn Foods LLC, based in Louisville, CO. Kristy, mom of three little boys, and wife of Coulter Lewis, Founder/CEO of Sunday, launched Quinn Foods with no prior food industry experience just three days after her first son, Quinn, was born. She succeeded in her mission to clean up microwave popcorn by inventing a patented Pure Pop® microwave popcorn bag, the first bag without chemical or plastic coatings, such as PFOAs and PFCs. Kristy continued her mission of making better-for-you classic snacks (never compromising on flavor) by launching a line of gluten-free and grain-free pretzels. Since the beginning, Kristy has been a pioneer in ingredient transparency and is pushing for sustainable agriculture in the food industry. Quinn’s ‘Farm-to-Bag’ Policy connects consumers directly to the source where the ingredients come from and their ‘Be Better. Do Better.’ mission takes these ‘Farm-to-Bag’ relationships a step further by encouraging their growers to improve agricultural practices that will not only benefit them, but also the planet.

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