Justin’s Nut Butter: Justin Gold. He Was Waiting Tables, Then...He Reinvented Peanut Butter.

Justin’s Nut Butter: Justin Gold. He Was Waiting Tables, Then...He Reinvented Peanut Butter.

From How I Built This with Guy Raz by Guy Raz | Wondery

May 25, 2026 · 1h 27m · Episode 838

About this episode

Justin Gold shares his journey of reinventing peanut butter and building a successful brand through experimentation and persistence.

At 25, Justin Gold was making experimental peanut butter in his home kitchen with a food processor and a stack of recipe journals. His singular obsession: bring new life to a tired lunchtime staple. What started as late-night experiments with honey, cinnamon and banana eventually became Justin's — one of the most influential natural food brands of the last two decades. At first, Justin got rejected by most grocery stores he approached. He worked overnight in a shared industrial kitchen, hand-filling jars one at a time. He couldn’t get a distributor, so he stocked the shelves at the Boulder Whole Foods himself. And when growth stalled… he had an idea during a mountain bike ride that would transform the company: What if peanut butter came in a squeeze pack? In this episode, Justin explains how relentless experimentation and stubbornness helped him build a category-defining brand — and how, with each entrepreneurial milestone, an even more challenging one emerged. YOU’LL LEARN:    How Justin reverse-engineered flavored peanut butter in his apartment How launching in Boulder gave him a big advantage How he learned when to listen to feedback, and when to ignore it  The…

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