A founder story template for food and beverage brands
Case Study, Marketing Copywriting

The template every food and beverage founder must use to turn their founder’s story into a sales letter that converts.

A sales letter is a substitute for a live salesperson. Instead of a person speaking to your audience about your product, your words do the job, with no face visible.

It’s one of the ways you execute your marketing strategy. Its essence is to make your audience see what you’re communicating, to create a mental picture. Its goal is to persuade your target audience to take a specific action: buy.

A good sales letter has a headline, a hook, a body, and a clear call to action. It must also show:

  1. 1Why you’re different from other brands meeting the same need
  2. 2Who your product is for
  3. 3The pain or problem you’re solving
  4. 4How you discovered that pain, and when it became unbearable (the agitation)
  5. 5Your solution

The birth of a founder’s story

A founder’s story is a story woven into sales driving copy. Often, a frustrating or scarcity filled moment births a brilliant business idea. A founder lives through a specific situation, then builds a solution for others going through it. Sometimes they simply realize they can do it better than everyone already doing it. That’s RXBAR.

The founding story of RXBAR

RXBAR began in 2013 in a kitchen, started by two best friends, Peter Rahal and Jared Smith, who reached a point of “We’ve got to stop complaining and just do this.”

It’s a protein bar, but here’s where it differs. RXBAR and its competitors meet the same core need. RXBAR’s difference was “just a simple bar”: ingredients printed clearly on the front of the pack, ones you can actually read and pronounce. In a category where most labels read like a chemistry exam, that was radical. For example:

RXBAR Blueberry bar with its ingredients: 3 egg whites, 6 almonds, 4 cashews, 2 dates

The Blueberry bar

  • 3 Egg Whites
  • 6 Almonds
  • 4 Cashews
  • 2 Dates
Blueberry12 G. Protein
RXBAR Chocolate Sea Salt bar with its ingredients on the front

The Chocolate Sea Salt bar

  • 3 Egg Whites
  • 6 Almonds
  • 5 Cashews
  • 2 Dates
Chocolate Sea Salt12 G. Protein

Build your customer avatar first

Before you write a founder’s story sales letter, you need a customer avatar: one person standing in for your whole audience.

I used nine of Dan S. Kennedy’s 10 Smart Market Diagnosis and Profiling Questions, plus one of my own. (I skipped his question on trends, but it’s worth asking for your own market.)

Meet Flora, RXBAR’s ideal customer.

Who is she? (my added question)

A workout class regular and a parent who wants a healthy snack she can trust, for herself and for her kid.

What keeps her up at night?

Worrying she’s failing at both: her own health and her child’s. She reads labels at midnight and still doesn’t trust what she’s eating.

What is she afraid of?

Losing her shape. Feeling guilty. Eating something she didn’t mean to.

What is she angry about, and at whom?

She’s angry at brands that bury junk behind “healthy” packaging, and tired of being the only “health conscious one” who has to decode every label.

What are her top three frustrations?
  • No time to prepare a proper snack
  • Her kids keep asking for sugar
  • She can’t find one snack that works for both her and her kids
What does she secretly, ardently desire?

To feel in control and guilt free, the effortless “healthy one” who doesn’t have to think twice. Snacking on the go without fear of weight gain is just the surface layer.

Is there a built in bias in how she decides?

Yes: the shorter the ingredient list, the healthier and higher quality the product must be. Anything that removes anxiety wins.

Does she have her own language?

Yes. “Clean.” “Can’t pronounce it.” “Macros.” “No junk.” “Just real food.”

Who else is selling to her?

Not just other bars (Insert your competitors), but anything competing for the same snack money: nuts, fruit, protein shakes, kids’ snacks.

Who else has tried, and how did they fail?

Plenty of brands. Most led with vague health claims instead of clarity, and she’d stopped believing them.

The founder story sales letter template

1
Headline

Show the before and after.

The problem before, and what you solved.

“Nobody sees what they’re eating while they eat it.”
“We got tired of loaded ingredients, so we made just a simple bar.”
2
Hook

Show the problem.

RXBAR starts with frustration at ingredients no one could pronounce. Who would have thought a random kitchen conversation would change two friends’ lives?

The guilt of buying a bar full of ingredients you can’t pronounce is nothing compared to the anger of standing on the scale the next day. That small voice already whispering: why did I eat that?

3
The Gap

State the problem that existed before your brand.

Name the gap you personally experienced as a founder. This builds relatability: it tells your audience you know exactly what they’re feeling.

4
The Turn

Show what you did about it.

“We started making it in our kitchen.”
5
The Proof

Show why you’re credible enough to solve it.

Share your relevant background, cultural connection, or personal stake. It should sit close enough to your audience’s experience to be believable.

6
The Objection Bridge

Answer the hesitation.

Is this actually healthier, or just another loaded bar dressed up as simple? Tie your answer to your ingredients: why you eat it yourself, and why it might cost more than the alternatives.

7
The Call to Action

Where your audience responds.

“Join the Just Simple Bar movement.”
“Click here to add to cart.”

A founder’s story isn’t just a story. It’s you taking your audience on a journey.

I also work with food and beverage founders and consumer brands on founder stories, sales letters, product copy, and omnichannel content strategy, including the customer research and messaging behind them.

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