She spent six years evaluating CPG founders from the other side of the table, sitting in boardrooms at TRUFF and Erewhon-backing growth firms while secretly thinking she would never be the one to jump. And then she ate one too many chocolate flavored protein bars at midnight in a finance office and finally said enough.

Ash Baxter is the founder of Takeaways, a savory puffed protein snack bar that she spent two and a half years developing, launched for pre-order on June 10th, started shipping June 24th, and has already sold 45,000 bars in its first month. She is a former investor at Stripes and Sky Partners, a Stanford D1 rower who had to make weight as a coxswain and learned the protein to calorie ratio at age 13 from her mom’s nutrition plan, and the person who genuinely cannot carry on without a tin of Maldon salt in her bag.

The concept behind Takeaways is elegant: Cheese is the savory chocolate. The flavors are indulgent, the macros are table stakes, and the brand is built around joy rather than nutrition—12 grams of protein, 120 calories, three grams of fiber, and characters called Slice Slice Baby, You Cheddar Believe It, and Pepper Jacked who all live in Takeaways Town.

In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Ash for a genuinely fun and insightful conversation about what it looks like when a CPG investor becomes a CPG founder, including the concept study that showed 85% of protein bar consumers would buy Takeaways, the food scientist who told her “cheese is the savory chocolate,” her fiancé’s mom who turned out to be the real product development genius, and the private equity firm in Chicago that has placed three orders in one month without knowing they are Takeaways’ best customer so far.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up in San Francisco in a food and wine obsessed family whose road trips were planned entirely around eating
• A first job bio that listed an Acme sourdough baguette and an oaky chardonnay as favorite foods
• Becoming a coxswain at age 12 for Marin Rowing after a chance encounter with her sister’s boyfriend
• Learning the protein to calorie ratio at age 13 from her mom’s nutrition plan and carrying that philosophy ever since
• The protein bar addiction that started at boarding school in New Hampshire when she lost her “nutritionist” mom
• Stanford, D1 rowing, and a Stanford Women in Business club that introduced her to Stripes
• Six years as a CPG investor at Stripes and Sky Partners: fashion, beauty, food, and beverage
• Being on the board of TRUFF and learning the most important lesson in CPG: amazing product first, always
• How TRUFF’s founders built an Instagram following before they built a product
• Meeting mentor Mark Ramadan, founder of Sir Kensington’s and former CEO of Hu Chocolate, through the TRUFF board
• Working crazy finance hours and eating five chocolate protein bars a day until she could not take it anymore
• The aha moment: TRUFF in cottage cheese was getting out of hand so she started tinkering in the kitchen
• Her fiancé’s mother, an incredible chef and baker, iterating on recipes from Washington state while Ash was in Boston
• Why she brought in food scientist Barb Stuckey and gave her life savings to the food science team
• The moment Barb told her “cheese is the savory chocolate” and everything clicked
• A concept study showing 85% of protein bar consumers would buy Takeaways and 70% would not change their sweet bar behavior
• Why Takeaways says “puffed snack bar” not “protein bar” on the packaging
• Launching nut-free and why that matters for schools, offices, and families
• Characters: Slice Slice Baby, You Cheddar Believe It, and Pepper Jacked, all residents of Takeaways Town
• 45,000 bars sold in the first month, number one in bars and jerky at Pop Up Grocer since July 10th
• Going into Foxtrot locations and Oakville Grocery in the Bay Area
• A private equity firm in Chicago placing three orders in one month as their best customer
• Investors: BFG (Boulder Food Group) and Rocana Venture Partners
• First hire Mackenzie Lukas, formerly of Hormble, joining as a game changer
• Why she raised before going to market: To debate the thesis rather than prove the numbers
• Advice for founders: Be obsessed with your own product and be your biggest evangelist

Find Ash and Takeaways:

• Website: eattakeaways.com
• Instagram, TikTok, and social: @eattakeaways
• Available to purchase online and at select retailers including Pop Up Grocer and Foxtrot

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