May 2013
| Business World Magazine | 61
simmering all manner of materials in the va-
riety of pots and actually squeezing the fish
oil out of gel-caps to add to the mix. His wife
Laurel lovingly observed him throughout
the process and, as a guinea pig, provided
honest feedback. “When she tasted my first
batch, she said it was so awful she had to spit
it out,” laughs Ross.
It took a little time and a lot of experimen-
tation, but Ross finally worked out a recipe
to produce the first bar which was a mint
chocolate flavor. He would often gnosh on
his baked goods at work, which ultimately
led to colleagues asking to try it out, and re-
peatedly asking him for more and more. He
soon had so many requesting for more that
his home kitchen couldn’t keep-up with the
demand.
As the seeds of a business idea began to
blossom, Ross decided to rent a commercial
kitchen and on the weekends, he along with
his parents, his wife and her family, would
all gather together to bake and package the
products, by hand. Ross admits that he knew
little about distributions centers, company
development or business planning, the ob-
jective was simply produce as much as he
could supply. Initially, he gave much more
away than he sold. In fact, upon going main
stream into operation, for the first few years,
Ross never garnered a profit, but made sure
the people he employed were being paid. “I
worked because I enjoyed it and wasn’t really
worried that I wasn’t making money. I was
focused on getting everything to taste good
and last on the shelf, and what I needed to
do grow the company... and creating the
company was my way of going through busi-
ness school,” says Ross.
For entrepreneurs, Ross offers good ad-
vice in how important it is to grow “a good
core group of customers” prior to growing a
business. “You have to get people to try your
product, and like it,” says Ross. All of Trev-
or’s companies has bounded well beyond its
inception and its products can now be found
in stores throughout the country. Prior to all
that, Ross says his company prospered from
being in Austin, Texas, where he says people
are especially supportive and loyal to home-
grown enterprises. Among those local opera-
tions is Whole Foods which was among the
first retailers to carry Boundless Nutrition’s
OATMEGABAR.
Boundless Nutrition, LIVE Soda Kom-
bucha and Undercover Veggies has grown
