Ground Up Turns Ten!

Ten years… how did that happen?! We’re so excited (and honored) to celebrate our TENTH year in business. 🎉

It’s wild to think back to sitting in Caro’s kitchen a decade ago, dreaming up nut butter flavors and sketching out a vision for a for-profit, social good business—one that would employ and empower women overcoming adversity. Taking that first step felt like a big leap of faith, and we’ve been carried forward ever since by the support of our customers, community, and team. You’ve truly shaped Ground Up into what it is today.

We’re so proud to share that we’ve now employed over 100 women through our program, and you can find our products in more than 1,300 stores nationwide (!!).

Thank you for being part of this journey—whether you’ve been with us since those early kitchen days or just discovered us recently. Every purchase, every share, every bit of support has helped make this possible. We believe we can create an even bigger impact in the years ahead, and we’re more energized than ever—but it takes a village. Thanks for being ours.

Now, come take a walk down memory lane with us—milestones from this past year and every year along the way. 💛

YEAR ONE:

March 16, 2016: We signed our business agreement and got our biz officially formed as an LLC! We celebrated with champagne in an empty church basement... at the time, we hadn't thought of the name Ground Up so we were working with "Caro's Nut Butters." Julie's mom gifted us with a nicer (but still small) food processor, and we started cranking out nut butter.

March 23, 2016: We officially "launched" Ground Up with a tasting at our friend's food cart. (Shout out to Grace Shimer for the name inspiration!) Over 50 people came (which blew us away) and we used feedback from blind taste tests to determine which flavors would be permanently in our lineup.

July 2016: We secured our first commissary kitchen space! Our hours were 8 pm - 2 am on Sunday nights, and we had to pack everything in and out... BUT we weren't making nut butter in small batches in our homes any more!! (Although, we were still tediously hand-jarring and hand-writing the flavor name on each jar!) We would pay friends in nut butter to come work with us on Sunday nights, helping us hand jar. We never could have made it if we didn’t have the support of our incredible community!

August 2016: We started selling at our first farmer's market (South Waterfront) and also through pop-ups at local businesses. We also got into our first store—Made Here PDX! Julie quit her job to pursue GU full-time, and we soon brought on our first intern through Outside In.

December 2016: Our nut butters received THE WARMEST WELCOME at Portland Night Market and Crafty Wonderland. We had so much fun getting to know the community (who solidified our belief that this could really become something)!! We also started to get more online orders (which we packed in the back of Julie's car outside of the office where Caro was employed at the time.)

YEAR TWO:

April 2017: Caro left her job in marketing to do Ground Up full-time. (Scary to have two of us on "payroll" when we hardly were making it, but it was the only way for the biz to grow!)

May 2017: We moved our kitchen production into a new home at the Redd—an incredible food hub for small food businesses. (We still had to pack in and pack out though, so Ground Up HQ was still officially in Julie’s garage!) We continued to employ interns through Outside In and Cupcake Girls.

July 2017: We got into Market of Choice, New Seasons, and Whole Foods in Oregon! This was a huge boost of confidence—and great for local customers to now be able to buy us at the grocery store (instead of picking up orders at our homes or at events). These accounts may have initially told us "no," but Julie was persistent and didn't give up!

November 2017: We scrambled to fill a flood of online orders after The Oregonian featured us in their gift guide... all from Julie’s cold garage.

YEAR THREE:

July 2018: Our first full pallet order shipped out of the Redd, on its way to Whole Foods in Washington—our first big out-of-state order! Meanwhile, our local orders were being delivered by tricycle through B-Line, a bike-powered delivery company that also operates out of the Redd.

August 2018: We landed our first cookbook deal! And Caro didn't leave her the kitchen for the next 6 months while frantically recipe testing, writing and photographing.

September 2018: We hired our first Production Manager, Adrienne...which meant we were one step closer to getting out of the kitchen so that we could focus on other areas of the business.

YEAR FOUR:

March 2019: Got a deal with Burgerville to start using our nut butter in their milkshakes! We were initially included in their Almond Butter Milkshake, which was seasonal, but later in 2019 they decided to include our Hazelnut Butter in their Chocolate Hazelnut Shake. This was a GAME CHANGER for us and gave our business the boost we needed to stay afloat. We added 2 additional production days each month for Burgerville alone.

April 2019: We partnered with Lyft on a limited-edition Cashew Chai flavor. They donated a ride to someone in need for every jar sold.

September 2019: We launched our cookbook Nut Butter!! What a labor of love... the two of us handled all of the recipe development and photography, with taste testing help from our team, friends and family. We celebrated with a launch party at Freeland Spirits.

October 2019: Erewhon Market picked us up—our first California account! And Fred Meyer took us on!

December 2019: The Today Show crew came to film Ground Up HQ! The segment went live in January and our team couldn't have been prouder.

YEAR FIVE:

January 2020: We won the Whole Foods Supplier of the Year Award and were invited to Austin for a ceremony.

March 2020: THE PANDEMIC HIT. We introduced face masks + new safety protocol to our operations, but somehow went without having to skip a single production day! We had a few supplier issues, one of which involved the two of us having to pick up 2 pallets worth of 12-oz jars on our own. But fortunately, nut butter sales actually increased when covid-19 first hit (shelf-stable baby) and we felt extremely lucky to still be in business.

October 2020: We FINALLY got our own production space! When we started GU, we dreamed of having our own space—one that could provide a safer space for women and feel like a second home. After over a year of looking (and with the help of our amazing broker Theresa), we found our dream space (hilariously only a block away from our old one) with a commercial kitchen, warehouse and office space. It was a dream come true. And we got forklift certified!

October 2020: We launched Squeeze Packs! This had been a dream of Julie's for a long time—to fuel our customers on their active adventures and not have to haul the glass jars on-the-go!

December 2020: We packed a RECORD number of orders, with online sales quadrupling from the previous year. We also had our new branded (and eco-friendly) packaging that made packing orders much easier.

March 2021: We hired our first Employee Support Manager! It was a dream when we started GU to be able to afford a full-time resource that could support our team of women overcoming adversity. This role manages hiring, non-profit partnerships, job support, career growth, and more. It feels incredible to finally have this in-house support to our team (which is now up to 18 women!).

YEAR SIX:

April 2021: We got Non-GMO Verified! Learn more about that in our blog post.

July 2021: We placed SECOND in the UPS Small Business Challenge! This landed us a feature in Inc. Magazine as well as a $20,000 grant, and a video that they filmed at GU!

August 2021: We launched into our second region with Whole Foods Market: Northern California! This was huge for us; not only was it years in the making, but it allows us to reach consumers in a new region, increase accessibility for our product, and increase production hours for our job training program.

September 2021: We were named one of the fastest-growing companies by the Portland Business Journal! (#9, in fact)

Fall 2021: We painted Ground Up HQ! Kudos to Kes who applied her artistic skills to this project. We're obsessed!

October 2021: We brought squeeze pack production in-house! (We worked with a co-packer to initially launch squeeze packs in 2020, since we wanted to see how they would sell before purchasing the machinery.) It turns out buying the machine was the easy part; figuring out how to successfuly run it was a whole different challenge! Our ops team spent countless hours tinkering until finally they got it—and we are so proud to say we're now whipping out Snickerdoodle packets like it's no big deal! For a small team like ours, this was a HUGE feat!

November 2021: We launched a flavor collaboration with the one and only Molly Yeh! Our Marzipan with Sprinkles flavor was our most popular to date... and stay tuned, it just might come back again soon!

YEAR SEVEN:

April 2022: We made the Portland Business Journal's list of fastest-growing businesses (and came in at #20)!

April/May 2022: We changed our staffing model to allow select graduates of our training program to stay on as Production Associates in permanent roles at Ground Up—which helps to balance out the constant transition of our 6-9 month program, and gives greater opportunity for mentorship and leadership training.

May 2022: We bought a second mixing machine (thanks to the help of New Seasons' Partner Fund Loan Program) & increased our daily capacity by 50%.

June 2022: We ran our first Customer Flavor Contest and were blown away by the incredible submissions! We selected 3 winning flavors—2 of which already launched (Strawberry Cheesecake & Sweet Cinnamon Churro) and one more launching next month (Dark Cocoa Cookie)!

July 2022: Julie participated in the REDF accelerator program, which was a great opportunity to connect, collaborate and gain resources through a network of other Employment Social Enterprises from across the country!

September 2022: We hired our Operations Director, Wendy, who keep everything behind-the-scenes at Ground Up running smoothly!

December 2022: We were featured on the Today Show—and got a huge spike in sales!

YEAR EIGHT:

March 2023: Burgerville Waffle Cone Milkshake was a hit again! We are so grateful for our partnership with Burgerville! Stay tuned for a holiday milkshake release in 2024!

May 2023: We made our debut at Target! We launched squeeze packs and custom 10-oz jars for Target in 300+ stores, making our total store footprint increase by 30% and bringing Ground Up to stores near more customers. Check here to find us in a Target near you!  

August 2023: We hosted the Whole Foods CEO & his team for a visit at our HQ in PDX! We took them through the process of creating our nut butters and gave them a chance to make their own through a workshop led by co-founder Carolyn, flavor master!

September 2023: Launched a flavor with Antoni (from Queer Eye!)!! Arguably one of the team’s biggest moments this year was working with Antoni to make his dream nut butter: Caramel Apple. We hope you enjoyed!

Oct 2023: Employee Growth! We hired a new job coach, promoted 4 women from within, and even created a new role: kitchen lead!

Dec 2023: Our holiday party is always a great time to come together as a family and celebrate everyone’s hard work and accomplishments for the year! This year we gifted our team branded beanies and a custom Ground Up affirmation Journal, inspired by Judy!

YEAR NINE:

January 2024: We formed an advisory board with trusted mentors in the community to support and guide us as we grow. We were also selected to be a part of REDF's Growth Portfolio, which will provide tremendous resources and support as we scale.

April 2024: We launched our first chocolate/nut butter treat: Snickerdoodle Date Bites with Date Better!

March & July 2024: The Ground Up family is growing! Co-founders Caro & Julie welcomed their first babies, just 4 months apart!

August 2024: We were selected to take over New Seasons' private label nut butter business—we're now making their almond butters and cashew butters in-house!

September 2024: It was a big year for employee growth and building out our operations team! We hired a Warehouse Manager and a Production/Operations Manager to lead our organization as we scale. We also hired a Job Coach to provide one-on-one support to increase our graduation rate and improve future job retention. And, we elevated 6 current employees to supervisory and specialist positions to share in more responsibility in the operations of Ground Up.

November 2024: We had some huge collaboration partners this year, including Gaby Dalkin and Olivia Adriance, whose Molasses Cookie and Pumpkin Pie flavors, respectively, were some of our top-selling seasonal flavors!

March 2025: We launched nationwide in SPROUTS!! (Our first national account!)

YEAR TEN:

April 2025: After over a year of dreaming and refining, we unveiled our rebrand! Shout out to flock for the beautiful packaging work and to Plated Productions for bringing it to life...it's been so fun to have our whole team involved in the photography!

Spring 2025: Launched our dream Nut Butter Cups, in collaboration with Ranger Chocolate!

May 2025: Launched one of our most popular flavors to date — Salted Maple — a collab with the one & only Caro Chambers!!

June 2025: Expanded into 2 new Whole Foods regions: Rocky Mountain and Southern California!

July 2025: Our production process got a MAJOR upgrade with the addition of automatic labeling and date coding machines—which improves our efficiency and provides higher skilled job training for participants.

August 2025: Co-founder Julie was named in Portland Business Journal's 40 Under 40!

February 2026: We added a new addition to our core flavor lineup — Maple Cookie!! Available exclusively at Sprouts for the first couple of months, you'll see it up on our website very soon. 👀