07 Mar March 7, 2016 – Mom Made Foods Heather Stouffer & Chris “SparkGuy” Downie
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Heather Stouffer – Founder of Mom Made Foods
In May 2006, Heather Stouffer founded Mom Made Foods, organic foods for children. She launched at a local farmers market and now their products are nationally distributed in natural and mass market grocery chains and independent stores, and is celebrating the company’s 10th birthday. “It has been the journey of a lifetime,” she says, combining her business management skills with her passion for children’s nutrition. Making dinner has always been a family event in Heather’s house. Her mother introduced her brother and her to healthy, well-balanced meals. They learned to cook from a young age, and most nights they sat down together to eat. It’s a challenge to prepare family dinners from scratch. Sometimes it just isn’t possible. As a mom of two, Heather started Mom Made Foods because she deeply believes that eating well should be easy. Mom Made Foods is inspired by those freshly prepared, familiar recipes that kids and parents love. They are the foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating, and they should still be convenient without sacrificing quality or nutrition. She won one of 25 Women Business Leaders awarded by the Washington Business Journal for 2014.
Chris “SparkGuy” Downie – Founder & CEO of SparkPeople
As a kid Chris Downie had social anxiety and overcame that by building a personal improvement program. The breakthrough came when he combined areas of life that help your body (like fitness and nutrition) with areas that helped your mind (like goal setting, leadership, and behavioral psychology). Chris wanted to bring together everything that would help someone be a great person and reach goals. A co-worker at Procter & Gamble used the same program. She lost 50 pounds and told him that he changed her life. She then motivated another group to get healthy. Chris realized that “Your daily actions and words impact more people than you realize” — and knew this would be a company that helps people someday. This program gave him so much passion and energy that his friend and he started an online auction company named Up4Sale.com. Up4Sale grew into the second-largest person-to-person auction site behind eBay (far behind eBay, but 2nd place can be a good thing). eBay acquired the company (their first acquisition) for about $100 million in 1998 just prior to their IPO. That gave him the seed funding to start SparkPeople. SparkPeople’s mission is to “spark” millions of people to reach their goals — using health and fitness as a springborad to reach goals in all areas of life. They have an amazing team of people who have worked together for many years. Chris recently published a “Mini-Book” that shows the exact program he used to reach his goals (about a 30-minute read). You can download it at: http://sparkpeople.com/10