Mid Day Squares has hit the ground running since their launch in 2018. Harnessing the power of authentic story telling their brand has caught fire. A mixture of humor, authenticity and a delicious healthy product they racked up an impressive following on social media. I had the opportunity to sit down with Jake Karls, the brands co-founder and someone who’s been able to capture the hearts of fellow entrepreneurs on social media to hear how they’ve built this impressive brand. Take a listen!
Jay: Tell me a little bit about when you started the brand and what made you decide to start Mid-Day Squares?
Jake: We felt that no one had created an afternoon snack that was an indulgence but also functional. So we decided to create Mid-Day Squares: The first functional chocolate bar. Imagine a chocolate bar & protein bar having a baby but getting rid of all the junk in protein bars. The goal was really to create the perfect afternoon snack, one that kept you full for a couple hours, gave you natural energy, tasted delicious and made with real foods. We just wanted to make people’s afternoons better.
Jake: I think our biggest challenge was scaling our manufacturing. We went to see 26 co-packers (3rd party manufacturers) across North America and not one of them was able to make our product. That forced us to figure out how to make these bars at scale in our own factory. We went out and took the risk and built a fully automated plant here in Montreal. The plant can support 50–60 million dollars in revenue per year.
Jay: You’ve been amazingly successful on social media, particularly LinkedIn. What do you attribute that to?
Jake: Social media is simple: Create great content and people will keep coming. Humans crave good storytelling & relatability. For me, success on social comes down to being authentic, showing everyone the good, the bad & the ugly of building a business. This type of transparency creates strong relatability.
Jay: If you could give yourself one piece of advice you wish you knew at the beginning, what would that be?
Jake: The best piece of advice I can give is: Make sure to block out the noise. Also, always be unapologetically yourself and be proud of that.
