# Justin’s Nut Butter: Justin Gold. He Was Waiting Tables, Then...He Reinvented Peanut Butter. Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/justin-s-nut-butter-justin-gold-he-was-waiting-tables-then-he-reinvented-peanut-butter Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/justin-s-nut-butter-justin-gold-he-was-waiting-tables-then-he-reinvented-peanut-butter.md Podcast: [How I Built This with Guy Raz](https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258) Published: 2026-05-25T07:10:00+00:00 Episode link: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/b456c4b4-0243-4e46-9460-d0de7cf5d98b.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Audio file: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/b456c4b4-0243-4e46-9460-d0de7cf5d98b.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/episodes/justin-s-nut-butter-justin-gold-he-was-waiting-tables-then-he-reinvented-peanut-butter Duration seconds: 5242 ## Resource At 25, Justin Gold was making experimental peanut butter in his home kitchen with a food processor and a stack of recipe journals. His singular obsession: bring new life to a tired lunchtime staple. What started as late-night experiments with honey, cinnamon and banana eventually became Justin's — one of the most influential natural food brands of the last two decades. At first, Justin got rejected by most grocery stores he approached. He worked overnight in a shared industrial kitchen, hand-filling jars one at a time. He couldn’t get a distributor, so he stocked the shelves at the Boulder Whole Foods himself. And when growth stalled… he had an idea during a mountain bike ride that would transform the company: What if peanut butter came in a squeeze pack? In this episode, Justin explains how relentless experimentation and stubbornness helped him build a category-defining brand — and how, with each entrepreneurial milestone, an even more challenging one emerged. YOU’LL LEARN:    How Justin reverse-engineered flavored peanut butter in his apartment How launching in Boulder gave him a big advantage How he learned when to listen to feedback, and when to ignore it  The deal he made with Whole Foods: “I’ll stock the shelves myself.” How the squeeze pack transformed the business, and why it almost didn’t work  The power of naïve persistence in entrepreneurship Timestamps: 00:09:35 — The obsessive recipe experiments that became Justin’s edge 00:16:25 — Getting support from Boulder’s startup food community  00:21:28 — Raising $35,000– and shocking his family: “I wanna make peanut butter!”  00:42:51 — The farmers market feedback that changed the product line 00:46:56 — Justin talks his way into the first Whole Foods  00:51:47 — J… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/episodes/justin-s-nut-butter-justin-gold-he-was-waiting-tables-then-he-reinvented-peanut-butter/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/justin-s-nut-butter-justin-gold-he-was-waiting-tables-then-he-reinvented-peanut-butter.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.