A Stellar Startup
R&D Chefs Chrissy Camba and Emily Knapp discuss the ins and outs of starting a granola company—from product development challenges to plans for scaling up.
Both R&D chefs at Tovala, Emily Knapp (left) and Chrissy Camba launched Stellar Granola in 2020. Photo courtesy of Stellar Granola
Chrissy Camba and Emily Knapp met at Chicago-based Tovala, maker of the Smart Oven and chef-crafted meals, where Camba is lead R&D chef and Knapp is senior R&D chef. They immediately clicked and knew they wanted to start a business together but weren’t sure what it should be. They batted around ideas until, during the pandemic, Camba was playing around with making granola in the Smart Oven.
Knapp quickly noted that there weren’t a lot of allergen-free granolas available, so with the supp…
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