When the Antithesis team meets to talk about their business, they usually arrive hungry, because they know there will be snacking involved.
The team of graduate students in the food science program is refining their main product – Grabanzos, a protein-packed chickpea snack covered in chocolate.
“Chick peas provide a blank slate for flavors so we can take that in a bunch of different directions,” said Ashton Yoon ‘18, a master’s student and vice president of research and development for the team.
The company was co-founded by Jason Goodman, a doctoral student in food science. The team came up with the initial idea in a product development class that challenged students to come up with a healthy snack.
“Even after the class was over, we kept eating them all of the time,” he said. “It was solving a snacking problem for us.”
Antithesis team members all have different specialties, including product development, food processing, graphic design, website development, and safety and procedures.
“None of us are business majors,” Goodman said, so when they heard about eLab, they applied and were accepted last fall.
“We thought our product tasted great and everyone in the whole world would want to buy it, but eLab helped us to focus on our customers,” he said. “We talked to a lot of people and learned about how they eat and what they care about when they eat.”
