The meat-based snack company known as Epic Provisions was founded by two young entrepreneurs in their late twenties that had found themselves struggling with a vegan diet. The founder couple got together in college and bonded over a passion for endurance sports. When one of them started to experience health problems they reevaluated their diets and came up with the idea for Epic.
They entered Incubation Station, a local startup accelerator focused on consumer products that is now called SKU. By the time they had finished the accelerator, they were convinced they should pivot to meat. Epic, the new brand, were protein bars that substituted the powders in products like Quest bars with blended bits of meat, fruit, and nuts. An angel investor in Houston loved the idea and invested $750,000. (Forrest and Collins later raised an additional $3 million, mostly from a Colorado-based venture capital group.)
Shortly thereafter the founder couple noticed that an employee at General Mills was consistently making large orders. Concerns that the food giant was attempting to duplicate their approach subsided when an initial conversation suggested an acquisition was driving interest. Approximately three years after launching in 2013, Epic Provisions sold to conglomerate General Mills for ~$100 million.