Why I started a woman-owned granola bar company out of my home kitchen

Long before P&TY was a business, it was just me, my kitchen, and a batch of granola bars I couldn't stop making. Here's the real story of how a simple snack became something much bigger than I expected.

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I want to tell you something that might sound a little embarrassing: I was making granola bars for years before I ever sold a single one.

For years, they were just something I made. For friends. For family. For the event staff I worked alongside who looked like they needed something real to eat by hour six of a twelve-hour setup. I'd show up places with a bag of bars the way some people show up with a bottle of wine. It felt natural. It felt like care.

I didn't think of it as a business idea. I thought of it as just... what I did.

So where did it actually start?

2015. Newly married. My husband reaches into a box of Chewy granola bars — you know the ones — and I look at him and say, completely unprompted: "There's no nutrition in that granola bar."

He looks up, takes a bite, and says: "Yeah, but it tastes good."

And that was it. That was the whole thing. Not a grand vision. Just a quiet refusal to accept that those two things had to be mutually exclusive — that a bar could taste good or be good for you, but not both.

So I went home and started making granola bars. Gluten-free oats. Natural nut butters. Raw honey as the only sweetener. Real ingredients — the kind that fuel you rather than just fill you. I wanted something I could hand to someone I loved without hesitating. That became the standard for everything we make.

"It tastes good or it's good for you — why does it have to be one or the other? I decided it didn't."

The bars got better with every batch. I learned what worked, what didn't, what made people close their eyes for a second when they took a bite. I was hooked — not on running a business, just on getting it right.

How did event planning become part of the story?

At the time, I was working as an event planner. Which meant long days, a lot of moving parts, and a lot of people who needed real fuel to get through it all. I started bringing my bars to events — setting them out for staff, tucking them into green rooms, sharing them with whoever looked like they could use one.

It became my thing. Show up, do the work, bring the bars.

Then in 2019, I was working events for a national health food retailer. And something shifted. The staff there — people who knew food, who spent their days surrounded by products — started asking about my bars. Where could they get them? Were they for sale? What was in them?

They told me the bars were different from what was on their shelves. That I should pursue it.

A few months later, I sold my first granola bar.

What does "please and thank you" have to do with granola?

Everything, it turns out.

P&TY stands for Please & Thank You. And I know — it sounds simple. Maybe even a little small. But I think simple is where the most important things live.

I've always believed that the way we treat each other matters. Not in a grand, sweeping way — but in the small, daily moments. The way you acknowledge the person behind the register. The way you say thank you to a coworker who didn't have to help. The way you soften instead of snap when a conversation gets hard.

Those moments are where culture actually changes. Not in the big speeches. In the tiny ripples.

The idea behind every bar

Every P&TY product comes with an invitation: to be a little more present, a little more patient, a little more kind — with the people around you and with yourself. Not as a lecture. Just as a reminder. Because we all need them.

The bars became a way to carry that message somewhere. Into someone's workday. Into a meeting. Into a quiet moment between parents and kids. Food is one of the most human things we share — and I wanted ours to remind people of that.

What happened after that first sale?

That first transaction was the moment the thing I'd been doing quietly — in my kitchen, at events, with the people I loved — became something I offered to the world.

It was terrifying. And completely right.

Since then, P&TY has grown in ways I didn't anticipate. We sell at farmers markets across Minnesota, where I get to hand bars directly to the people who eat them — which remains one of my favorite things in the world. We ship direct to customers across the country. We work with companies on corporate gifting programs, which I love because a bar that says "I thought about you" is a genuinely good gift.

We're still small. Still woman-owned. Still made in Minnesota. Still using the same core ingredients I started with in 2015 — because I've never found a reason to change what works.

What I want you to know about P&TY — a woman-owned granola bar company

We are not a wellness brand trying to optimize you. We are not a marketing company that happens to make food. We're a small business that believes humans deserve better — better ingredients, better snacks, and more reminders to treat each other well.

Every bar is made with care. Every product ships with an invitation to be kind. And every time someone tries one for the first time, I feel the same thing I felt in my kitchen all those years ago — the hope that it lands exactly right.

I'm so glad you're here. I can't wait to share more with you.

— Brit

Before you go: What's a small act of kindness someone showed you recently that you still think about?

Drop it in the comments — or share this post with someone who could use a little reminder today. That's the ripple we're going for.

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About P&TY Granola Company

P&TY (Please & Thank You) is a woman-owned, Minnesota-based granola bar company founded by Brit Williams. Every bar is made with gluten-free oats, dairy-free ingredients, natural nut butters, and raw honey as the only sweetener. P&TY exists to make snacks so good they remind you to be a little more kind — to the people around you, and to yourself. Available direct-to-consumer, at Minnesota farmers markets, and through select wholesale and corporate gifting partners.