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Sour Turned Sweet
Most startup founders begin by trying to understand the market.
They study competitors, survey potential customers, analyze trends, and build detailed personas. Those are all worthwhile exercises.
But occasionally, a founder builds a successful brand by starting somewhere much simpler.
With themselves.
That was one of the biggest takeaways from a recent interview with Maxx Chewning, the founder of Sour Strips, the candy startup acquired by The Hershey Company in 2024. Reflecting on the brand's journey from an idea to a nationally distributed product, Chewning repeatedly came back to one surprisingly simple principle:
Build the product you wish already existed.
It sounds obvious.
It's also much harder than it seems.
A Brand Born From Obsession, Not Research
Chewning wasn't a candy executive. He had no experience in consumer packaged goods or retail distribution.
He was simply obsessed with sour candy.
After years of buying nearly every sour candy he could find, he became convinced the category had become predictable. The flavors weren't sour enough. The packaging felt juvenile. Many of the little details he cared about simply didn't exist.
Instead of trying to identify an underserved customer segment through research, he asked himself a different question:
"If I could build my perfect sour candy, what would it look like?"
That became Sour Strips.
The product launched online in 2019 with the tagline "Sour candy that doesn't suck." It sold more than 20,000 bags in its first hour and over one million bags in its first year.
Five years later, Hershey acquired the company.
Sour Strips wasn't born from extensive market analysis. It was born from a founder who knew the category intimately because he'd spent years buying, tasting, and critiquing nearly every sour candy he could find.
Every Brand Decision Started With One Customer
One of the most interesting parts of Chewning's interview wasn't the sales numbers.
It was how many of the brand's defining decisions came directly from his own experience as a customer.
The resealable package included a large viewing window because, as a kid, he always wanted to see the candy before buying it.
The visual identity avoided the cartoon-heavy look common throughout the candy aisle because he believed adults loved candy too, and wanted something that felt designed for them.
Even the product itself reflected his own preferences. He wanted a candy that was genuinely sour, not just marketed that way.
None of these decisions came from a focus group.
They came from lived experience.
His instincts became the brand strategy.
Maxx Chewning didn't design Sour Strips for an imaginary customer. He designed it for himself. The product window, resealable bag, and more sophisticated branding all reflected the experience he had wanted as a lifelong candy lover.
Community Came Before Distribution
Chewning also made another decision many founders overlook.
Before he built the company, he built an audience.
After seven years creating fitness content on YouTube, he had earned something far more valuable than followers.
He had credibility.
When Sour Strips launched, people weren't simply buying candy.
They trusted that someone who had spent years talking about candy and reviewing products probably knew what great candy should taste like.
That trust helped generate enormous momentum from day one.
Then something unexpected happened.
As online demand accelerated during the pandemic, retailers began approaching Sour Strips rather than the other way around.
Consumer demand created retail demand.
Not the reverse.
Maxx Chewning spent seven years earning trust before asking anyone to buy a product. That credibility helped Sour Strips gain immediate traction with consumers, creating the kind of demand retailers couldn't ignore. And the momentum eventually also caught Hershey’s attention.
What Founders Can Learn
There are at least four branding lessons hidden in Sour Strips' story.
1. Build from genuine insight, not manufactured differentiation.
Chewning wasn't trying to be different.
He was trying to solve frustrations he personally experienced.
The differentiation happened naturally.
2. Small details create memorable brands.
A viewing window on a package sounds insignificant.
Until customers remember it.
Brand equity is often built through dozens of thoughtful details rather than one dramatic innovation.
3. Trust compounds before sales do.
Years spent building credibility with an audience dramatically reduced the friction of launching a new product.
People trusted the founder before they trusted the brand.
4. Don't confuse broad appeal with specific appeal.
Sour Strips wasn't designed for everyone.
It was designed exceptionally well for people like its founder.
Ironically, that specificity became part of its mass appeal.
What This Means for Founders
Many founders worry that building a product around their own preferences is too narrow.
Sometimes that's true.
But if you've lived the problem long enough, your own experience can become an unfair advantage.
You notice frustrations that outsiders overlook.
You obsess over details others dismiss.
You recognize quality because you've spent years searching for it yourself.
That doesn't eliminate the need for customer feedback.
It simply gives you a stronger place to start.
Instead of asking, "What does the market want?"
Try asking:
"What do I wish existed that still doesn't?"
You may discover you're not designing for an audience of one.
You may simply be the first person willing to build what thousands of others have quietly wanted all along.
Final Thought
Founders often chase product-market fit as though it's something discovered in a spreadsheet.
Sometimes it begins with something much more personal.
A frustration.
An obsession.
A belief that a product you've searched for your entire life still hasn't been built.
If that conviction is genuine, don't dismiss it.
It might be the strongest brand insight you'll ever have.
Best,
Edwin
