How Unruly Nature Is Building a Granola Business That Can Grow on Its Own Terms

Unruly Nature is a small-batch granola company founded by Kim Bernaus in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, making all-natural, gluten-free, vegan granola in flavors far bolder than the usual cereal aisle. Unruly Nature is selling at farmers markets, cafes, and specialty grocers across the region, with a growing wholesale program and an institutional cafeteria account. After an unexpected shift in one of her wholesale partnerships, Kim came to The Acceleration Project (TAP) ready to build a more resilient, diversified growth strategy for what's next.

A Business Ready to Grow Beyond Its Region

• With one of her key wholesale relationships in flux, Kim and her TAP consultants worked to reduce her reliance on any single distribution channel and build a sturdier, more diversified sales mix.

• As a solo founder balancing production, sales, and operations, Kim was looking for a way to prioritize her next moves without spreading herself too thin.

• Standing out in a crowded, competitive grocery category meant sharpening how Unruly Nature talks about what makes its granola different, from clean ingredients to no added refined sugar.

• Real operational constraints, from kitchen capacity to finding reliable market staff, made it important to grow in a way that matched her bandwidth.

  
  

How TAP Helped Unruly Nature Build a Smarter Growth Plan

• Through TAP's Deep Dive Program (Feb – May 2026), developed a hyper-local growth strategy that concentrated on deepening relationships in a few nearby towns rather than chasing national distribution.

• Mapped out Unruly Nature's sales channels, including farmers markets, wholesale, and emerging institutional accounts, and helped Kim weigh the tradeoffs between margin and volume across each.

• Refined marketing materials and messaging to spotlight protein, fiber, and clean ingredients, giving Kim tools to use at farmers markets, in retail demos, and with new wholesale buyers.

• Built a monthly expense model and explored kitchen-sharing options to give Kim more visibility into her cash flow as she grows.

• Made a direct introduction to a distributor contact, opening a conversation that would have been hard for Kim to initiate on her own.

  
  

Results: A Clearer Path Forward

• Landed a significant new institutional order and a new local wholesale partnership, expanding Unruly Nature's footprint beyond farmers markets.

• Opened the door to a promising new retail opportunity with meaningful room to grow.

• Walked away with sharper, more consistent messaging to use across packaging, demos, and retail pitches.

• Gained a clearer financial picture to guide decisions about costs and growth.

• Built a growth strategy sized to her business today, with room to expand as capacity grows.

— Kim Bernaus, Founder, Unruly Nature