Primal Kitchen: Ancestral Health and Building a $200M Real Food Brand | Mark Sisson, Founder

We explore ancestral health and building a $200M real food brand. We’re joined by Mark Sisson, Founder of Primal Kitchen. We cover his switch from focusing on performance to focusing on health, scaling a business from one product to 85, and rules of thumb for healthy living.

“I was really interested in achieving good health along with performance, and I sacrificed my health in the name of performance. So I wondered if there was a way in which we could kind of have both—that I could be strong and lean and fit and happy and healthy and productive and shiny and sparkly and all the things that people want, without all of this pain and suffering and sacrifice.” — Mark Sisson

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to ancestral health and building a $200M real food brand. In it we cover:



• (00:00:00) – Introduction


• (00:01:34) – From elite runner and triathlete to focusing on health instead of performance


• (00:11:28) – Teaching others the basics of health vs. weight loss


• (00:28:10) – Creating healthier condiments and the beginning of Primal Kitchen


• (00:34:15) – Scaling a business from one product to 85


• (00:41:06) – Acquisition of Primal Kitchen by Kraft Heinz


• (00:47:56) – Mark’s definition of “primal” and a primal diet


• (00:57:51) – Rules of thumb for healthy living and Keto for Life



ABOUT PRIMAL KITCHEN

Mark Sisson was one of the pioneers of the paleo and ancestral health movement. He started his blog, Mark's Daily Apple, in 2006, and today, it's read by more than three million people every single month. He's also written and co-written 18 books on health and nutrition, including the New York Times bestseller Keto Reset Diet and the insanely popular Primal Blueprint.

In 2015, Mark founded Primal Kitchen, and after enormous growth, he sold that business to Kraft Heinz for $200 million in 2018. Mark is an expert on paleo, primal and ancestral health and nutrition. In this episode, we cover so much, including lessons learned, building Primal Kitchen, Mark's health and nutrition journey and his thoughts on diet, exercise, vitamin D and so much more.

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ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.