A Canadian entrepreneurial family is turning their passion for business and love of good food into a booming line of chocolate bars.
Jake Karls, Nick Saltarelli, and Lezlie Karls are the founders of Mid-Day Squares (MDS), described as “the fastest-growing functional chocolate bar on the market.”
The Montreal-based company launched in 2018 and went from making 60 to 80 bars in a condo kitchen to over 90,000 bars in a custom-made factory. According to Jake, the business has been a true team effort from the very start.
“Years ago, my sister Leslie was making a healthier chocolate snack for her husband Nick to satisfy his afternoon chocolate cravings,” explained Jake, the co-founder and chief rainmaker of Mid-Day Squares. “She made him a homemade version of what Mid-Day Squares is today.
“Leslie and Nick are co-CEOs of MDS, and why they were mastering the commercialization of the product, I focused on creating a game plan to make noise. My goal was to ensure that when a customer went to the supermarket and saw 40,000 other products on the shelves and fridges, our product stuck out like a sore thumb.”
Nick Saltarelli, Lezlie Karls and Jake Karls are the founders of Mid-Day Squares (Submitted)
Mid-Day Squares is billed as the first functional chocolate bar made with real food ingredients and high in protein and fibre. The gluten-free, non-GMO, and plant-based bars are made with a unique two-texture form: a hard chocolate top with a soft brownie-like bottom.
Shoppers can pick up Crunchy Peanut, Peanut Butta, Cookie Dough, Almond Crunch and Brownie Batter in over 9,000 stores across North America and online. Over 40 million MDS chocolate bars have been sold to date.
A huge part of how the company connects to shoppers has been through authenticity on social media.
@middaysquares Bold and unapologetic. That’s us. #middaysquares #chocolate #vegan #foodlover #plantbasedrecipes #protein #snacks #glutenfree #startup #smallbusiness ♬ Thunderstruck – AC/DC
“Storytelling is a tool we use to connect deeply with our customers,” explained Jake. “Our thesis is to turn customers into fans. We do this by sharing our raw story of how we build MDS.
“We show our fans the good, the bad and the ugly of building the company. This brings them along the journey with us and makes them feel part of the family. I want them to go to the store and feel like they are supporting a friend or a neighbour by buying our product.
Mid-Day Squares/Submitted
An example of how the company effectively uses social media comes from the team sharing its years-long journey trying to get its bars into Costco.
MDS embarked on a Costco roadshow promoting the chocolate bars this spring and ended up breaking the record for highest sales in the first week.
The company recently celebrated selling 1.7 million bars this June, and Jake added that MDS plans on being a $100 million revenue chocolate bar company in the next three years.
“My purpose in life is to spread positive energy, make people feel something deeply inside and to show the world that you ‘win’ by being unapologetically yourself,” shared Jake. “And that’s what I enjoy about my work with MDS. That and seeing millions of Americans and Canadians enjoying Mid-Day Squares every day.”
For more information on Mid-Day Squares, visit its website here.