Katie Lefkowitz, a Wharton School graduate and founder and CEO of Harken Sweets, founded her “superfood-infused” candy bar company in 2022 after a cancer scare, writes Amanda Breen for Entrepreneur.

The self-proclaimed “Snickers fanatic” started considering food as medicine and experimenting with her concept in the kitchen.

“I wanted to recreate those classic candy bars, but in a way that they were actually healthier for you to eat,” said Lefkowitz, “and that’s exactly why I started Harken.”

Lefkowitz previously served as COO and then senior adviser at Caulipower, the company that produces a line of frozen, cauliflower-based products. She used that experience to start her own company.

The name of the company was meant to “harken back to those good old days when you could enjoy all the candy that you wanted and not feel like total hell afterward,” Lefkowitz said.

She made countless attempts at creating different chocolate bars in her kitchen before she had the products that would become Harken’s standard. She used dates to make her ideal bar.

The Harken bar doesn’t include butter, sugar, or classic caramel ingredients, but maintains the same taste and texture of other candy bars.

Today, her plant-based, high-fiber bars can be found on the shelves at 3,500 Walmart locations. The company has since recorded 50 times quarter over quarter growth.

Read more about the founder of Harken Sweets in Entrepreneur.

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