Why the Clif Bar Founder’s Smartest Move Was Walking Away From a $120 Million Payday

Clif Bar founder Gary Erickson shocked advisers by abandoning a lucrative acquisition offer. Now the company is a household name.

BY CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER

Photos: Courtesy company

After eating five terrible-tasting energy bars during a grueling, 175-mile bike ride in the 1990s, Gary Erickson had an epiphany that the energy bar market desperately needed an upgrade.

Erickson spent hours in his mother’s kitchen experimenting with oats and syrups to create a nutritious bar that tasted like real food, eventually naming it........

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