Meet Chad + Hanna

There was a lot going on at the start of it all – so much so it’s often hard to find the right words to begin our story. We launched our flagship product in January of 2019, but it’s all the stuff leading up to that moment that we think you should know.

Chad's first career began in 2011 as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and owner of Nashdog Barbell, an underground barbell club located in the heart of Youngstown, Ohio. Nashdog grew to become a renowned training facility for athletes at all levels, traveling near and far just to train with Coach Chad. Over the next five years, Nashdog continued to expand into the greater Youngstown area and Chad had the opportunity to work with professional athletes, first responders, and became the official physical training consultant for the local SWAT Team.

In August of 2014, Hanna decided to create a blog just before leaving for college. Rightfully titled, Keg Stands & Kettlebells, her goal was to share her favorite healthy recipes and thoughts on wellness with the world while managing life as a full-time student. Soon after, Chad met Hanna and the rest was history. Just kidding, the rest is the important part! After graduating in 2018, Hanna started her career as a Nutrition and Wellness Specialist, while continuing to grow her blog. Many of her clients felt stuck with the same problem - "What can I eat to satisfy a sweet tooth, provide extra protein and have real food ingredients?" Though she loved sharing recipes on her blog that checked all the boxes, she realized not everyone had the time, energy or desire to make them. So, she decided to bring her blog to life and share homemade all-natural protein balls with the Youngstown community. 

Between Chad's existing clientele and Hanna's online audience, it wasn't long before we realized this was something more people might really enjoy. That was a light bulb, perfect storm kind of moment for us.

We were always on the go and searching for real food, high protein options but felt they always fell short. If a bar was high in protein, we didn't recognize a single ingredient and our bodies certainly did not thank us later. If they were entirely natural, the amount of protein landed below 12 grams, leaving us hungry and unsatisfied. Flavor and texture were also important to us – we wanted something soft, creamy, sweet and salty. Enjoyable to eat and easy to digest. Our perfect bar didn't exist, so we set out to create just that!

Balls became bars and within a few months, we developed our first recipe in our small apartment kitchen for Peanut Butter Bliss. Our goal was to create an all-natural protein bar made with simple ingredients, 20 grams of quality protein and free from natural or artificial ingredients or sweeteners, gluten, soy and dairy.

With our recipe in hand and food processor on the counter, we opened our orders. We created our “packaging” out of clear bags and stickers, ordered flyers and used mailing boxes as our product boxes. Our goal was to sell just ten boxes a month – a side project to put something good into the world. We sold sixty boxes within the first few hours of launching and instantly knew that the Nash Bar were here to stay.  

Our apartment quickly became filled with pails of honey, jars of peanut butter, product boxes and shipping supplies. It wasn’t long before we needed to find a space of our own. We moved into a tiny space in Youngstown, where we spent the next two years creating new flavors, perfecting our recipes, and growing the Nash Bar Company.   

Whew! And now we’re here! 

After nearly three years in our hometown, we decided to move our kitchen facility to Columbus, Ohio! We are still a team of two with one food processor, a mixer and a dream. Or as Chad would say, “Just two kids just having fun.” 

It has been the most challenging, exciting and rewarding thing either of us have done. We have learned so much about ourselves and what we value as a company (of two). The support we’ve received is unlike anything we could’ve imagined. We still pinch ourselves from time to time just to make sure this is all real.

As we approach our sixth year in business, we just want to say thank you. Whether you’ve been there with us from the start or stumbling upon our shop today, we truly couldn’t do it without you. Thank you for sharing the love of natural, healthy and delicious food with us and thank you for believing in our vision. We’re beyond excited to see where the rest of the story takes us!