Summary
Overview
Daniel Lubetzky shares his journey from trying to build peace through business in the Middle East to creating a $5 billion snack empire with Kind Bars. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, Daniel initially founded PeaceWorks to unite Arabs and Israelis through joint business ventures making gourmet spreads. When that struggled, he pivoted to creating Kind Bars—nut and fruit bars with transparent packaging—which became a massive success through strategic placement at Starbucks and Whole Foods, eventually selling to Mars for billions.
Family Legacy and Early Influences
Daniel's father survived the Dachau concentration camp as a teenager, along with his own father and brother. Despite this trauma, Roman Lubetzky became known for extraordinary kindness rather than bitterness, building a successful duty-free watch business on the U.S.-Mexico border. This profound example of choosing light over darkness shaped Daniel's worldview and commitment to building bridges between people. His father's resilience and the epigenetic impact of being a child of Holocaust survivors influenced Daniel's constant vigilance about justice and democracy.
- Daniel's father survived Dachau concentration camp at age 12, with his grandfather lying about his age to allow him to work
- Only 1% of children his father's age survived the Holocaust, making his survival extremely rare
- Roman Lubetzky educated himself by watching movies with subtitles and reading encyclopedias cover to cover after work
- Five Holocaust survivors built a duty-free business selling watches, wine, cosmetics and electronics on the U.S.-Mexico border
" My dad was very rare in that he talked about it and when he talked about it, he consumed them. But then he lived his life with kindness. He didn't let that darkness of that chapter darken him. Quite the opposite. He saw his new life as an opportunity for him to bring light to the world. "
" There's a lot of studies about children of Holocaust survivors. We see the world differently. In my mind, 24-7, part of my brain that worries is hyperactive about everything. And I worry about democracy, about rule of law, about humanity, about how to fight injustice. Like it's just in my DNA. "
The PeaceWorks Mission and Early Struggles
Inspired by the 1993 Oslo peace process, Daniel founded PeaceWorks to unite Israelis and Arabs through joint business ventures producing gourmet spreads. He sourced ingredients from across the Middle East—sun-dried tomatoes from Turkey, glass jars from Egypt, olives from Palestinian farmers. Despite compelling social mission and quality products, PeaceWorks struggled financially, selling just $33,000 in year one and plateauing around $1 million annually while Daniel paid himself only $24,000.
- Daniel moved to Israel in 1993 after the historic Rose Garden peace ceremony to pursue economic cooperation as path to peace
- He discovered sun-dried tomato spread from a bankrupt company and partnered with Joel Benesch to restart it in the Middle East
- First year sales were only $33,000, second year $226,000, eventually reaching $1 million but plateauing there
- The product name 'Moshe Pupik and Ali Mishmumkan's World Famous Gourmet Foods' was overly focused on social mission
" If you're too mission forward, consumers will give you one shot, but then they think they're doing you a favor. You need to make sure that you're not trying to tell the consumer do this because of the mission. You want them to buy it because it's the most delicious product out there. "
" I go to a Korean grocery store and after two hours, he gives up and gives me a purchase order for 12 jars for $33. And I tell myself, Daniel, you're a winner because you didn't give up. But then a month goes by, he hasn't moved one jar, and the jars now are full of dust. That's when I started learning to think more long-term and to think about where should this product fit. "
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