Tara Bosch

She grew up in Surrey, British Columbia; she has said that during her teen years she was raised by a single mother, and that seeing her mother lose her financial security on becoming a single mother drove her to seek financial independence early.⁠[1]

At 13 she got her first jobs, at McDonald’sMcDonald’sMcDonald’s is a publicly traded restaurant company headquartered in Chicago, known for hamburgers, fries, drive-thrus and its franchise network. Its origins lie in the restaurant opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940; Ray Kroc expanded franchising from 1955. It operates across more than 100 countries, with the great majority of restaurants run by independent operators.Open the full entry and Domino’s Pizza. The introduction of the Fortune article says she grew up with two full-time jobs, while she herself, in the same interview, calls them two part-time jobs that let her fit school in between; Entrepreneur’s 2019 article says that at 13 she began working full time at the two restaurants; in BCBusiness’s 2019 Q&A she gives McDonald’s, at 13, as her first summer job and says she was working at Domino’s Pizza at the same time.⁠[1][2][3]

She was very close to her grandmother (her “oma”), whom she calls her “best friend in the world” growing up. Her grandmother grew up in Germany during the war and had no opportunity for education beyond elementary school; Bosch recalls that her grandmother worked from the time she was a baby to build a college fund for her.⁠[1][4][5]

She has said that she developed an unhealthy relationship with food growing up; BCBusiness writes that she adored sweets growing up and as a teenager fell into a cycle of binging and losing self-esteem. She calls herself a “candy addict and a sugar fiend.”⁠[6][3][2]

She says that growing up she watched Shark Tank and Dragons’ Den and had many ideas, but lacked the confidence to act on them.⁠[7][2][6]

She studied at the University of British Columbia as an arts student. She recalls that she got into the art department but found nothing that really excited her, so she started taking German classes, if nothing else to be able to speak German with her grandmother. BCBusiness writes that at 17, as a UBC arts student, she launched her first business, Decaled Out, which sold removable wall decals bearing inspirational quotes; the business did not catch on. She recalls that Decaled Out was the first idea she acted on.⁠[7][1]

In 2015 her grandmother said that she regretted having eaten so much sugar over the years. She calls that conversation the “lightbulb moment” for SmartSweets. CanadExport gives her grandmother’s age as 86; Entrepreneur’s May 2019 article gives 89.⁠[4][1][2]

She then began researching sugar consumption and learned that North Americans may eat more than 70 grams of sugar a day and that Americans spend an estimated $1 trillion a year dealing with sugar-related health effects; she concluded that no confectionery player was addressing sugar reduction in a natural way.⁠[4][6]

BCBusiness’s 2017 profile says she began testing low-sugar candy recipes in June 2015; BCBusiness’s 2019 profile says she spent three months of the summer of 2015 testing recipes in her kitchen. Her own account on the SmartSweets website says she spent months testing recipes in her kitchen with a gummy bear mould from AmazonAmazonAmazon is a publicly traded U.S. technology and retail company founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, with its principal corporate offices in Seattle. Its businesses span e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment, digital advertising, membership and entertainment services, consumer electronics, and Amazon Web Services cloud computing.Open the full entry. Entrepreneur writes that she left school after the semester had ended, bought a gummy bear mould online and worked in her basement kitchen for three months and more than 200 iterations before she had a product she felt ready to sell; she recalls that she was 21 when she first started experimenting in her kitchen and that hundreds of her first recipes were horrible.⁠[7][3][8][2][1]

She recalls that in the summer of 2015, between her second and third years of university, she decided to leave school and pursue the idea full time, and that by the end of that summer the decision was clear, because she did not want to live with “what ifs.”⁠[1]

In the fall of 2015 she left the University of British Columbia and joined The Next Big Thing, an incubator at Hootsuite Media in Vancouver, as a venture in residence, running SmartSweets full time. BCBusiness writes that The Next Big Thing was started by Ryan Holmes and Meredith Powell. The Government of British Columbia’s profile says the program gave her food-industry contacts, resources and a workspace, and that she also took a two-day “How to Launch a Food Biz” crash course, where she met mentors who were instrumental in her early success.⁠[4][7][3][9]

Among the honours that Daily Hive listed in 2018 is Ryan Holmes’s 2016 The Next Big Thing Venture in Residence.⁠[10]

She has said that her grandmother was not initially on board with her leaving university, because, having had no opportunity for education beyond elementary school, she took time to see entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to a degree; later her grandmother was “super-proud.”⁠[4]

She recalls that when she started, all she owned was a 2009 Honda Fit hatchback; she took out $105,000 of debt financing that she was able to secure against the car, and took out life insurance to secure the loan.⁠[1]

The Government of British Columbia’s profile says that Futurpreneur Canada was the first organization to back her financially, at a time when she had no assets and a limited credit history. CanadExport writes that she also obtained funding from Futurpreneur Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada to scale up manufacturing.⁠[9][4]

The company was first named Stevi Sweets after the sweetener stevia (Entrepreneur’s 2023 article spells it “Stevie Sweets”). There are two accounts of the setback before launch: in the Fortune interview she recalls that her manufacturing partner decided to raise its minimums before going into production, that she spent the few days before Christmas cold-calling investors, and that some investors declined because the name suggested a stevia aftertaste; Entrepreneur wrote in 2023 that her manufacturer backed out three weeks before launch, that other manufacturers had much higher minimums, and that on the day before Christmas she cold-messaged investors on LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry, many of whom replied but none of whom committed, some saying the name did not resonate. She then renamed the company SmartSweets and came to see the setback as a blessing in disguise.⁠[1][5]

Accounts of the year SmartSweets was founded differ: the Government of British Columbia’s profile, TPG’s press release and Canadian Grocer give 2015, and TPG’s release also says the brand launched in 2016; Entrepreneur’s 2019 article says she founded it in 2016 at 21, and its 2023 article says in 2016 at 22; CanadExport says she founded it at 22. ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry wrote in 2020 that SmartSweets was launched in 2016, and BCBusiness wrote in 2026 that she founded it in her Vancouver apartment at 22. SmartSweets’ own story page says she left college in 2015 and that the product reached Canadian stores in 2016, with her making the deliveries herself.⁠[8][11][12][9][13][14][2][5][4]

SmartSweets’ low-sugar gummies went on sale in the summer of 2016. CanadExport and BCBusiness’s 2017 profile say the product launched online and in British Columbia stores in July 2016; BCBusiness’s 2019 profile says SmartSweets launched in August 2016 with two gummy bear lines, fruity and sour, each with 3 grams of sugar per 50-gram bag. The company’s 2017 press release says it went from recipe testing in her kitchen with a gummy bear mould from Amazon to a nationwide launch in less than a year.⁠[4][7][3][15]

BCBusiness’s 2017 profile says each 50-gram bag contained 24 grams of plant-based fibre and 2 grams of sugar; the Government of British Columbia’s profile adds 5 grams of protein per bag and quotes her as saying that comparable regular gummy bears contain 26 grams of sugar, 104% of the World Health Organization’s ideal daily intake.⁠[7][9]

She recalls making the first deliveries from that Honda; early customers were smaller chains in and around Vancouver, and Bed Bath & Beyond became the first large national retailer to take SmartSweets, about a month after launch. Her grandmother became the company’s “most passionate salesperson,” selling to everyone in her building. Forbes writes that she first sold the gummies out of her car and cold-emailed Canadian retailers.⁠[1][16]

She said that in its first year on shelves the product was out of stock four times.⁠[10]

In August 2016 she received, and turned down, a $2 million acquisition offer.⁠[7][4]

In February 2017 she won the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs’ Pitch for the Purse competition and its $25,000 prize; BCBusiness’s 2026 article describes her instead as a finalist, at 21, in the Forum’s 2017 pitch competition, which provided funding and mentorship. BCBusiness wrote at the time that SmartSweets was sold in more than 170 Canadian locations and online across North America, and that she planned to launch four new products and reach $1 million in sales by the end of 2017.⁠[6][7][12]

In March 2017, aged 22, she said in a Daily Hive interview around International Women’s Day that the key was to “keep progressing” without needing everything figured out; she called confidence “everything” and said “There is no such thing as failure.”⁠[6]

On June 16, 2017 the Thiel Foundation named the 25 members of the 2017 class of Thiel Fellows, and she was among them. The announcement states that the two-year Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry provides young entrepreneurs with $100,000 and mentorship from the Thiel Foundation’s network, and that the fellows were selected from thousands of applications from around the world. The list gives her as from Vancouver, with the project “Smart Sweets” in the field “Wellness,” and describes her: “Tara founded SmartSweets. SmartSweets innovates confectionary products that kick sugar - naturally.”⁠[17][17]

She recalls getting into the “Peter Thiel Fellowship Program,” which gave her $100,000 with no strings attached, and describes it as giving young people under 23 $100,000 to drop out of college. SmartSweets’ press release of September 2017 and Daily Hive’s 2018 article both describe her as a “2017 Peter Thiel Fellow”; her author biography at Canadian Business also calls her a Peter Thiel Fellow.⁠[1][15][10][18]

In 2017 she was named to BCBusiness magazine’s “Top 30 Under 30,” as the youngest person on the list, and received BMO Celebrating Women’s Growth & Expansion Award; she was also named to Canadian Entrepreneur’s “Top 20 under 23” list. The Government of British Columbia’s profile also lists the Cleanest Packaged Food Awards and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs’ national Pitch for the Purse award.⁠[15][7][10][9]

On September 28, 2017 the season 12 premiere of the CBC programme Dragons’ Den aired her pitch. SmartSweets’ press release says she asked for $100,000 for 10% of the company, a valuation of one million, and received offers from all six “dragons”; the valuation was doubled to two million, and she accepted an offer from Jim Treliving. She said she felt “overwhelming gratitude” that all six dragons were equally passionate about SmartSweets’ mission.⁠[15][4]

The release says that SmartSweets’ two gummy products were then sold in more than 1,000 stores and e-retailers across Canada, including Whole Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond.⁠[15]

Her pitch on Dragons’ Den caught the attention of Josie Mousseau, a Global Affairs Canada trade commissioner who leads the Business Women in Trade (BWIT) programme; after an introduction through contacts at the Women’s Enterprise Centre of British Columbia, the two met at the WEConnect International conference in Toronto in November 2017. She said she had not known about the Trade Commissioner Service before.⁠[4]

Mousseau introduced her to trade commissioners in Vancouver, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas and Seattle to help her enter the US market, and at the last minute arranged for her to join a February 2018 trade mission to FloridaFloridaFlorida is a U.S. state occupying mainly the Florida peninsula, with its capital at Tallahassee; its most populous city is Jacksonville. It entered the Union on March 3, 1845, as the 27th state, and had a population of 21,538,187 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, where she rented a car and visited competitors’ stores to study pricing and positioning. She was also due to join a June 2018 BWIT trade mission. CanadExport writes that SmartSweets’ sales had then reached $2.2 million and that Mousseau projected growth of $20 million in 2018 from existing deals.⁠[4]

In March 2018 SmartSweets reached a deal with Austin, TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry-based Whole Foods that put its product in 450 stores across the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry; she credited Instagram with helping to secure the US launch. Forbes writes that after an appearance on Fox Business in 2017, Whole Foods gave her candy full distribution in the United States.⁠[4][16]

CanadExport writes that SmartSweets’ strategy combined online sales with shelf space in natural food stores, health stores and traditional candy aisles, and that networking, social media and a #kicksugar campaign helped the brand grow; she planned to launch two new non-chocolate confectionery products in each quarter of 2018.⁠[4]

In May 2018, after just over a year and a half on shelves in Canada, SmartSweets relaunched its low-sugar gummies with a new recipe and new packaging: the fruity gummies in a bright pink bag and the sour gummies in a lime green bag, with 3 grams of sugar and 90 calories per bag. The product was then sold in more than 3,000 stores in Canada and the United States, including London Drugs, GNC, Loblaws, Whole Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond and Save-On-Foods; the company planned five new plant-based and seasonal products for 2018.⁠[10]

She set the company’s goal as becoming “the global leader in innovating confectionary products that kick sugar,” covering the whole non-chocolate category, and named distribution, innovation, team and funding as the challenges of scaling.⁠[10][2]

Nosh wrote in 2020 that SmartSweets had raised $3 million in 2018 from investors including Scott Elaine Case, a former managing director of VMG Partners; Terry Tierney, former chief executive of Daiya Foods; and Eric Patel, former board chair of Daiya Foods; she said the company had largely financed its growth through debt.⁠[19]

BCBusiness wrote in October 2019 that SmartSweets had completed its first venture capital round that January at a $60 million valuation; the company had 39 staff and its six kinds of sweets were in more than 12,000 stores across the continent, including London Drugs, Loblaws, Kroger and CVS, with a goal of 20,000 stores by the end of the year. She hired Cindy Bokitch early on as chief operating officer; Bokitch had previously spent 17 years at StarbucksStarbucksStarbucks is a publicly traded coffee company headquartered in Seattle, founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl. Howard Schultz subsequently developed its coffeehouse model and international expansion. It operates company-owned and licensed coffeehouses and sells packaged coffee through partners. Its shares trade on Nasdaq under SBUX.Open the full entry and six years at LululemonLululemonLululemon is an athletic apparel company founded by Chip Wilson in Vancouver, Canada, in 1998; its listed entity is lululemon athletica inc., which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker LULU. The company has grown from yoga apparel into apparel, footwear, and accessories for athletic and everyday wear, operating through stores and online channels. As of August 2, 2026, the company had 825 stores, and Heidi O’Neill became chief executive officer on September 8 of that year.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

Entrepreneur wrote in May 2019 that SmartSweets’ products contained no artificial sweeteners or colours and stood in for ordinary gummy bears, Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish with 3 grams of sugar per serving against about 19 grams in typical gummy bears; they were sold in about 10,000 stores in the United States and Canada, including Whole Foods, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond and GNC, and the company expected that number to double by the end of 2019. She first funded the company from her savings, and the company says it had raised a total of $6.1 million.⁠[2]

On October 4, 2019 BCBusiness named her, at 25, the Emerging Entrepreneur in its “Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019.” She said she had always planned to grow quickly and wanted a “global candy company” whose brand would stand for its category the way Kleenex does for tissue; BCBusiness writes that she does not always feel superhuman, while she says her vision that it was going to happen “never trembled.” She believes that entrepreneurs are made, and says that for her it came down to confidence.⁠[3]

Forbes’s “30 Under 30” Food & Drink list in its December 31, 2019 issue included her, saying she had turned a kitchen experiment into a $55 million revenue candy brand that replaced added sugar with plant-based fibres and sweeteners and was sold in more than 18,000 stores in North America.⁠[16]

On October 27, 2020 TPG announced that TPG Growth, its middle-market and growth equity platform, had taken a majority stake in SmartSweets from management and other shareholders; other terms were not disclosed. She remained the company’s largest individual shareholder, kept her board seat and stayed on to focus on innovation, strategic initiatives and community, handing her chief executive responsibilities to Douglas MacFarlane, former chief executive of Voortman Bakery, who had held leadership roles at The Clorox Company and Maple Leaf Foods. She said MacFarlane brought “the exact combination of leadership and experience SmartSweets needs.” Fasken advised SmartSweets, with a team led by Ally Bharmal and Iain Mant.⁠[13][20][21]

Accounts of the price differ: Nosh describes it as a $360 million deal, Fortune (2024) and Entrepreneur (2023) also give $360 million, and Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery wrote in 2026 that the acquisition was said to be worth $360 million; the Canadian outlet Retail Insider wrote in 2026 that she sold SmartSweets for $360 million, and BCBusiness wrote in 2026 that the deal was said to be valued at roughly $360 million; she herself said in the Fortune interview that the majority of SmartSweets was acquired for $360 million. Forbes, in an article published on October 22, 2020, before the deal was announced, headlined that TPG Growth was acquiring SmartSweets for “Nearly $400 Million,” attributing the figure to “Sources”; the body of that article gives the price as $360 million on the word of multiple sources and puts SmartSweets’ sales that year at about $100 million, adding that SmartSweets and TPG did not immediately comment.⁠[19][1][5][11][22][23][12]

Canadian Grocer wrote that SmartSweets was then sold in more than 23,000 stores in the United States and Canada, including Whole Foods Market, Loblaws and Sobeys, with six products containing 19 to 21 grams of fibre and 3 to 5 grams of sugar per 50-gram bag; sales were $59 million in 2019 and were estimated to exceed $95 million that year. Nosh wrote that sources put trailing 12-month sales at $100 million; she said the company had been profitable for the past two years and that sales had more than doubled over the previous year.⁠[14][19]

She recalled in 2024 that SmartSweets’ sales were $2 million in its first year, $16 million in its second, $60 million in its third and $125 million in its fourth, and said she had known she would bring on a chief executive regardless.⁠[1]

In June 2023 she launched Bold Beginnings, a program for women entrepreneurs under 30 in North America: applicants must live in North America and identify as women, and need not have an incorporated business or a finished product but must show that they have taken action; each year one of 8 to 10 participants receives a $25,000 grant with no equity taken, and all leave with a network of peer support. She says the feelings of self-doubt and imposter syndrome “never really went away for me,” and that this led her to create the program; in her words, “Bold Beginnings really exists to empower women to know that they’re infinitely capable.”⁠[24][5][1]

The Bold Beginnings website says the program brings 6 to 8 women entrepreneurs from across North America to Vancouver, one of whom can receive $25,000, with no equity taken; the homepage and the body of the “About Us” page give the age limit as under 40, while the “About Us” page description says under 30.⁠[25][26]

Fortune published an interview with her on May 9, 2024, when she was 29. She said she made her first million dollars at 25, that she did not have her first big paycheck until the majority of SmartSweets was acquired, and that she was still the largest individual shareholder of SmartSweets and on its board. Asked for her estimated net worth, she answered “$200 million.” She said that she found a plot of land in the ski town of Whistler and got her very first home there.⁠[1]

In June 2026 she launched the potato chip brand Snackish in the United States and Canada under the slogan “Eat Chips Every Day.” Snackish’s story page says the idea was born in 2024 and that the first chip was made in 2025 at its own factory, the “Snacktory”; Retail Insider writes that she launched Snackish for her daughter. In Retail Insider’s Q&A she said she was building the brand “as a single mama.”⁠[27][23][22][28]

Snackish chips are cooked in avocado oil, contain potato protein (8 grams, in Retail Insider’s figure) and added fibre, and launched in five flavours; Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery gives a suggested retail price of $4.99, while Retail Insider gives a retail price of $7.99 a bag and mentions the Canadian-exclusive flavour Best Dressed. The chips went on sale at Target nationwide in the United States and at Loblaws and Whole Foods in Canada; BCBusiness writes that Snackish was due to reach Whole Foods in Canada on June 17, 2026, with a national Loblaw rollout in July and London Drugs in August.⁠[23][22][12][28]

Snackish has taken no venture capital: she funded it herself with proceeds from the sale of SmartSweets, and it is vertically integrated, with its own factory, the “Snacktory.” FoodNavigator places the factory in Atlanta at 65,000 square feet; BCBusiness places it in the U.S. state of Georgia at 66,000 square feet; Retail Insider gives 65,000 square feet in its text, while she says 66,000 square feet in its Q&A and calls it the first vertically integrated snack production of its kind in North America. Nosh named her to its 2026 “Nosh Impact 50,” noting that Snackish had nationwide distribution at Target from day one.⁠[28][12][22][29]

Snackish is women-owned and women-led, and every team member holds equity; the creators Kat Stickler, Mikayla Matthews, Aspyn Ovard, Vidya Gopalan and Levi Coralynn joined as owners from day one. She says she is “passionate about giving other women a seat at the table,” and that one lesson from SmartSweets was to “lead with taste, always.”⁠[23][22][12]

As of November 2026, her author biography at Canadian Business says she is building Snackish and that she has been a guest Dragon on CBC’s Dragons’ Den; SmartSweets’ story page still introduces her under the heading “Meet Our Founder, Tara!”⁠[18][8]

BCBusiness’s 2019 profile records that as a child she once wanted to be a chimpanzee trainer and had considered becoming a real estate agent; that the businessperson she most admires is Oprah Winfrey; that she relaxes by going into nature with her six-year-old dog, Coby; and that she often forgets her toothbrush on business trips and works on her confidence every day.⁠[3]

The Government of British Columbia’s profile and Daily Hive describe her as from Vancouver and Forbes calls her a “Vancouver native,” while Curiocity calls her a “Surrey, B.C., native”; BCBusiness described her in 2026 as a Vancouver-based entrepreneur, aged 31.⁠[9][6][11][24][12]

She has a daughter, Willa.⁠[23][22]

SmartSweets: Official website: https://smartsweets.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[30]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[31]

Bold Beginnings: Official website: https://www.boldbeginnings.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[26]

Snackish: Official website: https://eatsnackish.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[32]