AU NATUREL

brian swette, 63, had c-suite jobs and board seats at giants like Pepsico and burger King—until 2012, when he and his wife started vegetarian sweet earth natural foods. based in moss landing, california, it now has 200 employees and $25 million in annual revenue. From fast food to veggie food. How, exactly? my daughter became a vegetarian in high school. i thought she’d blow her sats because of a lack of omega-3s. but the data on a vegetarian diet is really compelling. How could you keep working for Burger King? i had responsibilities to shareholders, owners and employees. i tried not to become overly judgmental. What means did you use to finance the new venture? We invested $5 million of our own money. In what ways did Big Food differ from Sweet Earth? scale. if i launched something at Pepsico, minimum year-one revenue had to be $100 million. i’d get into 85% of u.s. grocery stores in three months. [now] we’ve been at it four years and have 15% distribution. but on the product-development side, we can do things light-years ahead of big companies. What do you miss about corporate life? i used to do super bowl ads. That was a big deal. Can you imagine Sweet Earth ever spending the money for a Super Bowl ad? absolutely.