Big House Photography
Jeni Britton
Jeni Britton, founder of Jeni’s Ice Cream. “26 years of my life, I’ve been thinking through the lens of ice cream (and) really, it was COVID that kind of knocked me off that path a little bit. I realized that they don’t need me so much at Jeni’s. I still love Jeni’s. … I’m there for them whenever they need me, I still do flavors, all of that.”
Her success has made “Jeni’s” a household name, and Britton says entrepreneurship is an incredible experience, yet she felt like she was reaching the end of the road. Jeni’s Ice Cream’s corporate staff grew, alleviating Britton’s many responsibilities, which gave her time to connect with other entrepreneurs and reflect on her journey.
Britton, an Upper Arlington graduate and Columbus resident, says she never turns down an enticing invitation. Her newfound free time has opened her up to countless new places and experiences.
“I started working with other founders and put myself out there,” she says. “I was really on a health journey anyway because entrepreneurship kind of breaks you as a human. It’s the best adventure ever, but you can imagine like at the end of Lord of the Rings when Frodo finally makes it and he’s just bloody, you know, he needs recovery time. That’s sort of how I was in 2019.”
Her innate curiosity and fascination with health and feeling good led her to take a tour of a New Jersey produce facility. There, she saw a startling amount of waste being created in the melon-processing room.
“I had read that watermelon rind is really good for your microbiome and when I saw the watermelon room, all the rinds being carried away, they still had so much watermelon – like the pink part – on it,” she says. “My immediate thought was you’re supposed to eat it; it’s good for you. And the second one is I’ve been an ice cream maker my whole life – if anybody can make it taste good, it would be me.”
With the knowledge that 95 percent of Americans don’t get enough fiber – which Britton says can help reduce cancer risk and improve mental health – and an idea for what to do with 100 million pounds of watermelon, Britton started generating ideas.
Seeking more knowledge, she turned to the Department of Food Science and Technology at her alma mater, The Ohio State University, where she met Dr. Yael Vodovotz, an accomplished professor and food scientist.
“At Ohio State, there’s so much cool stuff going on all the time, everywhere across the whole university,” Britton says. “Those scholars, the super smart people, are so into their work and their research, but what they don’t have is the ability to commercialize it.”
Combining her entrepreneurial experience and Vodovotz’s expertise, Britton quickly got to work with the watermelon rinds that were piling up on her conscience.
Inspired by an Italian fresco of Flora, the Roman goddess of springtime, she decided the new healthful products she develops should help people flourish in whatever it is they choose to fuel up for, which inspired the spelling for the venture’s title, “Floura.”
Courtesy of Floura
Floura Bars
“Basically what I have is for the rest of my life, it will be all about health, making people feel better,’” Britton says. “But not in a way that’s preachy or not in the ‘wellness machine,’ but in this really beautiful, almost philosophical ‘getting the most out of life’ kind of way.”
Britton makes it clear that she’s not using Kickstarter to find investors who’d have a stake in the company, she wants to sell bars directly to customers excited about the project. To raise funds and get bars in consumer’s hands, Floura created a Kickstarter campaign on March 22, 2024, which reached its $10,000 goal within four hours. It’s active through April 18 and has increased its goal to meet demand.
“We want to use the produce trimmings (since) we know it’s really good for you, so we’re going to use 100 million pounds a year, that’s the vision,” Britton says. “(The watermelon) is actually fresh when we use it. Our facility is right inside the produce company so when they cut the watermelon off, it goes directly to us. … We ferment it and we make it into bars.”
Snack bars are not the end goal of Floura, however, as Britton says they are constantly discovering new ways to use the by-product, which she refers to as “pre-waste.” The naturally fermented produce contains another term she coined, “superfiber,” which is great for feeding helpful bacteria in your gut and getting the necessary intake of fiber each day.
Britton says Floura is working on a variety of products that will get pre-biotic superfiber into people’s diets, with pancake mix being one of the project’s latest developments.
“I’m a sweets person, … so I ate a lot of fresh fruit,” Britton says. “That was the only thing I knew was healthy to do. I was not athletic, I didn’t do any of that, so I started going on walks in the Metro Parks and in the forest and I started eating a lot of fiber.”
“I found that that was really impactful to me, and I thought if that’s impactful for me it’s probably going to be impactful for other people too, and I think that’s a perfectly valid reason to start a company.”
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
