Advice Line with Jeni Britton of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams (2025)

In this Advice Line episode of How I Built This, Guy Raz sits down with Jeni Britton to discuss her newest venture, Floura — a fiber-forward food company she launched in 2024 after turning Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams into a household name.

Leaving Ice Cream for Fiber

Britton explains why she decided to leave ice cream behind and build something rooted in nutrition science rather than indulgence, describing Floura as an attempt to make fiber accessible, delicious, and free from the chalky aftertaste that plagues so many functional foods.

The Daily Fiber Bar

Britton shares the origin story of Floura's signature Daily Fiber Bar, a product that delivers 13 grams of fiber and 12 plants per serving while remaining gluten-free and dairy-free. She talks about the challenge of formulating a bar that actually tastes good — a problem she approached with the same chef-driven mindset that made Jeni's famous for unusual, high-quality ice cream flavors.

Fundraising and Growth

The conversation also touches on the difficulties of fundraising as a food founder, the importance of maintaining creative control over product development, and why she chose to build Floura as a direct-to-consumer brand before expanding into retail.

Lessons from Jeni's

Looking back on her two decades in the food industry, Britton reflects on what she learned from growing Jeni's from a single Columbus farmers market stand into a nationwide brand. She discusses how that experience informed her approach to Floura, particularly around supply chain management, ingredient sourcing, and the need to educate consumers about a product category — fiber — that many people still associate with discomfort rather than wellness.

Advice for Founders

The episode closes with Britton offering advice to aspiring food entrepreneurs who are trying to balance innovation with accessibility. She argues that the best products come from a genuine personal need — in her case, wanting a fiber bar she would actually eat herself — and encourages founders to resist the temptation to overcomplicate their offerings in pursuit of trendiness.