Justin Gold

Justin Gold grew up in western Pennsylvania, the son of a dentist and grandson of natural food store owners — the first in his family to work at that store, an experience that shaped how he thought about food.

At Dickinson College, Gold studied environmental studies and graduated in 2000. After college he moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he waited tables and worked at REI while figuring out what came next.

What started as fuel for long bike rides became something else. Gold began experimenting with nut butter in his apartment kitchen, grinding dry roasted peanuts in a food processor and mixing in honey and cinnamon. His roommates kept stealing his jars, so he started writing his name on the lids: Justin's. The label stuck.

By 2004, after two years of tinkering, Gold started selling at the Boulder Farmers Market and talked his way into a local Whole Foods, personally delivering and stocking shelves — a deal no one had offered before. Sales grew but the business was still not profitable. Gold was still waiting tables to pay rent.

The idea struck during a mountain bike ride in 2006. He realized the problem was the packaging, not the nut butter. Jars are bulky, and most customers buy peanut butter infrequently. What if it came in a squeeze pack, easy to toss in a bag? The idea led to a two-year search for a co-packer. No one would take the call. Eventually Gold borrowed money from his roommate's parents and bought his own machine.

The squeeze packs changed everything. They made Justin's a category-defining product — portable, organic nut butter in single-serve packets sold in Starbucks, Target, and Walmart.

In 2016, Hormel Foods acquired Justin's for $280.9 million. Gold stepped back from day-to-day but stayed involved through the brand's evolution. In 2025, Forward Consumer Partners acquired a 51% stake, and Gold returned as a strategic advisor and board member.