Peter Rahal

Peter Rahal builds food businesses by linking the product, the customer and the way it is sold. He co-founded RXBAR with Jared Smith. The brand launched in 2013. Rather than start in a crowded grocery aisle, they sold bars to CrossFit gyms. Rahal described visiting gyms, following up by email and putting his own phone number on the wrapper so customers could order in the way that suited them. That contact helped shape the package. When people tried a bar, the founders explained it by naming its main ingredients. Customers understood that description, so they made the ingredients the main message on the wrapper. Rahal dates the new design’s trade-show debut to Expo East in 2015. The package joined a clear product offer with a simple way to explain it. In 2017, Kellogg agreed to buy RXBAR. Rahal said the choice was intended to give the brand the resources to grow. He later returned to the category with David, which he built with Zach Ranen. David launched its first protein bar in September 2024. In 2025, it announced the purchase of Epogee, the supplier behind a key ingredient in its bars. The seller’s investor described the deal as a way to secure supply and support further product work. This was a move into ingredient production as well as consumer branding. By his September 2026 interview, Rahal described David within Medici, a group with shared services and business units that run much of their own work. Medici’s own site lists David, HallPass and Epogee. Rahal also described hiring former founders and teaching new staff the company’s values through practical work, including packing boxes. His experience is useful for studying how direct sales can inform design, and how a growing food business must connect brand choices with supply and people. His statements about food are business claims, not proof of health results.