A former private equity associate, Zach Ranen seems just as comfortable listing off seven-syllable sugar substitutes as talking about buyouts and balance sheets. As the cofounder of the protein bar company David, he gets to do both in equal parts.
Even if you’ve never tried their products, you’ve probably seen David’s provocative ads on billboards or Instagram. Their crisp, serif font and gold packaging stand out to would-be customers by making it seem like their bars contain the winning Willy Wonka ticket (And that’s not to mention their foray into frozen cod, simply marketed as “slightly more protein per calorie than our bars,” which was plastered everywhere across New York this summer). David is perhaps the apotheosis of what the New York Times dubbed the “protein craze” taking over grocery stores, from cereal to seltzer.
