Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Benbassat.
Hi Lauren, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a University of Florida graduate and proudly Florida-born and raised! After graduation, my first job was at a startup, where I helped launch a new product, secure our first retail accounts, and prepare for a major trade show. Looking back, it feels a bit full circle.
I’ve always been a bit of a generalist with a creative, operations-focused brain and a love for innovation, food, and entertainment. My career path hasn’t exactly been linear. I’ve worked in the diamond industry, event planning, advertising, and, most recently before founding Realm, as a Marketing Director in the wine and spirits industry. Fun fact: I have a few wine certifications under my belt.
With a background in marketing, graphic design, and business development, and a personal belief that there’s always a solution to any problem, entrepreneurship felt like a natural next step. My co-founder, Elise, and I founded Realm in New York City with our first product line: dried smoothie blends. In the early days, the product was heavily shaped by consumer feedback and research. While we initially envisioned it as a consumer product, it ultimately found success as a foodservice and private-label offering. Today, those smoothie blends are served in cafés, hotels, and college campuses across the country.
After years of building that side of the business, Elise and I took a step back and asked ourselves what we wanted Realm to become. Through extensive consumer research, we saw an opportunity to create something different in the snack space. We wanted to build a consumer-facing brand that was shelf-ready, flavor-forward, and centered around the kinds of bold, salty snacks people actually crave.
The brand building process became surprisingly philosophical. We knew we didn’t want to create another company built around wellness lectures, guilt-driven marketing, or health buzzwords. Consumers are smart, and they’re increasingly tired of being sold products through trends and promises. We believed snacks could be fun, satisfying, and made with real ingredients without turning every bite into a wellness statement.
After nearly two years of research and development, we launched Realm Savory Veggie Crisps in early 2026. Seeing the product finally hit the market after so much testing, refining, and learning has been incredibly rewarding, and it feels like the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the business.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not in the least, but it was never the point for entrepreneurship to be easy. Becoming a founder will be the greatest therapy work you’ll ever do. It exposes your insecurities publicly and pushes you to overcome your limiting beliefs, ego, and more.
One day, I’d love my co-founder and I to write the full story of all of the struggles, embarrassing moments, and heartache among the major wins and growth. Here’s just a few of the hiccups we experienced along the way: endless hours and calls to co-manufacturers who won’t take or return calls; sneaking in and walking entire fulfillment warehouses (while pregnant) to find missing product; losing hundreds of product samples in the mail; literally bleeding through your shoes walking to product meetings and demos; cleaning your spilled product by hand with rags off a kitchen floor which you flooded; carrying boxes down streets, subway stairs, airports, dropping said boxes in all of those places; countless “no, thank you’s” from investors, buyers, and partners; chefs walking out mid-meeting with no word or feedback; sleepless nights, endless mental loops, worrying, waiting, and wishing.
But then you get a big win, a big “yes!”, and an opportunity that changes your business and life. Suddenly, all of those moments that felt impossible become part of the story that got you there.
We’ve been impressed with Realm, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Realm has gone through a few different chapters over the years. My co-founder, Elise, and I actually started the business as a smoothie company and spent years building it in hotels, colleges, cafés, and other food service locations. That experience gave us a front-row seat to how people were thinking about food and wellness, and we started noticing a disconnect between what consumers were being sold and what they actually wanted.
We kept hearing the same thing: people were overwhelmed by all the health claims and wellness messaging, but they still wanted convenient foods that tasted good and fit into their lives. At the same time, the snack aisle felt full of products competing over who could make the biggest health claim rather than who could make the best snack.
That realization led us to pivot Realm into a snack company focused on veggie crisps. We wanted to revisit one of the first concepts of a health chip that hasn’t seen innovation in years. Not another product built around trends, but something people would genuinely enjoy eating.
What sets us apart is probably our perspective. We didn’t start out trying to build a snack brand. We got here by listening to customers and being willing to change course when we saw an opportunity. As founders, we’ve tried to stay focused on what people actually want instead of chasing every new trend that comes along.
The thing I’m most proud of is that we’ve built the company on our own terms and have been willing to evolve when necessary. Starting over isn’t easy, especially in a competitive industry, but we believed there was room for a different kind of snack brand and decided to take that chance.
If there’s one thing I’d want readers to know about Realm, it’s that we’re trying to make food feel a little less complicated. We believe people deserve products that taste great and are honest about what they are, without all the noise that often comes with wellness marketing today.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Female Founder World – shout out to the founder, Jasmine who is an incredible human, business woman, and inspiring mother!
Kinder Records Affirmations on Spotify – this has become a go-to when I’m in a mental slump
The Magic of I – I’ve used this calendar, moon cycle journal, and daily planner for 3 straight years. It helps me to align at the start of the year on my main goals and intentions, and reflect with each new and full moon on what’s serving me and what needs to be released. Game changer for the manifesting founders out there!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://realmfoods.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauren.benbassat/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-benbassat-616ba720/
