Charles Coristine used to spend his nights staring at flickering screens, trading stocks in Tokyo and London while the rest of Connecticut slept. He was an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley. He was successful. He was also, by his own admission, completely burned out.
It's a classic story, right? The high-flyer hits a wall and goes looking for a "simpler" life.
But Coristine didn't just buy a farm or start a yoga studio. Instead, in 2011, he handed over $250,000 of his own savings to buy a failing snack company called LesserEvil. At the time, the brand was a mess. It was losing money, had less than $1 million in annual revenue, and was basically flatlining.
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Honestly, he didn't even know anyone in the food industry to tell him he was being crazy. He just liked the name. He thought it was "synchronistic" with the mindful, healthier lifestyle he was trying to build for himself. Fast forward to 2025, and that "crazy" whim turned into a $750 million acquisition by The Hershey Company.
The Scrappy Transformation of LesserEvil
When LesserEvil CEO Charles Coristine took over, he didn't have a flashy headquarters. He had a 5,000-square-foot factory in Danbury and a team that included his former wakeboard instructor as the head of marketing.
They were basically winging it.
To save money, they bought used equipment at auctions and hired local welders to modify the machines. They even painted the factory exterior black themselves. People literally pulled off the road to ask if the building was a strip club because the vibe was so... unconventional.
Most snack brands use "co-packers"—middlemen who make the food for you. Coristine realized early on that this was a margin killer. He decided to vertically integrate. This meant LesserEvil would own its own manufacturing. It was a massive headache, but it gave them total control over quality and cost.
Why the "Himalayan Gold" Changed Everything
The big breakthrough didn't happen overnight. It came in 2014 when they leaned hard into organic popcorn popped in coconut oil.
Specifically, their "Himalayan Gold" flavor became a juggernaut.
Most "butter" flavored popcorn uses "natural flavors" that are anything but natural. Coristine pushed for clean ingredients like organic grass-fed ghee from New Zealand and cold-pressed coconut oil from the Philippines. By owning the factory, they could keep the price competitive with the "junk" snacks while keeping the quality sky-high.
By 2023, the company was hitting $103.3 million in gross sales. They weren't just a niche health brand anymore; they were a household name sitting on the shelves of Target, Costco, and Whole Foods.
Leadership Style: Mindfulness and "Slow" Growth
You’d expect a former bond trader to be all about the "hustle and grind," but Coristine took the opposite approach. He’s big on meditation and mindfulness. He’s been known to check on the production lines three or four times a day, not to micromanage, but because he’s genuinely obsessed with the product.
He treats the factory workers—mostly women, whom he speaks of with immense respect—as the backbone of the company.
He's also notoriously wary of over-hiring.
LesserEvil grew "slow and methodical," focusing on being profitable rather than just burning venture capital for the sake of scale. They stayed profitable from 2021 onwards, which is a rarity in the world of high-growth consumer packaged goods (CPG).
The $750 Million Hershey Deal
In April 2025, the news broke: The Hershey Company was buying LesserEvil for a reported $750 million.
It was a full-circle moment.
Hershey, the giant behind Reese’s and Kit Kats, wanted LesserEvil’s manufacturing expertise and its "better-for-you" platform. They saw a brand that had managed to bridge the gap between "healthy" and "tasty" without selling its soul.
The coolest part? Coristine stayed on as CEO.
He didn't just take the money and run to a beach. For him, the work had stopped feeling like "work" years ago. He had successfully turned a $250,000 gamble into a nearly billion-dollar empire by focusing on the things most Wall Street types ignore: supply chain grit, clean labels, and a lot of heart.
Lessons from the LesserEvil Playbook
If you're looking to replicate even a fraction of what Charles Coristine built, there are a few "non-negotiables" he’s highlighted over the years:
- Control Your Means of Production: If you rely on others to make your product, they own your margins and your quality. Self-manufacturing is harder, but it’s the only way to build a real moat.
- Packaging is Your Best Ad: LesserEvil’s bright bags and "Guru" mascots make the product pop on a crowded shelf. They treated the bag as a social media asset before that was even a common strategy.
- Ingredients Over Everything: Don't put anything in your product you wouldn't feed your own kids. It sounds like a cliché, but in an industry full of seed oils and artificial dyes, it’s a competitive advantage.
- Stay Scrappy, Even When You're Big: The "strip club" factory phase taught the team how to solve problems without throwing money at them. That DNA stayed with them even as they reached $100 million in revenue.
If you want to dive deeper into the LesserEvil story, check out Coristine’s interviews on Taste Radio or look into the Paleo Foundation’s case studies on their sustainability practices. The brand’s journey from a failing kettle corn company to a Hershey-owned powerhouse is a masterclass in modern brand building.
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What you can do next:
If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, take a hard look at your supply chain. Identify one area where you’re currently paying a "middleman tax" and map out what it would take to bring that process in-house over the next 18 months.