Actual Veggies Success Story. 10 OOTB questions to co-founder Jason Rosenbaum

I love this industry so rather than a completely different industry, we’d pivot to creating a shelf-stable product. One of the biggest challenges with our veggie burgers and fries is the cold chain—managing refrigeration and frozen distribution is complex and expensive. A shelf-stable option would allow us to reach more consumers, reduce logistics hurdles, and expand into new retail and direct-to-consumer opportunities. We’ve always focused on making clean, veggie-packed food accessible, so a pivot in this direction would stay true to our mission while solving a major operational challenge. However, I am happy with how everything has played out and wouldn't want it any other way.

We encourage a culture of open idea-sharing, experimentation, and collaboration. Whether it’s testing new flavor concepts, brainstorming unique partnerships, or exploring better supply chain solutions, we keep innovation at the core by making space for bold thinking. Plus, we’re always tasting and testing—food innovation should be fun!

This isn’t my first business—I’ve always had the itch and started various companies dating back to high school. But this is the first business that started as a passion project, a product I personally needed when I cut out meat. It came from solving my own problem, and that’s what made it feel different from anything I’d done before.

Not compromising on our recipe or ingredients. It took a long time to get our burgers to hold together without adding traditional binders or bad ingredients. There were so many moments where it would’ve been easier to just throw in fillers, but we refused. We didn’t give up, and that decision ended up being the foundation of our business. Our customers trust us because we stuck to our principles from day one.

I cut out meat to lower my cholesterol, but I still wanted a hearty, flavorful burger made from real veggies. The lack of options led directly to the creation of Actual Veggies—real ingredients, no fillers, and nothing pretending to be something it’s not.

I would get up at 5 AM before the rest of the workforce was awake and work on our deck or other business needs. It was my time to focus before emails and calls started flooding in. I did this for a long time… I can luckily say now I’m “sleeping in” in comparison.

My first paycheck didn’t come for a long time after we started the business. I was living off no income, just credit cards and savings, putting everything into building Actual Veggies. When that first real paycheck finally came, the first thing I did was pay off my credit card debt. It was a huge relief and a moment of validation that all the risk and sacrifice were starting to pay off. 

Our first dollar wasn’t actually a dollar—it was $75K in five minutes during a QVC segment. That was our aha moment. Seeing that kind of response validated that consumers wanted our products, and it gave us the confidence to push forward and scale. It wasn’t just about sales; it was proof that there was a real demand for veggie-forward, clean-label foods.

Willy Wonka - running a factory filled with endless food innovation, wild ideas, and creations...

A receipt from the first time I bought our product at Sprouts. It was a surreal moment—walking into the store, seeing Actual Veggies on the shelf, and being able to purchase something we created from scratch. I keep it as a reminder of how far we’ve come, but also how much further we can go.