It took a major health scare and a break from the factory floor to convince snack mix maven Mari Fassett to reimagine her business entirely.
In April 2017, Fassett suffered a brain aneurysm. In the hospital for a month, she endured four surgeries to repair the damage.
“Roughly 50% of people who have ruptured brain aneurysms do not survive,” the Irvine resident says today. “I was very, very lucky.”
That near-death experience prompted Fassett to “reformulate, rebrand and relaunch” the crunchy Marimix.
Two years ago, she put the new ingredients to the test at Amazon.com, using the platform to gauge customer responses. “Amazon is a data machine. Retailers love to see performance results, and that’s just one more lens we use to demonstrate demand,” she says.
The new snacks were a hit, Fassett says. “That’s when we just really started hitting the pavement, trying to get into as many retail stores in our backyard as we possibly could.”
On a recent visit to the Marimix factory in Orange, the smells of cinnamon, peanut butter and Hatch chilies filled the air. The petite Fassett shows off 4-foot-deep “bigger than me” copper kettles filled with rice pillows, pretzels and puff corn. A worker occasionally stirs the mix as ingredients are added.
Marimix then moves to trays and is baked before heading into a bag-and-seal machine.
Fassett inspects the process over a worker’s shoulder, who picks up a completed bag and runs his fingers down the top to make sure it’s double-sealed.
Shoppers might not know it, but the Irvine native is often among the crew handing out sample cups at Costco during product roadshows all over the Los Angeles region. She’s considering future shows in San Diego and the Bay Area.
“I did the math, and conservatively, I have personally sampled Marimix to several million people over the years,” Fassett says. “I’ve met my share of characters, but after my brain aneurysm, I’m really touched when people tell me their survival stories. And then we bond over the bigger, more spiritual things in life and realize how lucky we are to be standing there sharing a simple snack.”
We asked Fassett about how she has positioned her company for growth. Her answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Q: What’s the origins’ story of Marimix?
A: I started making snack mixes when I was 12. I remember going into the pantry and getting out maple syrup, butter, peanut butter, mixing it together, and creating options. I used to make this snack mix with peanut butter and cinnamon from one of my mom’s recipes.
Q: Tell us how you evolved to Marimix 2.0.
A: Marimix was an indulgent snack mix. I made a lot for holiday parties. It was made with a lot of butter, a lot of sugar, and a lot of artificial ingredients. They had these rice pillows, pretzels and corn cereals. I wasn’t advertising any health attributes.
The snack mixes are healthier now. I spent a two-year process and added more fiber, healthier cereals, whole grains, quinoa, gluten-free pretzels and rice pillows.
I decided that if I’m going to rebrand and relaunch, I’m going to do it in a very purposeful way where it’s going to be healthy. I also wanted to make sure it was still flavorful. I hired a formulator to help create a healthier mix with no artificial ingredients.
Q: Why did you slow the growth of Marimix?
A: In the early 2000s, it was getting difficult. I was a young mother and didn’t want to leave the kids with a babysitter all day. I just really wanted to be present with them. We pulled out of most of the wholesale businesses and focused on selling direct-to-consumer and mail-order during the holidays.
Q: Were there any turning points in your businesses?
A: In 2016, I took on this co-manufacturing project from a private equity group. I was working tirelessly for them. The next year, I suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm. I was in the hospital for about a month. When I came out, I continued with this co-manufacturing project. All along, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Wow, what do you do when you survive something like this?’
It took me a few years to say, ‘You’ve got to do something special with more purpose in life.’ That’s when I decided that I wanted to reformulate Marimix. That is where my passion lies, not the commercial kitchens or renting out to other food entrepreneurs.
Q: What kind of advice would you give entrepreneurs like yourself on how to become successful?
A: I didn’t want to have any regrets in life. I thought it was really important at my age — especially at my age over 50 — to show women that it’s never too late to go back and return to your passion.
Q: What do you think about the business climate in California to grow?
A: As a native Californian, I love this state and celebrate the diverse cultures that have influenced our flavors. But housing affordability and traffic congestion directly impact us as an employer. It pains me when I hear how far some of our crew drive to work, or when it takes over two hours round trip to pick up an ingredient 30 miles away in Los Angeles.
The nearby ARTIC station (Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center) and the coming OCVIBE entertainment project give me hope for the future.
California is not very business friendly. If you’re going to launch a product, and you want to see if it’s going to do well, I think California is the perfect place because of how densely populated it is.
Q: What is a biggest lesson that you’ve learned with Marimix?
A: Everything takes longer than you expect it to take. So, if you think it’s going to be three months, plan for six months. If you think it’s going to be one month, plan for two months. Always have backup suppliers.
More about Marimix
Origin story: Fassett, a USC graduate, bootstrapped his snack mix startup with “babysitting money.” She started baking her first crunch mix recipe in her parents’ Newport Beach home.
Where it’s sold: Marimix deals are sold at an estimated 700 retail and grocery stores in California and Texas.
Sprouts, Bristol Farms, Andronico’s Community Markets, a unit of Safeway, and Central Market. It also sells in smaller Northern California chains like Draeger’s Market, Mollie Stone’s Markets, Lunardi’s Markets and Oliver’s Markets. Next year, Marimix will add United Supermarkets in Lubbock, Texas.
Top Marimix seller: Cinnamon Churro
Honors: In late September, Marimix won Good Housekeeping’s 2024 Best Snack Award for its Cinnamon Churro, a gluten-free sweet-and-salty mix with lots of fiber. The announcement was broadcast on Good Morning America.
More about Mari Fassett
Age: 55
Residence : Irvine
Education: Degree in urban planning and development from USC
Headquarters: 987 N. Enterprise St., Orange.
Employees : 10
Revenues: Marimix and CuliFlex each generate less than $5 million in revenue.
Favorite snack: Pumpkin seeds.
A family affair : Scott Fassett, a former veteran banker with 25 years with GE Capital and JPMorgan Chase & Co., is chief financial officer of Marimix, while daughters Courtney, 26, Amanda, 23, and Nicole, 20, work on the marketing , sales and social media teams.
