Spreading the Love with entrepreneur Val Fishbain
BY VIDA SELAM ARANDA
Val Fishbain, Founder of Spread the Love. Shoutout LA.
In 2013, Val Fishbain started out by giving homemade peanut butter as a wedding favor at her wedding. Then, she and her business partner and husband, Zach, started making their peanut butter in their apartment and selling it at the Melrose Farmers’ Market in Los Angeles, California. It wasn’t easy. They had to bring all the equipment like tables, signs, products and on top of that make the peanut butter. As their family started growing, so did their peanut butter business. It was pretty exhausting. One day Val asked Zach, “Why are we making this in our kitchen? There are a lot more orders now.” Val was pregnant at the time. So, they decided to work with a factory.
Naked Crunch Organic Peanut Butter. Spread the Love.
Orders started flowing in and by 2017, Spread the Love was available for sale on Amazon. “I have seen myself and my family grow so much from owning a business.” In 2018, Val and Zach went to Paris, France to sell the peanut butter at the world-famous mall, Le Mon Marché. It was challenging because they did not get a lot of customers. Parisian women thought peanut butter was fattening and did not want to buy it. However, that did not stop Val and Zack.
Val is an inspiring leader and very encouraging of other entrepreneurs. She advises, “Don’t think about it too much. Just do it. Even with $500 you can open a business […]. If it is something you want to do, put a lot of energy into it and it will flourish!” The best advice Val gave about starting a business is to “trust yourself.”
Spread the Love products are now available in 150+ counties through iherb.com and Amazon. Their products include cashew butter, almond butter, chocolate hazelnut spread and marionberry and raspberry jams.
Spread the Love is also involved in their community. Val and Zach did a Spread the Love Forward fundraising event benefiting the homeless in Los Angeles in alliance with PATH (People Assisting the Homeless). They also set up a scholarship fund for Racine, Wisconsin high school students who are dedicated to their education and personal growth.
My family loves Spread the Love peanut butter and cashew butter. I am looking forward to trying the jams. I admire how when things got hard, Val kept going and Spread the Love flourished.
