As the year comes to a close, we've been reflecting not just on what we launched or shipped, but on the bigger story behind it all.
This was a year of asking hard questions as a small team:
- Where can we make the biggest impact?
- What's truly worth our time, energy, and focus?
- And what happens if we go all in on the thing we believe in most?
For us, these questions kept leading back to Love Grown. What started as a bet slowly became something clearer. Month by month, we watched the signals, learned from the results, and followed where the momentum was pulling us. By the end of the year, the answer felt undeniable.
Here's how our year – and that story – unfolded.
January: The Question (and the Risk)
Will this actually work?
January was a hard month, emotionally and strategically. We decided to say goodbye to most of our third-party brands at Hive. Those brands helped build the business we knew, but letting them go was the only way to create space for something new.
That left us with a big (and frankly scary) question: Could we be Love Grown now?
Behind the scenes, January was a blur of testing and rebuilding. We ran coating trials for cereal again and again, working to:
- Reduce sugar without sacrificing taste
- Replace seed oils
- Upgrade flavor using higher-quality cocoa and cinnamon
- Develop a new fruity cereal that we are proud of
We conducted our first cereal run and did taste testing, including a review from a classroom full of some of the most honest critics we know: Jamie's class.
February: A Bold Step Forward
Introducing Love Grown Coffee
February saw our next leap: launching Love Grown Coffee.
It was not just a product-add, but an application of our same standards and values to a new category. From sourcing single-origin beans to testing for purity and earning CLP certification, coffee was more proof of what Love Grown stands for.
March: A Familiar Favorite Returns
Power O's Originals are back.
The return of Power O's Original was nostalgic for us. This was a cereal that many of you had been asking for, and bringing it back felt like a bridge between where Love Grown started and where it was headed. By March, the question had shifted from "Will this work?" to "What happens if we keep leaning into this?"
April: Making It Real
Production and some pressure.
April was all about execution. We finished our first full cereal production run, officially turning months of testing into something tangible.
We learned the hard way that scaling production comes with constraints. We didn't have enough ingredients to produce Power O's Cinnamon and had to pause its production. Not ideal, but honest.
This month reminded us that building something new is messy and requires making tough calls in real time.
May: Back on the Shelves
All cereals return.
By May, all of our cereals were back!! This was proof that the work we'd done earlier in the year was starting to click.
June: Raising the Bar
Clean Label Project Certification becomes official.
In June, one of our biggest milestones occurred: Love Grown cereal became CLP certified.
This wasn't a checkbox moment, but rather the result of rigorous testing, high standards, and a commitment to transparency. It was hard, but worth it.
Becoming the only current CLP Certified cereal brand helped us realize that we were not just making better food, but we were helping set a higher bar.
July: Learning From the Source
Visiting GreenPod.
In July, we went behind the scenes. We visited GreenPod and learned firsthand about the coffee bean buying process, from sourcing and quality control to the realities farmers face. Seeing the supply chain up close deepened our respect for what it takes to make delicious, quality coffee.
August: A Wake-Up Call
The coffee industry exposed.
In August, the Clean Label Project released its coffee report, and the findings were unsettling. Many popular coffees tested high for mycotoxins and other contaminants, despite being "organic."
It confirmed that clean coffee isn't the norm. Love Grown coffee was more than a nice addition. It was necessary!
September: Thank You!!
We made more cereal because you bought it.
September brought a moment that felt quietly huge. We ran our second cereal production, not because we planned to, but because we sold enough to justify making more. That only happened because of you!
Love Grown was becoming more than an idea that we just believed in. Our community believed in us, too.
October: A Long-Awaited Return
Cinnamon Power O's, at last.
October brought back a fan favorite: Cinnamon Power O's. This month's progress came from delivering on the promise we made earlier in the year to bring them back.
November: The All-In Moment
A turning point.
In November, we hit a $1M run rate, a milestone we're incredibly proud of. This gave us confidence that Love Grown was working well enough to bet everything on it.
So we did. We went all in on Love Grown:
- Launching a new website
- Wrapping up development on our newest coffee (coming soon)
- Fully committing our focus to building this brand the right way
November was when the experiment officially became the plan!
December: Closing One Chapter, Opening Another
Clarity, gratitude, and what's next.
We finished strong in December. We completed our company restructuring, finalized our next big thing, and said goodbye to our remaining partner brands. We also launched our new warehouse, setting us up to scale thoughtfully in the year ahead.
This is the end of a chapter, but the beginning of something bigger.
Importantly, we want to thank YOU for being part of the year we placed a bet on Love Grown and followed it all the way through. We can't wait to show you what's next.
