Three friends with backgrounds as athletes saw a gap in the protein snack market. Amin Bahari, Timothy Cole, Jr. and Caleb Bluiett hoped to fill that gap – donuts – when they co-founded Elite Sweets. donuts. They came up with the idea for “healthy donuts” when, after a long night of studying, they decided to get some regular donuts close to their university apartment. And so, Elite Sweets was born.
The trio had met when they were playing football, and were surrounded by high-protein snacks like cookies, brownies and shakes – but never donuts.
“[In college] we lived near a donut shop so we found ourselves eating a lot of donuts, three, four times a week we were scarfing them down…” Amin Bahari says. “And one day it just kind of hit us, what if these were protein-packed, what if it was something we could pick up after football practice or something like that.”
So they started looking into the possibilities, which is when Bahari’s brother became involved. He was the one who worked with flavors and protein levels in their college apartment kitchen to create the donuts. When a product was formed, the co-founders started working with personal trainers, doctors and athletes.
Each donut is baked, gluten free, keto-friendly and has 16 grams of protein.
“It was something we took serious, and we ended up doing what we could with it,” Amin Bahari says “taking it to campus, local fitness events, gyms, personal trainers and dietitians, just to get the feedback.”
The friends still see each other as teammates, and say that the spirit of teamwork is what has lead them to succeed. Amin Bahari and Cole agree that on their team of five, each person is vital to the development of the company.
“We all have a different skill set and things that, I do things that Amin can’t do and Amin does things that I can do,” Cole says. “When I think about like being on the football team and playing a game, it takes more than one person to succeed.”
Written by Marina Vences.
