Whims Is Building a Brand for Snack Lovers. Alli Webb Knows How to Make It a Market Leader

Drybar co-founder Alli Webb helps Leanne Viola, co-founder of plant-based snacks brand Whims Delights, turn early growth into a lasting business

- By Kevin J. Ryan. Photography by Maggie Shannon

Leanne Viola Has a sweet tooth for the record books-and like many sugar addicts, she developed her penchant for sweets as a child. "No joke," she says, "I was that kid who ate a tub of ice cream for breakfast." In 2019, Viola put away childish things and adopted a vegan diet to prioritize her health. She began noshing on a variety of plant-based savory snacks. Still, she wondered: Why weren't there better-for-you options when it came to her favorite treats?

In 2020, she took matters into her own hands and set out to create a recipe to satisfy her cravings without loading up on sugar. With help from a pastry chef, Viola and her husband developed a vegan peanut butter cup with only one gram of sugar. Viola then quit her job in human resources and the couple moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles, where they co-founded the plant-based snack company Whims Delights. Viola, 41, apparently wasn't the only one in America with a sweet tooth in need of healthy nourishment. Whims cracked Amazon's top 50 candy bars list within two months of its launch last fall, and has sold more than 15,000 peanut butter cups to date.

Among Whims' many new fans is entrepreneur Alli Webb, who knows a thing or two about how to scale a young brand. The co-founder of L.A.-based salon chain Drybar, Webb sold her company's product line for $255 million in 2020 and has since co-founded the massage chain Squeeze. And when Webb sees Whims, she sees all sorts of upside, despite fierce competition in the healthy snack space. "What they're doing is quite unique," Webb says. "It doesn't taste like anything else out there."