EVERGREEN: How a Quest for a Healthy Waffle Led to $9 Million in Retail Sales

How a Quest for a Healthy Waffle Led to $9 Million in Retail Sales

- CARA CANNELLA

Emily Groden Glencoe, Illinois Three-year growth rate: 1,274%

Emily Groden, 38, was a Harvard Law grad who cold-emailed her way into the food world, landing a role as general counsel for Alinea in Chicago, one of the world’s top-ranked restaurants.

At the time, she was also pregnant and newly obsessed with feeding her future daughter well. She spotted a market opportunity for a healthy version of a frozen waffle, and within two years, she was giving out samples at Chicago corner stores. She started Evergreen in 2020 with no CPG experience, no team, and no institutional investors. Today, her fruit-and-vegetable-packed frozen waffles—which come in kid-friendly flavors like Apple Cinnamon Cobbler and Peanut Butter Banana Bread—are sold in some 8,000 stores, including Whole Foods and Walmart. Evergreen hit $9.3 million in retail sales in 2024 and is on track to more than double that this year.

I was a competitive distance swimmer. I was petite for the sport—5’3” on a good day—but I learned early on that if I outworked the people on either side of me, I could win. That mentality still drives me.