Live Love Pop
Martha Stewart thinks something delicious has popped up in Dallas
Lauren Brundage has a serious pop-session — and we’re not talking about the Backstreet Boys. The 26-year-old entrepreneur has turned her passion for healthy eating into a business called Live Love Pop, a good-for-you snack that also tastes great.
Brundage has always been committed to living a healthy lifestyle. But the self-proclaimed foodie became fixated on popcorn after she graduated from SMU, when her mother taught her how to make a healthy stovetop version with the right combination of popcorn, oil and salt.
“From that point on, I literally popped popcorn every single day,” Brundage says. “Friends began catching on to my popcorn and fell in love with it. People began using my popcorn for parties, events and gifts. It was a hit.”
Tired of other tasteless healthy snacks, Brundage began to research how to launch a popcorn product of her own. Her motto? “Pop healthy, pop happy, pop the best.” With that simple declaration, Live Love Pop was born in December 2013.
The popcorn comes in three flavor: the signature truffle salt, lime fresco and sea salt. It’s available in two sizes, 2.5 and 4.4 ounces, and they are priced at $3.99 and $5.99, respectively. Live Love Pop is vegan, non-GMO and gluten-free.
The snack is available locally at Number One, Roots Juices, Swoozies, Green Grocer, PilatesBarre and Beyond Studios. It is made in a manufacturing kitchen in Addison dedicated solely to the product.
“It’s great because we can control everything,” Brundage says. “We don’t share it with anyone, so that helps with maintaining a clean, consistent and healthy product.”
So how did this Dallas-made snack pop up on Martha Stewart?
“I know a couple of people at Martha Stewart. They must have had a bag at the office, and it caught the eye of their event planners and buyers,” Brundage says. “They loved the bags and the taste of the popcorn so they decided to feature Live Love Pop at their World Cup watching party. They tweeted about us and will be blogging about us too.”
This young entrepreneur is also riding the wave of conscious capitalism, so a portion of proceeds from every bag of Live Love Pop supports breast cancer research.
“It’s my way of giving back and helping to fight the fight for everyone who suffers from this terrible disease [while doing] something that I have a passion for at the same time,” she says.