Off I-15 in American Fork stands the green “Thrive Life” building. Founded by Jason Budge, this company is a freeze-drying mogul. He and Amber Benson realized there were massive quantities of excess freeze drying powder not being utilized for its “nutritional gold” — and Ruvi was blended to solve that problem. Ruvi is a blend of nothing but freeze dried powders of the best fruits and vegetables.
While Amber represents Ruvi at its HQ, Jason has moved his family to Germany to merge two freeze dry manufacturing companies into Thrive Food’s corporate structure.
My first food memory was from when I was a kid. We would spend our summers in Grover, which is down by Capitol Reef. My grandparents are Ruth and Nathan Hale (founders of the Hale Center Theaters), and they had a massive garden. We’d go out and adventure all day, and come home to chili brimming with vegetables. I grew up appreciating the goodness of fruits and vegetables.
Fast forward, and I was working for Jason Budge, the founder of Thrive Life freeze dry manufacturing. There, I learned the power of fruits and vegetables, and I also learned about the consumption crisis. Nine out of 10 Americans are not getting enough fruits and vegetables.
It’s easy to go pick up an apple and eat it, but it’s not happening enough. Jason and I thought, “What do we do to try to solve this problem?”
We noticed this problem with freeze drying: When you freeze dry strawberries for example, there’s a layer of powder left over. We didn’t know whether to keep it or throw it out, but it turns out this powder is nutritional gold. Freeze drying is so great at preserving nutrients. We started to ask, “How can we use this to help people get more produce into their diets?”
Before one of our earliest meetings, I went into our production kitchen and started blending the powders together — blueberries, spinach and strawberries. I brought it into the meeting for everyone, and it was amazing.
We had in-house chefs and food scientists help us design those initial drinks. We have almost 50% vegetables in every drink now. Our bodies absolutely need those nutrients.
We first market tested Ruvi for around a year underneath a direct sales brand at Thrive Life, and Ruvi was instantly their top selling product. But Jason and I always believed it needed to be its own company with its own customer base. In 2022, we pulled Ruvi away from Thrive and started financing it on our own.
Facebook Advertising and influencers are the go-to way to market for our kind of brand. We recently moved completely to a subscription based model with our e-commerce store, a big and exciting move! We are just starting into retail like Ream’s grocery. We also make sure we attend a lot of events, like the Cirque Series at Snowbird — the runners just love Ruvi.
We see our path to profitability and it’s about the long haul. In the past when we’ve run into problems, I’ve thought it’s the end of the world. But Jason would says, “Let’s dive in and work on it. This is every day. This is what we do.” I’m so impressed with the way he handles problems and it’s changed my outlook: This is what comes with business. Life is like that too — there are problems every day, and you have to figure out how to deal with them and stay positive.
Just like the Ruvi motto: Live in color.
Amber Benson, co-founder and president of Ruvi, has a thirst for health and a passion for community. The team recently launched the podcast “Live in Color with Amber Benson” to explore healthy living with real food and real cool people. Find it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!