My name is Steven Diebold, Founder/Owner of Papa Steve's No Junk Protein Bars. After working out for almost 24yrs I realized I needed a meal replacement, healthy snack or recovery bar that I could feel good about eating and not worry about putting a bunch of processed junk in my body everyday.

I saw most protein bars are just rice crispy bars covered in chocolate with some protein thrown in. So I spent an enormous amount of time researching food science and nutrition, talking to dietitians, evaluating every single protein bar on the market to figure out what all these ingredients were on their packages. Then I decided to take my product development skills as a user experience designer and challenge myself to design and bring to market my own protein bar in 120days.

I started by setting up my kitchen as a science lab. I started reverse engineering other bars to see how they were made and why they used certain ingredients over others. After conducting my research I went into prototyping mode to invent a bar where its protein had a high biological value, was not in powder form and had little to zero processing.

So, After a lot of product testing at Golds Gym, Venice CA with members there I found an all natural recipe that worked. I engaged Golds Gym to test out my bar and they liked it enough to want to start carrying it immediately. They started selling faster than I could make them.

I made it a goal to have Golds Gym, Venice be my first distributor. I met that goal March 24,2011 just shy of 110 days. My next goal was Whole Foods. Six months later we made it into Whole Foods Venice, CA location. They are selling out every week.

My family makes them by hand in a certified kitchen so its not made in some giant machine. You know each one is hand crafted to be delicious. We practice all food and safety regulations.

We're local and we support our community. We're certified by the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals.

Diebold Ventures is a Los Angeles based Start-up Advisory offering services in Business Coaching, Brand Strategy, User Experience Design and Conversion Optimization focused on helping start-ups launch new products or services or scale an existing venture.

After a number of products we've helped develop and companies we've turned around we've found over the years that many people have ideas but they lack the ability or discernment to execute the good ones properly. They are not sure who to target and what to build for that target or if it will be profitable. Not only that but they are not sure how to turn an idea into a business model that works. To help them with that I started a blog To help ethical entrepreneurs with business model assessment, design and implementation so they can grow their business.

You can visit my blog at http://www.stevendiebold.com