As a kid growing up in the Minneapolis suburbs during the ’90s, Nick Green’s kitchen cupboard was not like his friends’ kitchen cupboards. There were no salty snacks, no sugary cereal, no soda. Even Honey Nut Cheerios were verboten.
His mother, part of a large Mexican American family, had seen how the modern diet led to so many health problems for her relatives, and resolved to raise her own children with minimal processed foods.
Mr. Green said being deprived of traditional sweets and snacks was frustrating — and that he raided his friends’ kitchens when he had the chance — but that he was ultimately grateful for the strict diet early in life, believing it gave him good habits and good health.
It also gave Mr. Green the foundation of a billion-dollar idea.
After graduating from Harvard College, briefly working for McKinsey & Company and selling a test preparation company he founded, Mr. Green teamed up with a few other like-minded entrepreneurs to start Thrive Market, an online marketplace for healthy and eco-friendly food and household goods, in 2013.
Today, Thrive, which is still privately held, has more than a million members who pay $60 a year for the privilege of ordering chickpea pasta, plant-based cleaning products and organic wine.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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