The decade-long fight to get SNAP online with Nick Green

A long list of investors said no to Nick Green and his co-founders as they were trying to get Thrive Market off the ground. They were rejected so many times they eventually turned to the people who understood the problem they were trying to solve: moms, wellness influencers, and anyone else whose life had been shaped by not having a decent grocery store nearby. Twelve years later, their persistence paid off. Thrive Market has grown into a profitable, membership-based online grocer with 1.7 million paying members, hundreds of millions in annual sales, and a reputation as the Whole Foods-meets-Costco of e-commerce. Thrive Market was also an early advocate of piloting SNAP EBT benefits for online grocery purchases, pioneering a decade-long fight to take the policy nationwide. Nick Green is a co-founder and CEO of Thrive Market. We talk about that long SNAP fight, what's happening to enrollment right now as millions of households drop off the program, and Nick's case for why the market might be a faster route to change compared to policymaking. Highlights: The nearly decade-long fight to get SNAP EBT accepted online What the GOP reconciliation package changes for SNAP beneficiaries and states Why Thrive bans more than 1,000 ingredients How the company thinks about glyphosate, additives, and the murky definition of "ultra-processed." Where Nick thinks the private market can move faster than government on food dye and additive rules Where to find Nick Green: LinkedIn:   / nicholasgreen   Thrive Market: https://thrivemarket.com/ Thrive Market on Instagram:   / thrivemarket   Mentioned in this episode: USDA SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot: https://www.fna.usda.gov/snap/online Thrive Market becomes first online-only retailer to accept SNAP EBT: https://thrivemarket.com/blog/a-major... Stay in touch: Sign up for Helena’s must-read weekly newsletter: https://foodfix.co/ Follow American Dish on Instagram:   / americandishpodcast   and YouTube:    / @americandishpodcast   Send ideas and feedback to info@foodfix.co Check out Forked: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... (the food politics podcast Helena co-hosts with the Food & Environment Reporting Network) Credits: This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz: https://adriennecruz.com/ Original music by David Bottemiller