If You're Not Growing, You're Dying

If you’re not growing, you’re dying.

This quote has been a mantra both personally and for Atlas to remind me of one thing: always be improving.

For myself, this quest for continuous improvement is what drives me to seek out challenging things like learning Arabic or running ultramarathons.

For Atlas, this quest for continuous improvement is what drives us to constantly try to better our product.

Now, constantly trying to improve a product is not a concept that’s unique to Atlas. 

Most companies are working on ways to improve their products. Many companies will improve a product over a period of time and then release a new model once those improvements are made.

Just think of how Apple releases an updated iPhone each year that has a slightly better camera or a bit more processing power.

When it comes to food, releasing a “new model” each year doesn’t make as much sense as it does for something like an iPhone. So instead of releasing one new version each year, we make continuous improvements throughout the year as we produce our bars.

1. make improvements to recipe
2. listen to customer feedback
3. use that feedback to begin again

This creates a cycle of continuous improvement that has helped create the Atlas that you know and love and, since making the first Atlas recipe, we’ve gone through this cycle at least 18 times.

The most recent round of changes that we made were the most pronounced changes we’ve ever made.

Step 1 - Make Improvements 

Earlier this year, we had discovered new ingredients that would allow us to simultaneously deliver on our customers two most requested changes: adding more protein and making our bars softer.  

We made the tweaks to the recipes over the past few months and ran production with these changes in early June, debuting them with our updated packaging.

Step 2 - Collect Feedback

Over the past month, we’ve been listening to feedback from all of you. During this process, we noticed that some of the changes that we made impacted our recipes a bit differently than expected. 

For example, one of the changes that we made was adding coconut oil to make the bars softer. This tweak made the bars softer, but also resulted in a bit more oil than anticpated once the bars were mass produced.

Step 3 - Use Feedback & Begin Again

Based on this feedback, we’ve already updated our recipes. 

It will take us a few weeks to make these changes across the board and to incorporate them into our next production run, but I wanted to be transparent in our process.

Our north star has been and will continue to be to make the best products possible for our customers, a process that would not be possible without you.

I truly appreciate all of the folks who shared their feedback with us, I am grateful for the opportunity to create something that is enjoyed by so many people, and promise that we will never stop trying to improve for you.

Jolly 🤙 - Atlas Founder/CEO