Jason Burke: I didn’t grow up thinking I’d launch a meat snack company—I grew up in Section 8 housing in Tampa, FL, learning early on how to hustle. Thanks to a special school assignment, I ended up attending class in the wealthiest part of the district. That contrast lit a fire in me. I started a lawn business at age 13 and ran it through college—my first taste of entrepreneurship.

After a few years in financial services, I moved to Charleston for a tech sales job in 2008. Around that time, both my parents were diagnosed with chronic, diet-related illnesses. That was a wake-up call. I began paying close attention to what I ate, eventually discovering Paleo in 2009. It changed my life—and my fridge.

I started making grass-fed beef jerky at home as a desk snack. Friends started stealing it, then buying it. Soon, I had six dehydrators running in my kitchen. My wife finally said, “We need to either turn this into something, or turn it off.”

That moment became the start of The New Primal in 2012. What began as DIY jerky is now a national brand with products sold in Whole Foods, Sprouts, Publix, Target, and beyond.

I never set out to be a “meat snack guy.” I just believed in the power of food to change lives, and that belief still drives everything we do.

JS: What sets you apart from other producers putting jerky and meat snacks into the world?

JB: At The New Primal, we didn’t set out to make just another meat snack—we set out to change the way people think about protein snacks altogether.

What sets us apart is a relentless commitment to clean ingredients, culinary-inspired flavor profiles, and total transparency. We were one of the first brands to bring a truly better-for-you jerky to the mainstream—grass-fed, no added sugar, no sketchy preservatives—long before it became trendy.

But it goes beyond ingredients. We view our products not as gas station snacks, but as pantry staples for families who care about what they eat. That’s why we’ve expanded into kid-friendly meat sticks we call Snack Mates—the first and only brand to create flavor profiles that appeal to kids' palates in the category. We also focus on alternative proteins to beef and category-breaking innovations like our Rotisserie Chicken Stick, which delivers full flavor with zero sugar and real, whole-food ingredients, while being the category's first Rotisserie Chicken flavored meat snack.

We’ve built a brand rooted in trust, education, and accessibility—and we’re proud to be pushing the entire category forward by proving that clean can still mean craveable. It’s not just about product—it’s about purpose.

JS: Please talk about how the company has grown in recent years—you’re slotted into a lot of notable retailers (Publix, Wegman’s, WFM, etc).

JB: We've evolved significantly since our early days, making jerky in a home kitchen. We started as a single-product brand focused on clean-label beef jerky, but over time, we expanded into meat sticks, seasonings, marinades, and condiments. At one point, we had a very broad assortment and wide distribution across multiple categories and channels.

But as the business matured, we made a strategic decision to narrow our focus. Today, we’re doubling down on protein snacks—particularly meat sticks, which have become our hero product line. It’s where we see the most consumer demand, product velocity, and white space for innovation.

We’ve also grown more disciplined in how and where we show up. We still take an omni-channel approach, with a strong foundation in the natural channel—retailers like Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Thrive Market—but an increasingly meaningful presence in conventional grocery (HEB, Wegmans, Meijer, Giant Eagle, and others), club, big box, and drug.

Amazon and Hungryroot have also become key growth partners for us, and we’re seeing strong e-commerce traction there as well.

What hasn’t changed is our mission: to bring clean-ingredient, craveable products to more households—and to do it with a brand that families trust. That clarity of purpose has been a powerful filter as we’ve grown.

JS: Please talk about The New Primal’s product innovation strategy—what do your ideation sessions look like, and how do you determine if an idea is both on trend enough, and fitting with The New Primal’s brand philosophy, to make it?

JB: At New Primal, product innovation starts with a clear purpose—not novelty for novelty’s sake. We look for ideas that solve a real problem or meet an unmet consumer need, while staying rooted in our core values: clean ingredients, craveable flavor, and functional convenience.

Our team regularly surfaces ideas based on cultural insights, ingredient trends, and whitespace in our category, but we run every concept through a disciplined filter before it moves forward. That includes assessing consumer relevance, timing, differentiation, and—crucially—whether it fits within our mission to make real-food protein snacks more accessible to modern families.

We've learned the hard way that just because you can make something doesn’t mean you should. So we’ve built a system that forces us to gut-check early, validate demand quickly, and stay ruthlessly focused on what moves the needle. That discipline is what helped us evolve from a jerky startup into a focused, omni-channel protein snack brand with standout products like our Rotisserie Chicken Stick.

JS: I wanted to ask you about the new Rotisserie Chicken sticks. Could you please talk about the consumer interactions/input and other factors that led to that item’s creation?

JB: We’d been watching the rise in chicken consumption in the U.S.—especially among families—for years. Meanwhile, the meat snack set remained largely dominated by beef and pork. At the same time, we kept hearing a common theme from parents: “We love your brand, but wish you had more kid-friendly protein options—something lighter and more familiar.”

We’d already leaned into chicken with our Snack Mates line, and since chicken had become our top-selling protein, it made sense to double down across the portfolio. As we explored flavor ideas for a full-sized stick, we wanted something familiar but flexible—a sort of “vanilla” of the category that could anchor a broader lineup.

Rotisserie Chicken was the clear winner. It’s the No. 1 dinner flavor in America—comforting, craveable, and instantly recognizable. The idea was simple: take the nostalgia of a Sunday family dinner and turn it into an on-the-go protein snack.

It also filled a major gap in the category—a poultry-based, clean-label meat stick with a flavor profile that’s savory, versatile, and wildly approachable. So far, it’s resonating with both kids and adults looking for a lighter alternative to red meat snacks.

In the end, it wasn’t just a cool idea—it was a response to what our customers were already asking for. We just happened to be the first ones to move on it.

JS: What’s next for the company?

JB: This summer, we’re expanding our line of mini sticks and adding new flavors to meet growing demand. Beyond innovation, a big focus for us is operational scale—we’ve been capacity-constrained for over a year, so expanding production will allow us to fuel our best sellers in more points of distribution.

But we’re approaching growth with discipline. First, we’re focused on increasing velocity at our core retailers. Then, we’ll expand into the right accounts where it makes sense. Only after that will we introduce select innovation across our meat stick portfolio.

Our north star remains clear: grow where we’re strong, stay lean, and drive trials to grow awareness the right way.

Related: New Primal launches Rotisserie-Seasoned Chicken Sticks