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 onlineWhat the GOP reconciliation package changes for SNAP beneficiaries and statesWhy Thrive bans more than 1,000 ingredientsHow 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 rulesWhere to find Nick Green:LinkedInThrive MarketThrive Market on InstagramMentioned in this episode:USDA SNAP Online Purchasing PilotThrive Market becomes first online-only retailer to accept SNAP EBTStay in touch:Sign up for Helena’s must-read weekly newsletter: Food Fix.Follow American Dish on Instagram and YouTube.Send ideas and feedback to info@foodfix.coCheck out Forked, the food politics podcast Helena co-hosts with the Food & Environment Reporting Network.Credits: This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz. Original music by David Bottemiller.