A lot of startup stories begin in a garage, a dorm room, or around a kitchen table.
For Emily O’Brien, her story begins in prison.
O’Brien was 26 when she was caught up in a drug smuggling scheme while on a trip abroad. It was after the flight home to Canada that she would find herself arrested on drug trafficking charges.
“I honestly didn’t think it was real,” she recalls of that time. “I wasn’t even afraid when I got arrested, because I thought I could just go home. I hadn’t wanted to do it, but.. That didn’t really matter.”
O’Brien was sentenced to four years in prison, which she says could have become the defining chapter of her story. Instead, she decided to do something with her time.
“I knew that I was going to do something really good with this situation,” she says. “I didn’t know what it was going to be, but I decided I was just gonna own it.”
That’s when she noticed how popular one thing in particular was with her fellow inmates: popcorn.
Not only were they enjoying the shareable snack, but they were getting creative, making individual flavours based on other ingredients on hand – things like the cheese powder from Kraft Dinner, or Splenda packets, and cinnamon.
You could say that’s when a business idea popped into O’Brien’s head.
The start of something new
Armed with books from the prison library and handwritten letters to mentors, she began building what would eventually become Comeback Snacks. But popcorn wasn’t the only central idea behind the brand.
O’Brien says she was struck by the women around her, many of whom were incarcerated for non-violent offences and wanted a chance to rebuild their lives. She decided that if she was going to build a business, it would also create opportunities for people leaving incarceration.
By the time she left prison in 2018, O’Brien had a solid business plan and a website ready to launch, populated with blog posts she had written while behind bars.
Today, Comeback Snacks can be found in more than 1,300 locations across Canada and in select TJ Maxx and HomeSense stores across the United States. Along the way, she has worked with 15 to 20 people who have experienced incarceration, staying committed to the mission that first inspired the company.
“I’m really proud to have stuck with that goal because it’s what keeps me motivated,” she says. “I call it emotional profit for me – it’s like money for the soul.”
Last year, O’Brien also co-founded Comeback Catalyst, a nonprofit that teaches business skills to people who have been formerly incarcerated or have had other interactions with the justice system.
“Even if you have a DUI, it’s hard to get jobs,” she explains. “A lot of recidivism is financially driven. So if you can get a job or figure out a way to generate more income, that’s a great step. I’m teaching them how I built my business to help them figure that out.”
The comeback continues
Building a brand centred around incarceration – the snack tagline is “Popcorn so good, it’s criminal” – meant O’Brien also had to make a choice about how much of her own story she was willing to share. For her, the answer was always 100 per cent honesty.
“I knew that was going to come with its challenges,” she says. “Strangers hating you and all that. But at the end of the day… this was me. This is who I was.”
O’Brien says she’s faced criticism online, particularly on social media. Still, she refuses to let it dictate the direction of her business – or her life.
“If you do anything different or controversial in this world, there’s going to be people that just don’t like it,” she says. “You can’t let that scare you away from chasing your dreams.”
It’s a philosophy that extends well beyond entrepreneurship.
While Comeback Snacks may now be stocked on store shelves across North America, O’Brien believes she’s still on her own comeback journey.
“I’m definitely still in the middle of it,” she says. “We’re not just going to fall once. We are going to fall over and over again.”
The difference now, she says, is that she knows she has the tools to keep coming back.
Lisa Thibodeau
