While working as a psychologist in the Bay Area helping people with their problems, Mary Waldner discovered one of her own; at the age of 43, she was diagnosed with celiac disease. The foods she’d been eating all her life had been making her sick, so Mary came up with a solution. She decided to create a healthy gluten-free snack cracker that she could make at home, and eat in restaurants when her friends were eating bread. As it turns out, lots of people loved Mary’s crackers and they encouraged her to start her own company, which Mary turned into a multi-million dollar business.




This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Casey Herman, with research help from Sam Paulson.




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I was in a women's healing circle, And so I went to my group and I said, you know, we need a name, and 1 of the women said, it should have your name in it, and it should be something like Mary's Crackin' Up or something like that, which we thought was funny, and then my other friend said, yeah, Mary's Gone Crackers, and that was it.

The angels started singing, the sky opened up and that was clearly the name.

Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.

I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today, Mary Waldner solved her gluten sensitivity by creating a cracker she could eat and others would love, and grew it into a snack food worth millions.

2 of the greatest entrepreneurs in history were older than you might think.

Sam Walton was 44 when he launched Walmart.

Ray Kroc was 52 when he stumbled across a hamburger stand and turned McDonald's into a global powerhouse.

Experience matters, and the research bears this out.

A Harvard Business Review study found that when you measure for growth, most successful businesses were started by people with the average age of 45.

Mary Waldner wasn't just older when she started her business in her 50s, But she was also an accidental entrepreneur, someone who really didn't ever think about starting a brand.

For 20 years, Mary worked as a psychotherapist in the Bay Area.

But Mary also had a problem, a lifelong struggle with her health, especially her digestion.

So she had to change her diet and the things she baked.

And 1 of those things were crackers, basically a mixture of seeds and gluten-free grains.

And as these stories go, her Friends wanted them, and then their friends wanted them, and then, well, a business was founded.

And today, it's sold in tens of thousands of stores across the U.S., including Walmart and Target.

And The idea for the crackers only came about because of a diagnosis later in life.

As a child, Mary was always in pain, especially after meals.

My mother decided that it was emotional because Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong.

So that was kind of what they did, you know, they couldn't find anything wrong, so it must be in my head.

I did have a lot of allergies, so they gave me allergy shots, but this isn't an allergy, so it didn't show up on any tests.

And back then, at least where I was living, doctors didn't think about celiac disease.

So it wasn't until you were 43 years old that you were diagnosed with celiac.

you got that diagnosis, it it must have been like a relief, like a validation of everything that happened.

I mean, it's funny because I've met a lot of people since then who get diagnosed and they're really bummed out, you know?

I was ecstatic to have something specific that I could do to make myself feel better, which was pretty quick too.

Because you presumably were consuming bread and wheat.

And so when you got that diagnosis You must have thought my god 43 years of not knowing this thing and I cannot so I have to assume Immediately you changed your diet in your life.

The the diagnosis came from my chiropractor.

So my back would go out and I would never, it would be really hard to hold a chiropractic adjustment.

So like, cause I had muscle weakness and I also was seeing an acupuncturist and she and her whole family had celiac disease.

So when I discovered this, I had this incredible resource that most people don't have, which was amazing.

So I just went home and emptied out my kitchen and started to learn about ingredients.

And through my acupuncturist, I learned that there was actually a celiac disease association.

I just, you know, went gung ho and started learning about different ingredients.

And, you know, the joke I said was that I could live without bread, but I couldn't live without my Auntie Nid's brownies.

So that was the first thing I made that was gluten-free.

So you, the moment you went gluten-free, how quickly do you remember feeling the effects on your health?

It was, I would say maybe 3 to 6 months I was noticeably different.

And I remember going out to lunch with somebody who I hadn't seen in a few years, actually, And she took 1 look at me and said she almost didn't recognize me Because I look so different so

I started getting that kind of response from people You know you look at yourself in the mirror every day.

You don't see any changes, But when people who I hadn't seen in a while saw me, they were stunned.

Pretty soon after you were diagnosed, you started to like, mess around with recipes for things that you could, you could eat, right?

Well, like I said, brownies, sweets, because that was my issue, brownies, cookies, any.

I started playing with different flours to make a blend that would work.

And so baking was a big part of your life?

So flour, like wheat flour was like a part of your life.

And all of a sudden you could not use wheat flour or rye flour, yeah.

So you had to switch to rice flour or potato flours.

And how were the results of like the brownies?

Well, you know, if you put enough eggs and butter in something...

And sugar, it's not bad but trying to bake things where you rely on gluten, things just fall apart, you know, they're just, just puddles.

So there was a lot of just disasters for a long time.

And this is when, I mean, the mid-90s, like gluten free is, I mean, now

So you really had to make your own stuff and so tell me what what were some of the challenges that you faced when you knew that you could not eat bread anymore and You were living in a world where everyone out around

you was eating bread Yeah and pizza and stuff So imagine going to a restaurant and they bring you a basket of bread and you're hungry and everybody's diving in and filling themselves up and you can't eat any of it.

And So many times when I would be sitting in restaurants hungry and then order a bunch of appetizers or try and fill up, it was a really unpleasant experience.

So that's when I thought, I really wanna make something that I can bring when everybody's eating bread and butter to have something, because so I'm not starving.

So that was when I started, and again, remember I'm a hippie food nut so I wanted something whole grain, I wanted something healthy so I had the idea for the for the ingredients, but it wasn't gonna be a cracker in my mind, it was gonna be some kind of a biscuit or something chewy, you know, so I want.

I wanted something really, you know, I'm hungry.

Flax seeds were really big then, and sesame seeds.

And you would take brown rice flour or cooked brown rice?

I put it Eventually, I put it in a food processor.

And then I wanted, then I would make it, you know, bake it, try to bake it.

Wait, so you would take this, you would just take these whole grains, the cooked whole grains, and then the quinoa and rice, and then throw some flax seeds and sesame seeds and put it in the Cuisinart, right?

And then you would just spread it on a cookie, like a cooking sheet?

Well, no, I tried to make it into little blobs.

Oh, okay, like little dots, like you would do with cookies, like drop cookies.

Or a little bigger, like a little, like a roll size.

Well, the outside would get done and the inside would be raw because it was so eventually what happened is I just kept flattening them and flattening them and flattening them to the point where I had a very thin and that was the only way they would bake through.

You would basically take, so you'd still drop them on, because like a meringue or something, but you would just, or a cookie, but you just push them down into a disk.

But these are like sticky, I imagine this would be super sticky.

Well, okay, so here's another trade secret.

So what I did was I got Yeah, they're very sticky.

And so I got a glass that had a flat bottom on it and I put a piece of Saran wrap over

And then I put, I had a paper towel with some oil on it and I wiped the bottom of the glass on some oil and then I flattened the blobs into crackers with that.

And it didn't stick and then I'd wipe it on the paper towel each time and that's how I that's how I was able to make it a cracker.

All right so it's like a smash burger except for a cracker.

That's how I make my smash burgers not with a glass.

You gotta take the whole sheet pan and each, you know, a tablespoon of

gluey stuff and you would just put, and then you would bake them and they came out like crackers.

All right, so you, this is 98, and this is like a little fun kind of thing that you've come up with.

And, and you what, you started to just like bring them with you wherever you went?

Yeah, I had them in little baggies so that when I went to restaurants or parties, I had something to eat.

This is not there's no nothing in the horizon that's saying this is going to be a business.

Let me just pause and ask you for a moment why you were why you had your practice because running a psychotherapy practice is a business.

I mean, you had to do accounting, you had to do accounts payable and you had to pay your quarterly tax, whatever it was,

Did you ever have any visions or daydream about maybe starting a business at some point in your life?

You had no, you had not a single entrepreneurial bone in your body.

That you thought you didn't think you did.

It was like you were happy, I mean you were content.

It was what I imagined myself doing my life.

And financially were you struggling or were you making a perfectly fine living?

But you know, having a kid and I wasn't getting much support, financial support.

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Mary's Gone Crackers: Mary Waldner