Who Founded GOODLES, and What’s Behind the Noodle

Jen Zeszut — three-time founder, CEO, and the person who told her husband she was “done with startups” approximately five minutes before starting another one — and Paul Earle, a brand expert, professor, and entrepreneur who’d spent years watching the mac and cheese category stagnate, connected in 2020. The pitch was simple: mac and cheese is a $4 billion category loved by basically everyone, yet nobody had managed to make a version that was good for you without losing the yum factor. Challenge: accepted. 

The pair co-founded GOODLES on video calls during the pandemic. They pitched over 100 investors and heard “no” most of the time. They assembled a team of true believers anyway — including Molly Michet, a culinary innovator who’d led product development for major food brands, and Deb Luster, former president of Annie's, who knew a thing or two about what the category was missing. They iterated on the noodle more than a thousand times (yes, seriously!) until it hit a 92% switch rate in blind taste tests.

No Big Food parent company. No corner-cutting. Just a homegrown Santa Cruz brand trying to make something genuinely gooder.

The Fourth Flavor That Almost Didn’t Happen

Picture this: it’s May 4th, 2021. Three weeks to launch. Three days to a photoshoot for all the product photography. Three hit-the-nail-on-the-head YUM flavors ready to go. And Jen has a feeling she can’t shake.

The lineup was solid. But GOODLES had a whole thing — still does — about keeping mac and cheese weird. About never playing it safe. Three excellent but expected flavors at launch didn’t feel like them. So Jen made the call — a totally normal and casual THREE DAYS before the photoshoot — they were adding a fourth: a cacio e pepe-inspired mac. Because who does that?! Buttery, parmy, peppery. The kind of thing that had no business existing in the mac aisle. The company-wide email had the subject line: “WE ARE ADDING A 4TH SKU.” (All caps. No joke.)

Molly went straight to the kitchen. Within days she announced the new addition to the GOODLES family, who “prefers pasta water to milk, and enjoys a little more salt and butter than her sisters.” The team lost it. Operations pivoted. Packaging adjusted. The shoot ran on time. That’s show biz, er, noodle biz, folks.

This flavor became Mover & Shaker. Every year on May 4th, Paul sends Jen’s original email thread to the whole team (including new hires reading it for the first time) because it captures something real about who we are: a small scrappy team that moves fast, bets on bold, and has a lot of fun doing it.

How It’s Going: Beloved, and Selling Three Boxes a Second

GOODLES launched in late 2021 and sold out in two weeks. Turns out, people were hungry for this small but mighty noodle on a mission. Like, really hungry. Today it’s on shelves at tens of thousands of stores nationwide — Target, Walmart, Costco, Whole Foods — and moving roughly three boxes every second. Reader, that is A LOT of mac! Fans have shown up with GOODLES tattoos, Halloween costumes, and birthday themes. Bain & Co. named GOODLES one of the fastest-growing brands in the United States. We’re blushing. 

But even now, it’s the same independent, American-made brand it was on day one. Still headquartered in Santa Cruz. Still making lives a little gooder, one healthy, delicious noodle at a time. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Owns GOODLES?

GOODLES was co-founded in 2020 by Jen Zeszut and Paul Earle. Jen is the CEO and a three-time founder based in Santa Cruz, California. Paul is a brand expert, professor, and entrepreneur. They built GOODLES from scratch during the pandemic with no Big Food backing, just a scrappy independent team and the conviction that mac and cheese deserved better. The company remains independently owned and headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, with all products sourced and manufactured in the United States.

Is GOODLES healthy?

Every box of GOODLES mac and cheese contains protein, prebiotic fiber, and plant-derived nutrients, sourced from real ingredients like broccoli, spinach, kale, sweet potato, and mushrooms — baked directly into the noodle. It’s made with real cheese, no artificial flavors, and has a low glycemic index. Clean-label and made in the USA. Your old mac could never. 

Is GOODLES a good source of protein?

GOODLES gets its protein from a blend of wheat protein and chickpea protein baked right into the noodle — not added via powder or post-cook fortification. It's one of the highest-protein mac and cheese options available, without the chalky texture or aftertaste that can come with other high-protein pastas.

Is GOODLES a healthy mac and cheese for kids?

Kids taste mac and cheese. Parents see protein, fiber, and nutrients from plants — including spinach, broccoli, kale, and sweet potato — baked into the noodle invisibly. No convincing required. Made in the USA with real cheese and no artificial flavors.

What makes GOODLES one of the best mac and cheese brands?

GOODLES is the only mac and cheese brand that delivers serious nutrition — protein, fiber, prebiotics, and plant-derived nutrients — in a box that tastes like the real thing. It’s independently owned, American-made, and fan-obsessed. The brand launched with four flavors, sold out in two weeks, and has been one of the fastest-growing food brands in the country ever since.

The mac and cheese you grew up on, all grown up. Shop GOODLES at goodles.com.