Off the record: How 500 recipes, a sweaty backpack, and one haunted school built this energy bar brand
Lecka's founder on the winding path from fintech burnout to global bar business.
In our monthly series, we text with founders about the wild, unglamorous, and sometimes unhinged moments that actually built their businesses.
I met Markus Gnirck in Vietnam. We were both expats in Ho Chi Minh City during the pandemic lockdowns, him having freshly escaped a stressful job in fintech, me in the daily throes of starting by own business. There, I watched him build Lecka—an energy bar brand made from native Vietnamese fruits—in real time. It was magical chaos. Now, I’m finally getting him to divulge it all.
