Starting With the End in Mind: Tiiga’s Approach to Product Development

As a former professional baseball player in the Chicago White Sox organization and college coach for the Nebraska Huskers, Jeff Tezak has always had a passion for sports and an interest in sports nutrition since it was always an important component of his performance. Sports nutrition led to an interest in everyday nutrition as he transitioned out of competitive sports. He found a passion for providing himself and others with natural nutrient dense foods while living overseas in Australia, where he started, owned, operated and sold a food company that sourced and sold local products. He returned to the U.S. to coach Division 1 baseball at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and received a Masters Degree in History with a thesis focused on international commodity trading. His passion for nutritionally dense food, trade and sustainability came together when he met one of his co-founders Harrouna from Burkina Faso, who was in graduate school with him. Harrouna introduced Jeff to the baobab fruit and they soon started Tiiga which uses the nutritionally dense, wild harvested baobab fruit.