Clif Bar Founders Get Into Venture Capital The founders of Clif Bar set out to fund more altruistic success stories with their venture capital firm White Road investments.

Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, co-owners and co-CEOs of Emeryville, Calif.-based Clif Bar, built a reported $340 million business selling energy bars and other healthful snacks. In 2008 the duo launched White Road Investments, a venture capital firm bankrolling businesses that value sustainability and community involvement.

We caught up with Deven Clemens, managing director of White Road and senior director of corporate finance at Clif Bar, to learn what makes a startup attractive to him.

Why did Clif Bar get into the VC world?
When Gary talks about White Road, he talks about his desire to create the venture firm he wishes he had when he was building Clif Bar. White Road started in 2008 but really took off in 2010, when Gary and Kit started an employee stock-ownership program, selling 20 percent of Clif Bar to the employees. They wanted to use the cash to help build the business community, and White Road became the vehicle to do it.