When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020 and locked down much of the nation’s economy, the time at home offered Thomas Slaugh an opportunity to cook up his new snack-food business.
The Chattanooga entrepreneur this year launched Bean Thinkin, which offers a Navy bean-based snack puff that’s healthier and more nutritious than something like corn-based Cheetos, he says.
“You’re getting fiber and protein,” Slaugh says. “You’re not pounded with sodium. It’s gluten free. It’s still a snack but it’s way better for you.”
Slaugh, 34, who moved to Chattanooga in 2017, says Navy beans offer what he calls a blank canvas for flavor. Currently offered in white cheddar and chipotle flavors, he sees another in gochujang, which he termed a fermented bean paste with a taste of savory teriyaki.
Born and raised in Hanover, Pennsylvania, not far from Gettysburg, he was a political science major at West Virginia University. But facing the aftermath of the Great Recession, he says he began working in research and development for a snack-food maker Synder’s-Lance.