Pursu – an interview with the founder

In March of this year Pursu launched their first three 100% natural energy bars. I met the founder of Pursu, Sanjay Soni, a few years ago when he and his brother booked a guided bike ride in Sicily. We kept in contact and after about a year he told me about this new project he was working on: creating a natural sports nutrition brand. This was in May 2017. From that point on I followed almost every step he took to reach his goal and wasn’t afraid to give him my two cents along the way… 🙂 Now we’re in 2019 and the brand has been created and the first three energy bars are already a great success!

Because I followed Sanjay’s project from the start and the fact that I find the Pursu bars to be both delicious and easily digestible, I’m very happy to have become an official Pursu ambassador! I wanted to help introduce Pursu to you guys, so last week I interviewed Sanjay and asked him all about his new brand and what sets his energy bars apart from the rest:

Why and when did you decide to start you own brand of healthy energy bars?
I was diagnosed with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) which is effectively a type of burn out and in my case caused by stressful situations at home and at work. I was living in a stressed state for some time which caused the burn out. My recovery journey included an overhaul of my diet to eliminate processed food and the inclusion of lots fresh vegetables and fruits which helped my digestion and partly energy. Interestingly the mind aspect was more powerful and through the use of NLP, mindfulness, meditation, yoga I accelerated my recovery.

I re-discovered cycling shortly after as I was still getting back to full health and fell in love with it again! As I was spending more time on the bike, I was using more portable cycling nutrition and started noticed digestive issues recurring.

After Googling the back of packs I realised that they were all very highly processed with synthetic ingredients and very high in sugar, in my view more sugar than an amateur cyclist would need. That’s when I started making my own bars in 2014. It wasn’t until 2017 that I started working on the project with a view to share the products with the world.

What does the Pursu brand stand for?
Pursu has been derived from the Pursuit cycling event and represents the Pursuit of better nutrition and the Pursuit of goals and ambitions.

How do Pursu energy bars differ from other energy bars on the market?
The bars have been developed based on my experience with many brands over at least 10 year of riding. An element that is important for me as a cyclist are bars that are based on natural whole food only without any processed ingredients. Thought has gone into the ease of eating on the move, I’ve found many bars very dry in the past therefore I have worked hard to achieve a good balance of moisture so you don’t need to keep drinking whilst eating on the move. In addition I found many bars on the market were biased towards carbohydrates and lacked fats an protein. Pursu bars contain good fats and protein from the almonds, cashew nuts and seeds.

Can you tell us a bit about the re-Cycle program and what Pursu does to support this charity?
Re-Cycle is a wonderful small charity that recently shipped it’s 100,000th bike to Africa. Most unused bikes in the UK end of in landfill and Re-Cycle works with their charity partners in various parts of Africa to ship and re-condition unused bikes from the UK to Africa. They monitor performance of school kids who receive bikes and notice significant improvement in their performance. They also teach the new owners basic bike maintenance skills. Pursu is donating 1p from the sale of each bar to Re-Cycle.

How did you come up with the flavors and what is your own favorite?
The flavours and ingredients are based on nutritional benefits that the ingredients provide to athletes. Bananas are high in potassium, Sour Cherries are know for their high levels of antioxidant to help recovery and Beetroot is high in nitrates, some of which is converted into nitric oxide. The research shows that nitric oxide helps muscle mitochondria become more efficient. I love them all and if I had to pick one, it would be the banana flavour!

The three Pursu energy bars

How does the subscription work?
The subscription is very easy to manage online and provides full control to the customer. The frequency of delivery can be set to 7, 14 or 28 days and this can be changed at any time. In addition an upcoming delivery can be skipped and the subscription can be cancelled at anytime too. The product options are 9 bar packs that can either be a mixed bar box or single flavour box.

Do you ship outside the UK? If not, when do you expect to be able to do so?
Currently shipping in the UK only and there are plans to ship in Europe later this year.

Can we expect more flavors or different sports nutrition related products in the future?
I have lots of ideas for new flavours and new products and will happily listen to feedback from Pursu customers to hear what they would like to see created next!

The founder of Pursu, Sanjay Soni

Would you like to know more about the delicious energy bars or give them a try? Then visit Pursu online!