Cleveland's Ceos You Should Know

Ethan Holmes founded Holmes Mouthwatering in 2008 at the age of 15 after being inspired by his grandfather's applesauce recipe and deciding to innovate his own line of products. While studying business at Hiram college, he launched the business in 2014 making small batches at a time on campus, eventually growing to his first major retailer: Heinen’s in 2015, Giant Eagle in 2016, and Whole Foods Market and Kroger in 2107, selling at a total of 300 locations.To date, they have processed 500,000 pounds of apples from local orchards and made 250,000 units in-house for consumers across the U.S. selling primarily in the Midwest and online, achieving lifetime sales of $400,000. In addition to making and selling applesauce, they created a community program called the Holmes Entrepreneur Initiative teaching youth entrepreneurship through programming, internships, and workshops around applesauce. His brand was chosen for the Chobani Incubator in 2020, The SKU Coca-Cola Accelerator in 2022, and raised $700k from angel i