Eric Torres-Garcia – Startup Community – Power List

With a life motto to “always just go for it!” an entrepreneurial spirit and a hard time taking “no” for an answer, Eric Torres-Garcia came onto the Idaho startup scene with his Cocoa Bombs invention, created as an entertaining alternative to ordinary hot chocolate powder mixes.

“It has always been a goal of mine to do my own thing in a field that is highly creative and constantly changing,” Torres-Garcia said. “During college, I worked by providing digital media services for Boise State University and southeastern Idaho. It was a fun and fulfilling side-hustle, but I wanted something bigger. Though my wishes came true, I never expected it to be in the chocolate industry.”

Since graduating from Boise State with a Bachelor of International Business Administration degree in 2018, Torres-Garcia got his inspiration for the confectionary industry while studying abroad in Italy. He started the business in December 2019 after making a successful prototype for about $15, creating a website (cocoabombs.com) and posting a TikTok video that went viral. Sales started pouring in — $7,000+ in just the first day.

With an enormous demand to meet, Torres-Garcia needed to scale production. In 2020, he began manufacturing in a new 7,000-square-foot facility in Blackfoot (his hometown), which allowed him to fulfill big orders of 10,000+ units from large retailers.

Cocoa Bombs saw much success in 2021, with continued growth expected. For example, the business was awarded $5,000 as the runner-up in Boise Entrepreneur Week’s annual Trailmix Pitch Competition. Currently, the company has around 10 employees, shipping Cocoa Bombs across the globe, and the items can be found in 400+ stores and counting.