How Graza Olive Oil co-founder Andrew Benin built the business [Video]

Andrew Benin always wanted to find the best way to express himself. The “desire to break out and do it on my own” was always there, he says.

The 31-year-old Brooklyn native is first generation American; his parents immigrated from Ukraine and Belarus in the ’80s as a result of religious persecution. He graduated from Binghamton University’s School of Management in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in international business and management and got hired in the retail sector at Warby Parker. He then held a number of roles at mattress company Casper, including project manager.

It was working at these relatively young companies that helped him realize he wanted to be an entrepreneur. And he quickly realized the space he’d want his company to be in is food.

“As a child, I feel like I really suffered with controlling my weight and feeling comfortable in my own body,” he says. …