When was the last time you checked what was actually inside the products you buy?

Most of us don’t.

Luka Bresseel did.

That's how OKONO started.

During the COVID lockdown, stuck at home with his father, they did something most people skip: they turned the packages around and read the fine print on “healthy” keto products from Amazon.

His dad had been following a keto lifestyle for four years. He knew what to look for.

Sucralose. Maltitol.
Ingredients not listed as sugar, but with the same impact on blood sugar.

Zero sugar on the label.
Real impact in the body.

"We're living in Belgium, the country of chocolate," Luka says. "And there was no chocolate that actually had no impact on your blood sugar level."

The idea that started to help his dad with the keto lifestyle turned into a 90-page research document.

Then kitchen experiments making chocolate and baking granola every morning.

Today, six years later, the brand is in over 500 stores across 30 countries. From Belgian pharmacies to Holland & Barrett to distributors in the Middle East. Luka landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

All of that started with one decision: do it right, even when it costs more.

There are only two natural sweeteners that don't impact blood sugar.

Stevia and erythritol.

They're expensive.

Most brands avoid them and use cheaper chemical alternatives that technically aren't "sugar" but behave the same way in your body.

OKONO chose the expensive path.

"At 22, I was naive about how cost-inefficient quality could be," Luka admits. "You're competing with brands that make the same claims but sell at half your price."

The economics are brutal. When a customer has one euro to spend on snacks, it usually goes to the cheaper option.

But something interesting happened.

OKONO's returning customer rate hit 40%.

Once people tried the products, most came back.

Many food brands start:

Kitchen table. Garage storage. Founders packing boxes at midnight.

It works. Until it doesn't.

Then they need to outsource logistics. And suddenly the margins disappear.

"We wanted to avoid that trap," Luka says.

From day one, OKONO outsourced almost everything. Production. Logistics. Website maintenance. Meta ads.

The core team stayed tiny: just Luka and  Vicky Korstanje, who he calls "the spider in the web," handling operations and inside sales. His father Marc Bresseel serves as advisor and mentor.

"We just want to focus on creating nice, clean products that have an impact on our clients," Luka explains. "Instead of putting our energy into how the logistics would work. Which ERP system should we use."

The father-son dynamic could have been a weakness.

Family businesses fail constantly because roles blur and egos collide.

What made this one different was clarity from the start.

Marc positioned himself as advisor, not operator. Someone who'd already lived through cycles Luka was just entering.

One lesson became the filter for everything:

"One thing my dad has always said since the beginning is learn to walk before you start running. First test small. If it works, scale it up and then scale faster. But if it doesn't, then kill the idea right away."

2024 brought a crisis that affected the company heavily.

Cacao prices exploded from $2,000 per ton to $12,000.

For a bootstrapped company, chocolate production became impossible.

OKONO went out of stock on chocolate for a year and a half. Their bestselling product. Gone.

No financial buffer. No quick fix.

Just decisions.

They went back to the drawing board and launched new products they might never have explored otherwise: supplements, electrolytes, new categories.

When chocolate finally returned in late 2025, it came back different.

New branding. New format. New positioning.

Not "keto chocolate" anymore.

Just Belgian chocolate. Low sugar. High fiber. For everyone.

Within three months, it became a bestseller again.

"What felt like a crisis became an opportunity," Luka says. "The crisis gave us an opportunity to explore other options and for that we are very positive with the outcome."

Early on, they ordered bulk packaging for a specific chocolate format.

"We bought a little bit too much in the beginning saying we'll always sell this type of chocolate. It will always be these recipes with these ingredients," Luka explains.

Then the cacao crisis hit, and all that packaging became useless.

"A five-digit loss, that has been my most expensive mistake," Luka says.

For the first three years, OKONO positioned itself clearly in the keto market. One of Europe's fastest-growing food trends.

It worked.

But Luka noticed something bigger.

"We're all eating too much sugar in general," he says. "And that's really the main issue we want to conquer, to reduce the sugar intake of people, and to make a healthy alternative that tastes good, and made in Belgium."

Belgians consume around 95 grams of sugar daily. The recommended maximum is 50 grams.

Today, all OKONO products remain keto-friendly. But the mission expanded: help people consume less sugar without sacrificing taste or feeling restricted.

The original plan was simple: six months selling online, then reassess.

After three weeks, a boutique store reached out asking to carry the products.

Then another.

Then pharmacies, places where staff could explain ingredients and build trust through conversation.

"We were very lucky to have a successful press launch which gave us media attention that really helped to put the brand on the map," Luka says. "We got people to visit our website and that gave us an initial boost."

New products start in his inbox.

"Do you have an alternative for this?"

"Could you make that?"

When the same request appears often enough, they explore it.

Others start from gut feelings about what fits the brand.

Six new products are currently in development.

Some periods are better than others in terms of pressure and stress.

"But once the train starts going, you need to follow it," Luka says. "And so then it's not a matter of how you handle it, but it's just either you deal with it or the business will stop at one point."

Either people think he's not working or people think he's always working.

There is no in between.

And it really depends on the day or the week or even the season.

One piece of advice Luka repeats without hesitation: get a good accountant early.

"When you start, you somewhat have an idea of revenue but don't know the bottom line," he says.

Now they do monthly closings. Every month.

Understanding margins, costs, where money actually goes.

"Clarity doesn't remove stress, but it makes it manageable."

His accountant challenges him. They discuss decisions together.

"At the end of the day, you're running the business. You should know your numbers."

Luka still answers customer emails and social media messages personally.

"You really get a feeling of what your customers want. You're open to feedback. You're always having a conversation."

Messages from diabetics saying they can finally eat chocolate again.

From people with gluten intolerance who'd given up on granola.

Walking into a store and seeing a stranger pick up an OKONO product.

On good days, it's what makes the work worth it.

On bad days, it's what keeps the train moving.

Twice now, Luka and his father have done Marathon Des Sables, walking through deserts together.

First: 120 kilometers over five days in Morocco. Trek edition, not self-sufficient.

Then: 120 kilometers self-sufficient over three days in Cappadocia.

Next: 270 kilometers over six days in the Sahara for Marathon Des Sables' 40th anniversary in April 2025.

Self-sufficient means carrying everything. Water. Food. Clothes. Cooking gear.

Between checkpoints, they can refill water. At camp, one gallon to survive until morning.

"You're in the desert, with no wifi, no cell phone connection, just sweating and walking with a backpack," Luka says.

But the real value came from conversations that would never happen in conference rooms.

Entrepreneurs from Portugal, Brazil, all over. Sharing life challenges. Passing wisdom.

"You arrive with questions and leave with answers," Luka says. "One participant said: I came without questions but left with a lot of answers."

Entrepreneurship feels similar.

You carry your own weight.

You can't outsource resilience.

Somewhere between exhaustion and silence, clarity appears.

"Same thing we're doing now. Just bigger."

More distribution. More products. A slightly bigger team.

Still bootstrapped.

If Luka could give one piece of advice to anyone starting a food brand, it's brutally honest:

"Don't do this for the money, do it because you care about the impact. FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) in general is the lowest multiplier. Talk with a lot of people that have already done it."

About building something people feel in their daily lives.

Because at the end of the day, OKONO isn't trying to disrupt an industry.

It's just trying to make two things better.

The ingredient list and people's lives.

P.S. OKONO is running a Valentine’s promo: 14% off when you purchase 2 chocolate bars. Discount applies to chocolate products only. Talk about a nice excuse to treat yourself or your favorite person!

Question: What does the word God mean to you? 

Luka’s answer: “Well, personally, I'm not a religious type of person, but I do believe in energy. I believe that some things are bound to happen and you can force certain things, but one way or another, you have your own plot.”

You can find him on LinkedIn or Instagram.

Forever.

How much chocolate is consumed globally every year?

A) 1M tons

B) 3M tons

C) 8M tons

D) 20M+ tons

_{You can find the answer at the end}