Marou

Vincent Mourou left a successful advertising career in San Francisco to find himself in Vietnam. Instead, he found Samuel Maruta, a recovering banker living in Saigon with his wife and two kids. During a camping trip in the jungle in 2010, they quickly decided to make a break for it.

After googling “cacao plantation” Sam and Vincent set course for a farm in Ba Ria Province with no address. On the ferry ride back to Saigon, they vowed to start a company called Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat. Armed with nothing but a blender, an oven, and cake tins—they got to work in Sam’s kitchen.

Today Marou makes chocolate bars on the edge of the city Sam and Vincent call home.