David Brown

The U.S.

yogurt market is worth $2.9 billion a year.

Greek yogurt probably accounts for less than half a percent of that.

The Greek brand Faye is importing its products, but sales are low.

The name is hard to pronounce for many people, and the price is high.

To Ulukaya, that spells untapped opportunity.

In fact, he's sure that Americans will love Greek yogurt.

If they try it.

With his factory now painted and cleaned, Ulukaya's focus shifts to the recipe.

He knows he only has one shot at this.

Money's too tight for his company to survive a failure.

His Greek yogurt has to be perfect.

He wants it to be as good as the yogurt his mother used to make back in Turkey, the best yogurt he's ever tasted.

But making a great Greek yogurt at scale is no small feat.

His yogurt will contain live bacterial cultures, which means it's not a static product.

What might taste perfect initially can taste terrible a few weeks later.

Ulukaya and his yogurt master, Doan, want their product to hold its taste for six weeks.

And it takes them a year of testing cultures to find the right one.

During that time, Ulukaya interviews shoppers and learns that many of them are mixing fruit into plain, nonfat Greek yogurt themselves.

They want nonfat, but they also want fruit.