Firm is fit for lucrative investment

Former Outback Steakhouse executive David Osterweil is preparing his business, Tampa-based Fitlife Foods, for a level of serious growth backed by a prominent group of area investors.

The group, with an investment into the millions, includes Stuart Lasher, former chairman of Tampa-based Lifestyle Family Fitness; Bahram Akradi, founder and CEO of suburban Minneapolis-based Life Time Fitness; and well-connected Tampa entrepreneur and philanthropist Bob Gries with Gries Investment Fund. Keenan and Hannibal Baldwin of Tampa-based Baldwin Beach Capital, a private equity fund that operates Yogurtology frozen yogurt stores in Florida, are also part of the investor group.

Fitlife's five Tampa-area stores sell healthy made-from-scratch prepared meals, snacks and drinks. Osterweil, with the goal of making good food convenient, founded Fitlife in 2011. He and his wife sold their stocks and investments and obtained a Small Business Administration loan with their house for collateral to get funding in the early going. (See Business Observer, Aug. 30, 2012.)