Starting a food business is an exciting and lucrative endeavor, but it is widely acknowledged that the first year presents its own challenges. According to statistical evidence from industry insiders, up to 60% of new food businesses fail within the first year. Still, these problems can be solved with smart strategies and a reliable support system, allowing entrepreneurs to start businesses that do well. Finding Your Niche Finding a niche in a competitive market may be one of the first challenges for new food businesses. To differentiate yourself from the competition, you must identify a unique selling point that
We are so excited to highlight Carlos Posada of Quo Agro Justo! “Right now, the intermediaries make most of the profit, so being against the traditional food chain and showing that there is a better and more fair way to deliver sustainable products, requires a strong working capital.” Carlos Posada is the founding director of Quo Agro Justo, a Colombia-based social enterprise using technology to bridge the gap between producers and consumers. They seek to create a social impact on small and medium farmers by working to distribute their products to restaurants and institutions through fair
Company founders and impact advisors, Margaret Gifford, Principal at Watervine Impact, and our own Shen Tong, Partner of FoodFutureCo, give advice on how to find patient capital from foundations, focusing on program related investment for mission driven companies and nonprofit organizations. Watervine Impact is a consulting firm for mission-driven companies and investors. Both Watervine Impact and FoodFutureCo function as investors and mentors, supporting social entrepreneurs as they seek capital or capacity during the growth phase of their companies. Over the last few years, we have seen the rise of program related
Gizmos and Grains Self-driving vehicles aren’t just for the streets of Mountain View, California anymore. As Google races to bring fully autonomous cars to market by 2020, a driverless tractor may be rolling out into the fields around the same time. From drones to PrecisionAg, America’s amber waves of grain have never been so decked out in 21st century tech. Yet for the past half century, the story of technological innovation in agriculture has progressed lockstep with the consolidation of the industry, loss of biodiversity, and depletion of soil nutrients and natural resources. Our digital era was always going to
The local food movement has deep roots in urban centers, but the juxtaposition of urbanites’ locavore enthusiasm with the shortage of arable land in cities raises the question: how local is local enough? In terms of geography, there is no consensus or regulation around what “local food” should be. Depending on your definition (or marketing strategy), the term could refer to anything from food produced in your own backyard to food produced 100 miles away or simply within the state. Community gardens and urban farming are obvious—if partial—answers to this paradox. And while urban farming is nothing new, there’s no
A Twinkie in Maine has not decayed since 1976, neither has a burger in Utah since 1999 Grass-fed beef has up to 5x the omega-3s as CAFO (aka industrial) beef China has the fastest growing rate of childhood obesity, 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 11 girls The food & agriculture industry grosses over $9 trillion a year, over 20 times the size of the entire software industry. Food from the “industrialized” food system is less nutritionally dense than organic, sustainably-grown food. The crops grown today in poor soil with the aid of synthetic chemicals are more sugary and less nutrient rich than crops from 50 years ago.
The future of food is a complex topic filled with various avenues of solution. However, sometimes the biggest matters, like changing the food system, can be impacted by personal mission and passion. Michel Nischan is a four-time James Beard Award winning chef who for over 30 years has been a leader in advocating for a better food system. Inspired by his upbringing on a farm and a passion for good food, he became a pioneer in the farm-to-table movement and founded Wholesome Wave, a national non-profit created to help tackle nutrition insecurity in vulnerable populations, and Wholesome Crave, a for-profit plant-based
On Janurary 11th, we celebrated our Cohort 7 and 8 companies at our 7th UnDemo Day! As our amazing FFC community and guests started arriving at our awesome venue, Project Farmhouse, there was already an amazing energy filling the space. We were all so thankful to be gathering in person (for the first time in awhile) to celebrate the achievements of our founders and share great conversation, great company and great food and drink. Following opening remarks from FFC Founder Shen Tong, health and food pioneer and advocate, Michel Nischan took the stage with an inspirational and impactful talk as our keynote speaker.
Building any brand takes continuous effort and time. However, strong leadership, thinking outside the box and finding areas to improve on may be equally as important and Amy Fuller is a testament to that. As a current mentor for Food Future Co, Amy Fuller brings a unique and necessary approach to helping and guiding each cohort and beyond being a mentor, Amy has spent the greater part of her professional career in vital development and building roles for brands such as: Accenture, Kraft, AT&T, Verizon, Siemens, IBM, Deloitte, and MasterCard Worldwide. Throughout her career, she has continued to thrive as a leader and
