Podcast

September 25, 2018

ReGrained, A Business Model For The Long Term And The Planet

Business Models, Operations, Podcast, Raising Capital

ReGrained launched their product at scale in January 2018 after multiple iterations of their product (in the crowded bar category) and now are working with other businesses to help them produce/co-brand new products using their production facility and the expertise embedded in their proprietary process.

September 6, 2018

Grow Your Food Brand On Amazon, If You Constantly Optimize

Operations, Podcast, Sales and Marketing

The Amazon platform provides a means for small and emerging brands to find an audience and generate sales if they dedicate time and resources to ensure discoverability on the platform by constantly optimizing product pages with the right keywords and features once the user is on the page, in addition to paying for keyword-based advertising.

August 23, 2018

How A Bank Can Strengthen Farming Communities Through Innovative Lending

Financial Management, Podcast, Raising Capital

Ephrata National Bank in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is a $1 billion community bank with 25% of their portfolio funding agricultural entrepreneurs. Lending to support new business models or premium offerings (like value-added processing) can help farmers deal with high land prices and avoid commodity agriculture’s low return on assets.

July 19, 2018

How This Hard Cider Business Is Learning From “The Struggle”

Operations, Podcast, Raising Capital

Brix Cider began producing in small batches and self-distributing throughout southern Wisconsin. Their ultimate goal is to open a cider tasting room (increasing margins and cash flow); however, through the struggle to find the right space, they have learned business problem solving skills and financial literacy.

June 21, 2018

Growing A Successful Retail Food Co-op By Meeting Your Member’s Needs

Financial Management, Operations, Podcast

The Great Basin Community Food Co-op first opened to the public in downtown Reno with 500 feet of retail space, eventually hitting $1 million in sales in one year. In 2012 they moved to another 3-story location of about 3,000 square feet (on the main floor) even closer to downtown. In 2017, the store had about $4.5 million in sales after rapid growth.

June 7, 2018

The Farmer Education Continuum In The Colorado Mountains

Business Models, Operations, Podcast

The Old Fort at Hesperus’ team sees farming education as a continuum where different people are best served by discreet programs, depending on their interests and stage of development. Their sustainable agriculture program includes an educational garden internship, a farmer-in-training program, and market garden incubator.

May 24, 2018

How Tribe 9 Foods Balances Economies Of Scale With A Changing Marketplace

Business Models, Podcast, Raising Capital

Tribe 9 Foods secured growth capital to bring manufacturing in-house for the three brands that merged into their portfolio, something that has allowed them to have control over batch timing, batch size and product quality. In addition, in-house production allows them the flexibility to try new things and have a co-packing line of business for their core product types.

May 10, 2018

Angela Mavridis Of TRIBALÍ Foods On Resonating With Your Tribe

Business Models, Podcast, Sales and Marketing

TRIBALÍ’s clean, simple packaging communicates their organic, grass-fed and Paleo certifications, stands out on the freezer shelf and helps communicate their brand’s promise to that tribe. Angela Mavridis, TRIBALÍ’s founder and CEO reflects that the investor pitch process forces you to learn every single aspect of the business.

April 19, 2018

How Union Kitchen’s Ecosystem Helps Build Profitable Food Businesses

Business Models, Podcast, Raising Capital, Sales and Marketing

Union Kitchen is a shared-use kitchen and food business accelerator in in Washington D.C. While having a shared-use kitchen eliminates the need for capital for kitchen equipment, there are many other things food businesses need to raise capital for, which is why they have distribution and retail outlets as part of their model.

April 5, 2018

Value-Added Producer Grants With Jim Gage

Podcast, Raising Capital

While the VAPG grant can be complicated (for example, a 75 page application plus Business Plan and third-party Feasibility Study), it requires applicants to critically consider expansion of the customer base and the marketplace for products as well as demonstrate how they will have sufficient business structures, profit and cash flow to operate in the long-term.