Raising Capital | Edible-Alpha® Learning Center

Creativity Is Essential To Food Entrepreneurship

10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®

Figuring out the best way to finance food businesses by optimizing their capital structure to reach minimum efficient scale is an undervalued creative exercise. But the myriad of challenges that confront entrepreneurs, from finding the right suppliers, co-packers, distributors, brokers or even the right target customer also demand creativity.

Article about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups

MobCraft Beer’s Creative Sourcing of Recipes and Financing

45 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®

MobCraft beer is a brewery and taproom with a unique business model of crowdsourcing ideas for beer recipes from their customers. Knowing how much equity they needed vs. debt to finance their facility build out and equipment needs helped them pitch specific asks to both banks and investors, including for their $2 million tap room and production facility.

Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Jonny Hunter Of Underground Food Collective On Thinking Bigger in the Food System

1 hour & 30 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®

Jonny Hunter of the Underground Food Collective talks about his wish that values around local and sustainable food could be used to create systems that have scalable efficiencies that are affordable to consumers. He advocates for working together to build and sustain the infrastructure that would support processing and other means to scale up the local food system.

Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

A Steady, Slow Growth Path For Quince and Apple’s Niche Domination

1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®

Because Quince and Apple has labor-intensive, artisanal products, the best strategy was not to compete on quantity or price. Instead, they chose to compete by dominating an emerging niche (pairing their products with specialty cheeses) while telling the defensibly unique story of their artisanal processes.

Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Taking Investment in Your Food Business Changes Your Business (And You)

10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®

Food entrepreneurs themselves often feel changed when taking outside investor capital. They feel the weight of the responsibility of paying back those investors with a return. They often work even harder than they were before because others are sharing the risk with them and are emotionally invested in their business as well.

Article about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

How Love The Wild Built A National Brand For Frozen Farmed Fish

1 hour & 5 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®

Within six months of launching their company they got their product out in front of consumers, trying out 127 product variations over an additional 18 months in just two stores. Once they honed in on their product, they rapidly expanded into distribution and raised multiple rounds of funding to support their growth.

Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

The Capital Conundrum of Rural Economic Development

50 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®

USDA programs serve not just agricultural producers but also rural businesses and rural people more broadly, including programs meant to incentivize and leverage private dollars for investment in rural areas. However, there is a big need to educate investors and entrepreneurs about realistic opportunities for investment and business development in rural America.

Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

What’s Your Story? Speaking To Your Audiences’ Needs

10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®

With consumers, entrepreneurs should develop in-depth personas about their target customer and use the language that speaks directly to their unmet need. When speaking to funders, entrepreneurs need to tell the story of their business model, their revenue model and their brand positioning i.e. the story they reinforce with consumers.

Article about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups

Paul Dietmann on Setting Your Farm Up for Financial Success

1 hour & 15 minutes of Free audio by Farmer To Farmer Podcast

The single most important thing to do when starting a farm is to create a month-by-month cash flow projection. In the short term, cash flow is much more critical than profitability, because if cash flow is negative, the farm cannot survive once cash runs out. Profitability comes into play when the farmer is ready to retire or pass it on to the next generation.

Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups

Entertainment Farming and Agri-Tourism

16 pages of Free report content by NCAT/ATTRA

Small diversified farms are ideally suited to agri-entertainment. The chief qualification for the rural landowner who expects to make a living from the land through agri-tourism is the desire and the ability to cater to tourists and meet their expectations of a farm visit.

Books or Guide about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

How Much Is My Company Worth? Company Valuations With LBW Wealth Management

1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®

Company valuations should be done based on a rational justification of the future growth rate and future earnings of the company, as well as the fundamentals of the business model. For example, whether the company is defensibly unique and how long its competitive advantage can be sustained are both key drivers of company value.

Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

List of Documentation For Approaching Lenders and Investors

Free checklist by Edible-Alpha®

Much of the difficult part of raising money is putting together the requested documentation for lenders and investors. This includes everything from tax documents to sell sheets to simulated proforma financial statements with realistic assumptions about the company's growth.

Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

SBA 504 Loans with Diane Byler of WBD

35 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®

An SBA 504 loan is a special product that can only be offered by a Certified Development Company (CDC) like WBD in partnership with a local lender. The 504 loan is designed to help small businesses grow and create jobs by financing fixed assets like real estate and equipment through low, fixed rates and lower down payments (10%).

Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Outline Of A Funding Request for a Food or Beverage Business

Free template by Edible-Alpha®

The focus of the narrative request for funding is to substantiatehow much of what kind of money the company needs and for what purpose. This should be done after other documentation and should be relatively brief to make it easy for lenders/investors to read. It should supplement other materials present in the financial package, like the pitch deck.

Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups | Growing and Scaling

Outline of a Farm Business Plan and Funding Request

Free template by Edible-Alpha®

While the sections of this document are similar to a business plan, this is NOT a business plan. Think of all of the contents of a drop box or other online file sharing service as the full business plan. This is a specific ask for money for a specific project. It is important that all of the numbers are the same as the ones in the accompanying Proforma financial statements.

Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

poSaNa Example Investor Pitch Presentation

Free investor pitch example by Edible-Alpha®

poSaNa organics is a manufacturer of best-in-class gluten-free cooking and baking mixes wholesaling to grocers and retailing directly online. This pitch deck is an example of an optimized pitch deck template to successfully raise money and communicate the company's business model.

Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Which Lender is Right for Your Food or Beverage Business?

20 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

There is no free money, and there is accountability and responsibility that comes with any sort of loan or even grant to your organization. Instead of a shotgun or kitchen sink approach to seeking financing, target specific funders with specific requests because each has their own requirements, needs and priorities.

Video about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

The Importance of Raising Money For Your Food or Beverage Business

5 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

All food businesses need money to grow and often grow in rounds or steps. And, in addition, many deals or financial packages often involve putting together multiple sources of money together to fulfill different uses. For example, many food businesses, especially wholesale brands, underestimate the amount of working capital they will need.

Video about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups

Working with Tier 1 Lenders In Your Food or Beverage Business

10 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

Traditional lenders tend to be very conservative, so they often make loans for less than the purchase value of assets, and look to partner with investors and the entrepreneur to finance growing businesses. They look at things like collateral and business strength when assessing the risk of making a loan.

Video about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups | Growing and Scaling

Raising Money For Your Food Business Is Complicated

Raising Money in Food is Complicated

5 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

A business model, not a product, determines whether a food or beverage company makes money. If the entrepreneur has a business model that can work, people will look at their documentation and plan and get how the business going to make money and give it to them. However, most entrepreneurs need help putting together their financing requests.

Video about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling