Startup Company

Investing in the Future of Food: Operating as Amazon seller – not a vendor – gives startups leverage

13-Nov-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

When launching a brand online, startups may be tempted to focus first on marketing direct-to-consumer from their website rather than through a third-party retailer, such as Amazon, but according to the founder and CEO of the fast-growing, plant-based...

Investing in the Future of Food: 3 strategies for startups to level the playing field with e-commerce

06-Nov-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

Entrepreneurs hoping to disrupt an established category dominated by large companies and well-known brands could gain a significant strategic advantage by launching first online where they can leverage positive consumer reviews and social media, advises...

Startup Flightfūd launches beverage mix to alleviate physical stress of flying

25-Sep-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

Modern airplanes can take people across the world in a matter of hours, rather than the days, weeks or even months once required, but flying also can take a toll on travelers’ health – a side effect that the co-founder of startup Flightfūd hopes to offset...

Investing in the Future of Food: Founder of Creation Nation shares tips for finding a co-packer

07-Aug-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

When starting out most entrepreneurs could use a hand, especially when it comes to making their products, but finding the right kind of help isn’t always easy and picking the wrong partner can negatively impact the brand – lessons that the founder of...

Investing in the Future of Food: Too much funding can hide damaging risks rather than solve them

24-Jul-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

The amount of capital flowing into the food & beverage industry is rising rapidly with recent research from Food+Tech Connect reporting a 34% increase in funding worth $1.45 billion going to startups in the space in 2018 compared to $1.08 billion...

‘No longer does the mass channel have to be the last piece of the puzzle,’ vendor rep says

08-Jul-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

As consumers increasingly demand natural, organic and innovative products across all retail channels, emerging brands are no longer restricted to the classic route to market that began with independent, natural retailers and slowly expanded to conventional...

Investing in the Future of Food: ForceBrands shares how to recruit & retain talent on a startup’s budget

19-Jun-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

In today’s strong labor market, many cash-strapped startups are unable to compete with big food for top talent based on salary, but according to the specialized recruitment firm ForceBrands that doesn’t mean they have to settle for second best.

AB InBev’s investment arm ZX Ventures seeks ideas the world ‘hasn’t yet even imagined’

18-Jun-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

Anheuser-Busch InBev may be on a mission to be the “best beer company bringing people together for a better world,” but its innovation, incubation and investment arm, ZX Ventures, wants more: It wants to “make products, services and technologies that...

Investing in the Future of Food: Patient capital can give entrepreneurs a leg-up when seeking VC funds

29-May-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

Routine headlines about multi-million – or billion – dollar venture capital investments into food and beverage startups may give the impression that VC funding is the best way to scale a business, but according to one insider the model is far from perfect...

IFT NEXT’s Start-Up Alley will showcase new solutions to stubborn problems plaguing the food industry

28-May-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

At IFT next week in New Orleans, entrepreneurs in the NEXT Start-Up Alley will show how they are combining “science, creativity and new thinking” to offer disruptive new solutions to some of the most persistent problems in the food industry, including...

Startup Steeped takes offers a single-brew coffee option with a third of the packaging of pods

14-May-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

Mounting consumer complaints about the generally lower coffee quality or waste created by many single-serve brewing options, pushed startup Steeped to create an elegant solution that is more sustainable than the ubiquitous pods on the market and that...

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Boulder Food Group shares how it hopes to invest its second fund of $100M in food & beverage startups

03-May-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

Attracted to recent high-dollar acquisitions, consumer demand for healthy and sustainable options, and the opportunities created by a diversifying retail landscape, the number of investors flocking to the food and beverage industry continues to grow exponentially...

Founder of Proper Cookie Dough leverages social media, Kickstarter to market on shoestring budget

17-Apr-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

Advertising on Facebook is about more than spreading the word about a new brand or product, it is also a tool for entrepreneurs to identify their core consumer base, which might not be who they initially thought, according to one entrepreneur who recently...

Investing in the Future of Food: Balance empathy & tension to break free from the ‘giant sea of sameness’

10-Apr-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

While the food and beverage industry is virtually oozing with innovation as entrepreneurs launch category-breaking and -making ideas at a rapid-fire clip, the full potential of many new products and companies is held back by lackluster branding that a...

Finding stevia 'polarizing', beverage brand Petal switches up its sweetener ahead of national retail launch this summer

27-Mar-2019 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Sparkling botanical beverage brand Petal has had a busy first year as the company doubled its product line with three new flavors, underwent a reformulation (swapping out stevia and erythritol for organic agave), and is now primed for national distribution...