The Food Startups Podcast

In this episode, we talk neem oil, biology, and international business with the founder of Terramera. Their products can increase crop yields over conventional and current organic pesticides, bee health and public health applications  by harnessing the power of natural plant defenses and innovative chemistry. Checkout their PROOF® Spray at Walmart and Target. This is important stuff: Karn Manhas recently traveled to Washington to talk with the Obama's about it! And have you ever had bedbugs? Karn has a background in Biology and Law. He is incredibly bright and charismatic. So it is no surprise that his company is thriving. We dig into all sorts of cool stuff: All about the Neem tree What Terramerra is at its heart Explaining their technology in layman's terms The problem with many of today's bio-pesticides How to ensure integrity in organic farming Tips on doing effective work with government entities Resources for receiving government aid What it is like to do business in India Future of organic certificati

Marlo Giudice landed in San Francisco by way of New York City and years of work in relationship management at digital marketing & Ad Tech companies. Once relocating, she quickly realized that her passion actually lay in baking and enrolled in a professional pastry education program. Today, she has expanded that recipe and Marlo's now sells five flavors of the contemporary twist on traditional biscotti across 10 SKUs. We had a great time talking about biscotti, the ups and downs of being entrepreneur, and food business strategy: Turning a family recipe into a business What motivated her to start her own food brand How Marlo transitioned from a digital marketing job to starting a bake shop Soft-baked biscotti The high's and low's of entrepreneurship On selling online and importance to the brand Amazon Fresh and Amazon Payments Coffee shop distribution Alternative channels to grocery Selected links from the episode: Marlo's Bakeshop Marlo's Bake Shop on YouTube Kiva Zip Loans Marlo's Kickstarter The Sweet

“Any time more than two people mention something, you know that it is something to consider.” Corey Hill is the founder and CEO of Indie Food Hub, a resource providing services to small and medium sized food businesses. He is driven to change the food system for the better, creating greater access for independent producers. Indie Food Hub is in the bay area and recently launched Vittle Bus to help food startups with one of the two most difficult problems: delivery logistics. The other is money, which will also be discussed in detail. Corey is passionate about helping people like you, the listener: What is the purpose of Indie Food Hub? How do you consolidate the wide array of resources for food entrepreneurs? How do I interact with IFH as a small food biz entrepreneur? Corey’s favorite food startup resources Water rights, The Big Short, and the precarious future Ideas on how to raise funds for your food business Vittle Bus – one of the brands under the IFH umbrella Stories from a childhood in Germany His exp

"I've made a lot of people wealthy, but what about me? What do l love to do?" Susan MacTavish Best creates interesting and engaging salons that have brought together some of the most creative minds of this century, from Tim Ferriss to Michael Pollan to food companies like Hampton Creek. The salons cover topics ranging from LSD to the future of death, and more. Susan also has an all-encompassing lifestyle brand, Living MacTavish. It is not unlike Martha Stewart, but well, more accessible. And not a perfectionist. Martha Stewart meets the Royal Tennenbaums. The art of casually bringing together our friends has been lost in this era of texting, social gaming, tweeting, IM’ing, and frenetic scheduling Understand: strategically executed events, dinners, and salons can be used to make contacts, promote your food brand, and get deals done. Add this to your skill set. We cover a wide array of topics in a fun interview: How she "cold-emailed" Michael Pollan and got him to show up at a salon. Tips on putting together

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”  -Hunter S. Thompson He took an adventure against doctor’s orders and it changed his life. Back to another Ohio startup (what up LeBron!), Inca Tea does not disappoint. As you'll learn today, Ryan Florio is a contrarian thinker. He does not take things at face value, which gives him an advantage in business and life. The story of Inca Tea began when Ryan and his friends hiked a treacherous Peruvian mountain trail with the help of their Sherpa Edgar. Edgar introduced them to an amazing Ancient Tea recipe combining boiling water, freshly cut apples and Purple Corn, which Peruvians consider a super food that fights against a host of medical conditions. Upon Ryan’s return home to the U.S., he quit his job, cashed in his 401K, took a second mortgage out on his home and started a company called Inca Tea, the first U.S. company to use the ingredient Purple Corn. In addition to winning several awards throughout the state of Ohio, Inca Tea’s sales continue to climb at big-brand stores

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." - Steve Jobs Kellee James exemplifies this quote. Looking at her experience, one can connect the dots and trace why she was able to start a food commodities exchange. Mercaris allows buyers and sellers of raw commodities to meet and trade online. Customers include Whole Foods Market, Michael Foods, Perdue Farms, and others. They make it possible for "everyone in the supply chain, from farmers to food manufacturers, to track prices, volumes and other statistics for organic corn, or non-GMO soybeans." Prior to Mercaris, Kellee spent five years at the Chicago Climate Exchange(CCX), the first electronic trading platform and registry for spot, futures and options contracts on carbon, sulfur, clean energy and other environmental products. In 2009, she was appointed by President Barack Obama as a White House Fellow where she advised members of the administ

Richard Willis and Bob Pierson saw the trend of food trucks before most. From their website: "The Macclenny based company is cooking up a thriving business of customizing food trucks and trailers. They have capitalized upon the public’s insatiable appetite for mobile food, the steady online buzz, and the testimonies of satisfied customers – nearly tripling their annual revenue to $1 million within the last year. Fed by reality television shows, social media, and a demand for increasingly creative trucks and food, the nation’s street vendor market has grown into a $1 billion industry." Tune in to learn: What are the keys to Bob and Richard's success? How much does it cost to start a food truck or food trailer? What traits to successful food truck owners share? How has the industry changed over the years? The M+R Recipe: 1 – Seasoned business owner with construction experience 1 – High-potential business partner proficient in computer-aided design and online marketing 1 – SBA-backed loan from community credit

"After the tour, I started meeting with him regularly to do Harley trips, and over a bottle of whiskey we both talked about doing something together, starting a business ... Let’s make a coffee machine that’s connected, that uses your patent." If you're into coffee, you may own a variety of equipment: grinder, coffee dripper, french press, an expresso machine .. what if it could all be replaced by one, smart machine? Roderick de Rode is making it a reality with his Spinn machine. (Check out the video) He got his first investment at Rockefeller Plaza; an investment banker there gave him $25K. In the past, Roderick has successfully built and managed $100M+ businesses in hardware, software and online services. We talk about the machine, entrepreneurship, and, of course, the second most traded commodity in the world, coffee: How they evolved the idea from a patent into a soon to be retail machine The downside to Keurig machines The second and third wave of coffee Why the machine will sync with local coffee roast

Tim Joseph had no farming experience. He had never even milked a cow. In 2004, he received a fast education when sixty-four cows stepped off the trailers onto his land. Thrown into the fire, Tim and his wife Laura started selling milk while Tim worked a full-time corporate job from home. In 2009, they went "all in", opened a storefront and transitioned to making dairy products, like yogurt and cheese. And the company started to grow.. Over a two-year span from 2011-2013, Maple Hill Creamery went from being on shelf in about 600 stores—mostly independents in the Northeast—to over 6,000 stores, including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Target, Walmart, Ahold, Safeway, Natural Grocers, EarthFare, and many others. Tim is also committed to building the Maple Hill Milkshed, the community of nearly eighty 100% grass-fed dairy farms in New York. A fun, incredible success story. I had a lot of questions for Tim: Working from home and dairy farming on the side, how did you manage your time? How did you make the transitio

Tim Heydon started at Shenandoah Growers via an unusual route: along with a few classmates, he wrote a case study on the company while doing his MBA nearby at James Madison University. This was 1998. Tim joined the company as CEO and has grown Shenandoah into 350 employees across 300,000 square feet of growing/packing facilities in Virginia, Texas, Indiana, and Georgia. Today, Shenandoah is the leading organic herbs supplier in the Eastern United States. How did they get here? To start, Tim is a fantastic leader. People like to work for him. Listeners will pickup on this quickly. Strong on innovation, culture, and vision, we talk about the ins and outs of Shenandoah and the keys to their success: Why Tim decided to join a herb company with no prior experience in agriculture Keys to their impressive employee retention rate On staying afloat in the often harsh and unforgiving agriculture market Their amazing content website - FreshHerbs.com (check it out!!) Cutting edge technology and how it helps their bottom

In today's interview we talk about the paradox of choice and the power of data. As Sam Slover mentioned in the interview: "If you think of a grocery store with a huge aisle of 60+ yogurts to choose from, but each of those yogurts has a slightly different (nutritional) profile", how do you choose the healthiest yogurt to eat? Sam's company, the Sage Project, is working to make in-store recommendations based on your dietary needs and help to decipher product transparency to the end consumer. Food product labels have it's limitations. Think of a "smart wikipedia for food data". What do "all-natural" and "made in small batches" mean in terms of nutrition and the preparation of a food product? They are working with a number of retailers in Whole Foods to bring the project to reality. Listen and learn how a data-driven company is on the path to transform our shopping experience: Personalized nutrition - why it matters Sam's personal journey and how the idea for Sage came about How self-tracking has had a positive

Self-driving cars, IBM's Watson, and Google's search algorithm are just a few examples of AI (Artificial Intelligence) .. it is already here. And it is rapidly becoming a bigger part of our lives. AI will change food. Listen to this quick overview as a starting point for AI Awareness, how you can start thinking about AI business ideas and some examples of AI in food startups. We'll interview some of them in the next few weeks. Don't worry, you can learn about it even if you're not technically inclined. Photo Credit: CC Sarah Wheeler Selected links from the show: Inevitable by Kevin Kelly Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell Nuritas ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN AGRICULTURE. PART 1: HOW FARMING IS GOING AUTOMATED WITH ROBOTS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN AGRICULTURE. PART 2: HOW FARMING IS GOING AUTOMATED WITH ROBOTS

Kristen Hawley is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and editor focusing on chefs and restaurants + digital and social technology. Like a lot of freelancers, she leads a fascinating life. She has worked on creative projects with OpenTable, the National Restaurant Association, TechTable Summit, SF's Nopa restaurant, SALIDO, Upserve, and more and has a background in traditional magazine publishing (Country Living, Delish). In 2013, she started the Chefs + Tech newsletter to share news, ideas, and trends in the restaurant+tech space combining her love of lifestyle, food, and restaurants with an understanding of the current technology landscape. And her newsletter has an unprecedented open rate of over 50%! It has opened up opportunities for her in the ever-evolving digital content and communications space. Kristen answers host and listener questions: What makes an interesting story? Why does a great story become mediocre after 6 months? How do you standout and be a leader in your industry? What is the best

85 dollars is the most I ever paid for a book. Not a textbook, but book. I had to have it. And it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I am a better thinker and food entrepreneur because of it. The most important takeaway from the book was the importance of having a latticework of mental models in decision making. Mental models are the key concepts from main disciplines you'll need in business - psychology, economics, finance, physics, evolution (biology) accounting, marketing, etc. In less than 10 minutes, I explain the why and I share my four favorite mental models. This can be a game changer for your prosperity/performance. I encourage YOU to follow the steps below to begin your masters in mental models. I have to say it is quite fun. First Read: Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger Then, review these two lists of models: Creating a Latticework of Mental Models: An Introduction Mental Models I Find Repeatedly Useful Finally put together a list of mental models and create flashcards to study: Anki -

Evan Delahanty is one of the few people I know who has lived in the the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. I mean taking a canoe 3 hours UP river. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Suriname, he learned a language that only 26,000 people speak (Saramaccan)! After completing his mission, he was looking for a way to stay in touch and help the community. He choose Açaí as the vehicle to accomplish that. Evan founded Peaceful Fruits, a snack company that makes delicious organic fruit snacks that create jobs for people with disabilities in Akron while helping to protect the Amazon Rainforest. I LOVE how he is helping two distinct communities!! Peaceful Fruits is currently in about 50 stores and working hard to scale up. Evan shares his journey: How he got his company off the ground Sourcing in Suriname / wild harvesting How to maintain consistency with an artisan product The joys and business advantages of working with the developmentally disabled All about Açaí, the superfruit How to scale up when working in a remote p

Seth Goldman co-founded Honest® Tea in 1998 with Professor Barry Nalebuff of the Yale School of Management. Thirteen years later they were acquired and are now a $160 million division of Coca-Cola. Today, Honest Tea is the nation’s top selling ready-to-drink organic bottled tea and Honest Kids® is the nation’s top-selling organic children/youth beverage. The brands are carried in more than 100,000 outlets in the United States, including all Wendy’s and Chik-fil-A restaurants. It was a long, tough, and fun road to get to where they are today. One of the best food business books I have ever read, Mission in a Bottle tells their story. I interviewed Seth about the book and he responded with sage advice for emerging food startups: "I can't ask others to invest if I'm not completely invested in myself." The biggest mistakes that almost put the company under Why the company needs to shift and evolve along the way Dealing with competitors inside the tent "Creating a successful company depends on your ability to suc

It's been almost three years since we started the show. Today we finally reached a milestone.  Triple digits! All this time we have spent - interviewing experts, talking to listeners, and going through the trials and tribulations of a food startup ourselves - we have picked up a lot of ideas on how to succeed. This knowledge needs to be shared. So I synthesized all of this feedback and advice into recommendations on how to get in front of buyers and sell to them over a long-term relationship. Enjoy! Selected links from the episode: When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers

Over the last 6 months, we have had many listener requests for a packaging/branding episode. It took a while, but I finally found the experts. Jordan Hill and Fed Pacheco met when in the design program at the University of North Texas. Upon graduation they took separate paths as art directors in different global ad agencies, working on global and national accounts. A move to New York in 2014 reignited the spark to partner once again, and Hungry Studio was formed over the love of a good meal and the longing to make beautiful work. They work with large and small food companies and help them with all aspects of branding, packaging and design. Hear their story and take notes: What is a strong brand? Experience with big brands and what they learned Package design as it is related to branding How to find your story The role of brands in today's market What is the value of great packaging design? How to choose a designer/agency Case studies on successful branding/design work How much should you budget for design/pa

The original title was "Growth Stories from Blue Crabs to the Bronx to Brooklyn to Boston".. full of alliteration but a bit too long.   Sean Butler has been slowly moving north through his life, adding skills and experiences. The current stop of his journey is VP of Growth at one of the hottest startups in New England. Sean joined LeanBox pre-revenue, and has grown with the company as it expanded from 3 to 42 employees in two years.  LeanBox delivers customized inventories of meals, salads, sandwiches, snacks, and beverages to hi-tech refrigerators at 200+ companies in New England, including Uber, Amazon, and Microsoft. Cold brewed coffee, organic snacks, cold-pressed juice and more. The million dollar question: with software, hardware, sourcing, logistics, and more, how are they able to run multiple businesses at once? We go behind the scenes: Culture shock: moving from the country to the Bronx Witnessing a shooting .. and moving to Brooklyn On managing multiple businesses at once Unusual tactics to get you

Pietro Guerrera and Filippo Lubrano reached breakeven in 2015 with their European venture. But they are thinking BIG. They recently launched in the U.S. with a new subscription box business model. Eattiamo brings exclusive, gourmet Italian products to your doorstep. On the outside, the products are fantastic and the design is beautiful. On the inside, like most startups, they are putting in serious WORK. Sourcing, importing, storage, logistics, marketing and sampling .. the hustle is on.Starting from scratch in a new country is not easy. Get the inside scoop: Why they expanded to the U.S. Life in New York Communicating the value and telling the story of their food Utilizing the international experience and diverse skill set of the founders Italian Food vs “Italian American Food”  How they plan to gain subscribers Selected links from the show: Eattiamo Sourcing - The ROI Olive Oil Mill Chef's Table