New Venture Advisors is privileged to work alongside powerful forces driving progress toward building food systems we can all be proud of. These forces—our collaborators, partners, clients, visionaries—are leaders in changing how we think about food. As a returning feature of our blog, we voice our gratitude and place the spotlight on the people and […]
Earlier this year I had an incredible opportunity to join Pasture One, a mission-driven distributor of sustainable, grass-fed beef. Our small team had a mandate to support ranchers using techniques that promote carbon sequestration and grasslands regeneration. While the opportunity was shorter-lived than anticipated, it was a fantastic experience. Unfortunately, the business closed suddenly due […]
New Venture Advisors is privileged to work alongside powerful forces driving progress toward building food systems we can all be proud of. These forces—our collaborators, partners, clients, visionaries—are leaders in changing how we think about food. As a returning feature of our blog and newsletter, we will voice our gratitude and place the spotlight on […]
Last night I had the genuine pleasure of sharing a few remarks about sustainable food systems with a group of food industry professionals in Chicago. It was an event hosted by Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network, formed last year to catalyze the 4,500 food companies in Chicago into an economic engine to drive growth, create […]
Anyone reading the food news these days would think that Big Food is dead. In recent years, analysts have been alert to the trends, publishing excellent reports such as Is Big Food In Trouble? (A.T. Kearney/The Hartman Group, 2016), Invasion of the bottle snatchers: Smaller rivals are assaulting the world’s biggest brands (The Economist, 2016) […]
Two years ago my husband and I became the co-owners of EcoEnclose, a business that manufactures and distributes sustainable shipping solutions to eco-focused ecommerce businesses. Through my many years as a management consultant and then a food entrepreneur, my husband’s many years in finance and private equity, and our four combined years of business school, […]
Anyone who has attempted to launch a food business knows how difficult it can be. Whether it’s raising capital, finding and retaining talent, balancing a side hustle with a full time job or finding reliable co-packers, we hear lots of stories from entrepreneurs that raise our sympathies and admiration. But nowhere have I encountered a […]
Two weeks ago the Good Food Business Accelerator kicked off its second year. The GFBA is a fellows program that assists Midwest farms and food entrepreneurs with mentoring, training, sales support and financing to launch and grow their businesses. I worked with FamilyFarmed.org in the conception of and strategy for the accelerator, and conducted trainings […]
We sometimes get calls from business leaders who are stuck. They lay out a number of issues hoping we can help them. This might be an owner of a food hub that has been in operation and growing rapidly for several years but is still not making profits, or an entrepreneur who launched a new […]