2 Foodtrepreneurship & Foodtrepreneur
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Define foodtrepreneurship
- Differentiate foodtrepreneur and foodtreprenuer mindset
- Assess whether you might be a foodtrepreneur or have a foodtrepreneurial mindset
Foodtrepreneurship aims to solve food-based problems through enterprise startup or any innovative solutions in a myriad of forms.
Entrepreneurship is an enormous subject warranting degrees and a plethora of books. Much of the focus in the entrepreneurial realm is dedicated to all enterprise startups in all sectors, focusing on software development, technology, and computer-based innovations. The technology focus is not unwarranted, but it is not necessarily always relevant to the food industry startup. Given the vastness of the subject, identifying and elaborating on food entrepreneurship has merit. It is beneficial to pull out sectors or categories to provide specificity, direction, and context.
When you look around and listen intently, you can bear witness to problems everywhere. People will tell you what is wrong with things. You will be aware of tools or objects not meeting the mark on speed or ease. You might notice that products are not packaged effectively or delivered efficiently, etc.
Consider the RX Bar. Before creating a simplified high protein nutritional bar, people bought nutritional bars that had a lot of ingredients and often ingredients that did not read as natural or “clean”. These bars that were not clean left a void especially for the cross fit clients that were growing in numbers. The founders of RX bar didn’t believe it had to be this way and began working out a basement to create a product that would be “clean” high in protein and nutritious. A problem was registered in the mind of the entrepreneurs. A solution was conceived and a product engineered to be applied eventually. They then distributed them to the CrossFit gyms and as CrossFit gyms grew in the physical fitness world’s zeitgeist so to did the RX bars. Consider how this bar has impacted the nutritional bar market.
In the RX Bar example, we can see the process
- There is a problem
- There is an awareness of the problem
- There is a desire to solve the problem
- There is confirmation through research and data that the problem warrants and demands a solution.
- There is an effort to solve the problem.
- There are iterations to the efforts that fall short of the solution
- There is success in solving the problem
- A path is developed for the production, roll-out, and or distribution of the solution.
- Market testing and or the proof in the public eye or end consumer
It is rarely a straight line from awareness of the problem to the production and distribution of a solution. In fact, it is more often the case that multiple iterations are attempted to solve the problem, and many failed attempts are the norm. The whole process of solution exploration and attempt is a learning process and adaptive. In the space of failure and reconceiving is the resilience and persistence needed to be an effective entrepreneur. It is where a person understands their commitment to the solution and/or enthusiasm with offering another option.
Food as we know it today has been a series of creatives like the RX Bar innovator witnessing problems and creating solutions everything from how we raise chickens, how we package all of our foods, the equipment we produce food on, and ultimately how the food gets into the mouths and bellies of our customers.
Examples of current Chicago companies applying innovation:
- Sprinkles Cupcakes https://sprinkles.com/ . The problem or question they might have asked themselves could have gone something like, how do you get customers cupcakes at all hours despite not being open? The solution, after probably a lot of brainstorming and spitballing, was to create a cupcake ATM. A customer craving a cupcake at 12 midnight can still access their desired food without having a retail store be open and have employees having to work all hours of the day and not compromise on the quality.
Attribution: Sprinkles ATM by IslandWorks is licensed CC0 on Pixabay
- Farmers Fridge, https://www.farmersfridge.com/our-story/ This company undoubtedly recognized the lack of and need for fresh, healthy fast alternatives to fast food in highly-populated business districts and created a fresh food vending system for Chicagoland.
- You can look at The Hatchery a Chicago innovation hub where entrepreneurs are working collectively https://thehatcherychicago.org/our-entrepreneurs/
We are continually being presented with food-based problems that need to be solved. If you are someone who sees, hears, tastes, and or thinks about food-based problems and how to solve them, you are likely an aspiring Foodtrepreneur, or at a minimum, you have a Foodtrepreneur mindset. You are the one who might solve the thing that others do not even yet recognize as a problem.
For this book, the main defining factor between a Foodtrepreneur and someone with a Foodtrepreneur mindset is that the Foodtrepreneur creates an entity or business to provide the solution and has a Foodtrepreneurial mindset. A person with a Foodtrepreneurial mindset can solve food-based problems in any environment, but it is not restricted to creating a new entity or business. An example of this would be your work in a restaurant, and you notice that the customers are always complaining about the use of styrofoam packaging. You are being made aware of the problem, decide you want to work to solve it, research other ways to package and associated costs, put together a pitch to present to your manager, and adopt your solution. You are mirroring the process outlined above but benefitting your employer instead of creating a new company.
A way to assess whether or not you have an entrepreneurial mindset is to follow this link https://badges.newworldofwork.org/quiz/entrepreneurial-mindset
Watch the videos and answer the questions.
To Assess whether you are entrepreneurial: https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/entrepreneur-toolkit/business-assessments/self-assessment-test-your-entrepreneurial-potential
"Entrepreneurial Mindset" (2013) by Kauffman Sketchbook is licensed all rights reserved.
"Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset" by Sprouts is licensed CC BY 4.0
Library Companion Resources:
Entrepreneurial Career Assessment
from Illinois Career Information System
“The Entrepreneurial Career Assessment can help you learn more about entrepreneurs and more about yourself. By taking the assessment, you can gain insight into the differences between being self-employed and working for an employer. When you rate your response to each statement, you may understand why self-employment appeals to you. You may also learn about areas where you need to improve.”
