Edible-Alpha® | Edible-Alpha® Learning Center

The Locavore’s Dilemma

5 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

The limited amount of people in many communities who are able and willing to buy purely local products creates the "locavore's dilemma." This underscores the importance of using market research data to inform how big the market size is and what people are actually purchasing and where.

Video about Sales and Marketing 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

Fearless Farm Finances (The Book And Online Videos)

5+ hours of Free video (Book is Paid) by Edible-Alpha®

The updated Fearless Farm Finances 2nd Edition is a one-of-a-kind resource packed with instructions, tips and tools for setting up and managing a farm's financial system. Fearless Farm Finances covers farm financial management, farm data collection/organization, farm investment analysis, enterprise budgets, annual budgeting, business structure decisions, and more.

Books or Guide about Operations for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Working with Private Equity In Your Food or Beverage Business

10 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

Private Equity investors are interested in being an owner of a company (perhaps not the controlling interest). This means the business owner must sell the company at some point, and the sale offers a return upon the successful sale or "exit" at sale. Private Equity investors invest in some of the more high-risk investments in the marketplace.

Video about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

The Three Pillars of Yumbutter’s Brand

5 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

Matt D'Amour of Yumbutter talks about the importance of having multiple things that distinguish your food brand so you can remain defensibly unique and mitigate the risk of competition. They joined the food scene when their category (nut butters) was not crowded yet and they were positioned well to overcome roadblocks.

Video about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups | Growing and Scaling

Working With Grants Like The USDA’s Value-Added Producer Grant

15 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

The best entrepreneurial candidates for VAPG do their due diligence, looking at all aspects of the business, like financing, marketing, product testing, talking to others and hire a team (like lawyers, accountants, etc.) that can help them before rushing into the process.

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

Underground Food Collective’s Horizontally Integrated Business Model

5 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

Jonny Hunter of the Underground Food Collective talks about his company's horizontally integrated business model and the efficiencies of sharing a common a common brand, administrative services and marketing across multiple related business entities through shared ownership, experienced management and shared consumer insights.

Video about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Advice From Food Entrepreneurs to Food Entrepreneurs

35 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

Having your own business is difficult and as a founder, you start out with just you. So many things that are difficult to deal with happen in business and how you adapt is key to business survival. Finding creative revenue streams and maybe even a new business model can be the way your business survives deaths, fires and funding falling through.

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

Communicate Your Financials Well to Raise Capital

5 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®

As more and more consumers demand healthy, natural and free-from foods and as more capital and technical assistance is made available for new and innovative brands, the brands that survive will be the ones who take their communication about their financial position (and other metrics like store velocities) seriously.

Article about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Financing Your Value-Added Farm or Food Business

Financing Food and Beverage Businesses, An Overview

55 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

Food, beverage and value-added agriculture businesses need to raise money serially in order to grow. And, they need different kinds of money at different stages of their growth path. And, specific sources of money are often for specific uses, and all of this needs to be documented.

Video about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Entity Formation for Your Food Business

1 hour and 10 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

How you form your food, beverage or value-added agriculture business has huge implications for your particular business development and growth path, as well as regulatory and tax considerations. This includes what kinds of money you are able to raise.

Video about Operations for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Equity Crowdfunding

15 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

Equity-based crowdfunding (not to be confused with donation or rewards-based crowdfunding) is a new industry and it may not be worth pursuing as a source of capital for such small amounts of money from so many investors who now have an ownership stake in the business.

Video about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Market Trends in Food and Beverage – 2016

50 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®

There are many trends affecting consumers' interaction with and purchasing behavior with food, including the interest in local, organic, free-from and other claims.The consumer is overwhelmed with choice and retailers are trying to satisfy these trends to give them more choices given all of these niche diets and preferences.

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

Investor Pitch Deck Template

12 Free powerpoint slides by Edible-Alpha®

This deck provides the standard outline of topics that any food, beverage or value-added farm business would need to pitch investors on their business model. The main goal of the presentation is to communicate the vision, strategy, and business model enough to capture the investor attention and interest.

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

Wisconsin Food Processing Guide

120 pages of Free report content by University of Wisconsin-Madison

This guide covers a wide array of topics, such as regulations and licensing, selecting a food processing facility, developing products, buying equipment, labeling and packaging, marketing, insurance and liability issues, and concludes with potential exit strategies when the time comes to close or sell the business.

Books or Guide about Operations for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups

Farm Credit and Value-Added Agriculture

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

The farm credit system includes many lending organizations around the country and is a great source of financing, including for non-traditional farmers like CSAs and value-added on-farm processors. These institutions also sometimes provide educational opportunities around financial literacy, financial statements and what it takes to successfully repay a loan

Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

New National Brands Drive CPG Innovation, Inspire M&A

5 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®

Financing food businesses is getting more complicated, with national brands/CPG producers having to raise millions to support their growth. However, large, established food companies are often slow to innovate and this provides an opportunity for those companies to make a strategic investment in up-and coming brands.

Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling

Black Earth Meats Evolves Into Conscious Carnivore

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

Conscious Carnivore, a whole animal retail butcher shop in Madison, WI evolved from Black Earth Meats (Black Earth, Wisconsin), a larger scale meat production facility and wholesale brand due to business challenges and some of the advantages of retail.

Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling