The resources and tools below help lenders and investors do their due diligence on food, beverage and value-added agriculture deals.
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For Lenders and Investors
Is Food Service Right for Your Brand?
10 minute read of Free article by Edible-Alpha®
Have you overlooked a lucrative sales channel? Learn about the boundless opportunities for food and ag entrepreneurs to thrive in the diverse food service sector.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Shifting Farm Business Models
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Median on-farm household income has been negative for the past 20 years, with many farms keeping their cash flow positive by increasing their debt load. Finding new business models that allow farmers to be profitable while meeting changing consumer demand will require high-quality technical assistance and coordinated effort from multiple actors.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
How A Bank Can Strengthen Farming Communities Through Innovative Lending
1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Ephrata National Bank in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is a $1 billion community bank with 25% of their portfolio funding agricultural entrepreneurs. Lending to support new business models or premium offerings (like value-added processing) can help farmers deal with high land prices and avoid commodity agriculture's low return on assets.
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
How Tribe 9 Foods Balances Economies Of Scale With A Changing Marketplace
55 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Tribe 9 Foods secured growth capital to bring manufacturing in-house for the three brands that merged into their portfolio, something that has allowed them to have control over batch timing, batch size and product quality. In addition, in-house production allows them the flexibility to try new things and have a co-packing line of business for their core product types.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Impact Investing In Regenerative Agriculture
1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
There are investable opportunities in companies that provide support for regenerative agriculture systems and smaller, donation-supported loan funds combined with technical assistance in the $15,000-$50,000 range fill a market gap for small entrepreneurs as they scale up and seek larger sources of financing later.
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Food Business Brands Evolve With The Consumer
50 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Originally branded as Ethnic Spicery, Flavor Temptations changed their brand to fully communicate the joyful, family-building experience of making memories through Indian cooking so that their brand resonated more deeply with their target consumer. They also changed their packaging to better share their values and to stand out on grocery store shelves.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
The Capital Conundrum of Rural Economic Development
50 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
USDA programs serve not just agricultural producers but also rural businesses and rural people more broadly, including programs meant to incentivize and leverage private dollars for investment in rural areas. However, there is a big need to educate investors and entrepreneurs about realistic opportunities for investment and business development in rural America.
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
New Product Development and Rollouts For National Food and Beverage Brands: A Process
1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Big food and beverage companies start the new product development process by focusing on their target consumer and the value proposition they are offering that consumer through their brand promise. Discovering and defining a consumer driven product is much harder to do than making a food product.
Podcast about Operations for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Innovation in Food Is Different Than Tech
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Big food companies realize that they need to innovate. Rather than innovating only in-house, many have been acquiring or strategically investing in new brands at a rapid pace. Innovation in food needs to be matched with an emotional and cultural connection to the consumer through relentless communication about food company's brand promise.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Considering Manufacturing In-House? Waste Can Be A Resource That Improves Your Food Business’ Bottom...
1 hour & 15 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Zero Waste Facility Certification can improvea food business' bottom line while helping them meet existing standards for building design, construction and operations. LEED and Zero Waste Facility Certification also give them a framework to exceed standards where it makes business sense.
Podcast about Operations for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Entertainment Farming and Agri-Tourism
16 pages of Free report content by NCAT/ATTRA
Small diversified farms are ideally suited to agri-entertainment. The chief qualification for the rural landowner who expects to make a living from the land through agri-tourism is the desire and the ability to cater to tourists and meet their expectations of a farm visit.
Books or Guide about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Amazon’s Acquisition of Whole Foods Disrupts Distribution And Presents Opportunities
20 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
There are many reasons why selling food online is difficult. When cognitive neuroscientist track our brain activity as it relates to food, they find that the pleasure centers of our brains light up when we eat and even when we shop. This acquisition opens the possibility that consumers can benefit without degrading their shopping experience.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
How Much Is My Company Worth? Company Valuations With LBW Wealth Management
1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Company valuations should be done based on a rational justification of the future growth rate and future earnings of the company, as well as the fundamentals of the business model. For example, whether the company is defensibly unique and how long its competitive advantage can be sustained are both key drivers of company value.
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
True “Disruption” of Food Is Difficult
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Consumer tastes, preferences and expectations around food consumption and distribution are changing. People are demanding more healthy food while also sometimes making the foray into purchasing food items online, mostly non-perishable, potentially hollowing out the center of grocery stores.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Outline Of A Funding Request for a Food or Beverage Business
Free template by Edible-Alpha®
The focus of the narrative request for funding is to substantiatehow much of what kind of money the company needs and for what purpose. This should be done after other documentation and should be relatively brief to make it easy for lenders/investors to read. It should supplement other materials present in the financial package, like the pitch deck.
Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups | Growing and Scaling
Outline of a Farm Business Plan and Funding Request
Free template by Edible-Alpha®
While the sections of this document are similar to a business plan, this is NOT a business plan. Think of all of the contents of a drop box or other online file sharing service as the full business plan. This is a specific ask for money for a specific project. It is important that all of the numbers are the same as the ones in the accompanying Proforma financial statements.
Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
poSaNa Example Investor Pitch Presentation
Free investor pitch example by Edible-Alpha®
poSaNa organics is a manufacturer of best-in-class gluten-free cooking and baking mixes wholesaling to grocers and retailing directly online. This pitch deck is an example of an optimized pitch deck template to successfully raise money and communicate the company's business model.
Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Which Lender is Right for Your Food or Beverage Business?
20 minutes of Free video by Edible-Alpha®
There is no free money, and there is accountability and responsibility that comes with any sort of loan or even grant to your organization. Instead of a shotgun or kitchen sink approach to seeking financing, target specific funders with specific requests because each has their own requirements, needs and priorities.
Video about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
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
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