Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/567722
agriculture. Everything else stems from that—local, seasonal, organic, direct to table. Then, what we do with those sources of food. What are the common denominators in the companies you choose to mentor? The central focus is straightforward: good agriculture and food as close to its original form as possible, and logistics and delivery mech- anisms that are as sensible as possible. Therefore, local and organic will make sense, not only because that's better food, but because it's a much better business case. It's fundamentally about restoring the inefficiencies that are in the industrial agriculture and food system. Does your experience organizing protests in Tiananmen Square relate to your work today? The connection is more than accidental. A unique element in the Food-X program is to bring the movement mentality into solution community building. If we do our job right, we see our businesses not [simply being about] building technology or products or services; they're really building behavioral change. That takes a community. The most effective way of building that community is impact- focused efforts. It's not only efficient, it builds authenticity. If we pick a good team—that's our first and foremost goal—they could have their initial product that could work in more than one way. We have an internal standard: Does this idea have clear and obvious intent, and have the potential to affect 100 million people or more? When you're talking about solutions at that scale, you're talk- ing about cultural and behavior changes. This is not cause market- ing. That's commonly used today. I tell the companies in my orien- tation, sure, market and spin that as much as you want, but always, always with the benefit of truth. Is technology the most important element right now in creating change? I wouldn't say it's the most important element; it's a given. The key thing about the importance of technology in this space is that it's so common. It makes communication easy, at pretty much no cost, and is equally available to all. It's actually giving the advantage to any startup. Who are some of the startups you've signed on? True Made Food has a line of condiments, recently exhibited at the Fancy Food Show. Their main product is a "ketchup." I use quotes because, according to FDA regulations, their ketchup cannot be called ketchup because it's all vegetables. It's the only ketchup I allow my children to eat. If you're still eating hamburgers and fries, at least every time you do so there's a lot of vegetables in the condiment. Amp Your Good gives people the opportunity to donate healthy food instead of canned food to hunger relief. They're the Kickstarter for food donations. UGoSmoothie, a smoothie vending machine, is fast food but instead of corn syrup bottled water coming out, it's a fruit and veg- etable smoothie. When we saw that, we thought the school oppor- tunity is so immediate. Nextdoorganics from Brooklyn is a super CSA. What we thought was missing from CSAs is that it's hard enough to switch grocery shopping behavior, but even harder to do it twice a year. What was missing was a 12-month produce-plus-protein, value- added CSA. They serve hundreds of families already. Our business app, Servy, is the anti-Yelp. Their business is about power data. They provide private reviews to restaurants and chefs, filling a void in what Yelp and TripAdvisor created. They've practically democratized the secret shopper. They use a data- focused approach, showing the secondary patterns, such as fresh produce selling better in a certain demographic during a certain time. They've become valuable because they show patterns that humans are just not as good at noticing as computers. What is social media's role? We see our social channels not just as a communication channel but as a mobilization channel. The company who does [social] well succeeds much faster. And it's available to all at no cost. It's a very important element that's come out of the modern social movement. Do you focus internationally or locally? We have applicants from all over the world, from Africa to Brazil to Brooklyn. Organically, we are now focusing more on the New York area because there's so much we can help with immediately. On this third round of applications, we've narrowed down the companies that come out of other geographies to those with a busi- ness idea or company at a stage that's ready to enter the New York market, giving them a foothold in the culinary capital of the world, followed by the U.S. market. What do you hope the food landscape looks like in 10 years? I hope the list of big names in food and agriculture will be different than we see today, but some are not yet invented, and some will come out of Food-X. Denise Shoukas is a contributing editor to Specialty Food Magazine. "We have an internal standard: Does this idea have clear and obvious intent, and have the potential to afect 100 million people or more?" FALL 2015 89