Baking & Snack - November 2019 - 38

STARTUP BRANDS

How incubators are nurturing
innovation one program at a time
Startup founders are typically closely connected to their product. The Safe + Fair Food
Co. owners created allergen-free snacks for
their kids who needed a safe choice.
The Safe + Fair Food Co.

"There's a
magnetism to
startup brands
that a lot of legacy
brands don't have.
Consumers want
to see what's
behind a business
and a brand more
than ever."
Jim Stengel, The Jim Stengel Co.

food and beverage entrepreneurs. "Access through digital
sources including Facebook and
Instagram and informationsharing online has spurred more
interest around what we eat and
led to adventurous eating."
Maybe it's a consumer inclination to side with the underdogs.
"Startups have risen up in pop
culture," said Jim Stengel, previous global marketing officer
at Procter & Gamble and now
president and CEO of The Jim
Stengel Co., a consulting firm
and think tank, and host of The
CMO Podcast. "Who are the
heroes today? Certainly not the
big companies."
Could it be that legacy brands
have stalled in growth or that
consumer needs have changed
and aren't being met?
Whether consumer interest is
a result of some of these circumstantial reasons, or all of them,
there are also some tactical advantages at play that have given
startups the extra boost.

Just do it - with speed
A startup selling a bakery item
or snack begins on a small scale.
Not only are the founders making cookies or snack bars in their
kitchen, but the teams also usually consist of only a few people.
Communication and ideas flow
freely, and without a corporate
umbrella, the sky is the limit for
what ideas they can try.
When it comes to the big
businesses, there are policies
and procedures that can slow
down innovation, though they
have many teams in place to
experiment with new products
and flavors. One idea could be

38 Baking & Snack November 2019 / www.bakingandsnack.com

In addition to acquiring new companies,
many big brands are also creating programs and departments that partner with
startups to teach and grow them. These
legacy brands are becoming business
incubators to keep their innovation fresh
and timely through smaller companies.
SnackFutures, an independently operated unit of Mondelez International, Inc.,
Deerfield, IL, launched in 2018 and seeks
"invention, reinvention and venture."
The investment hub not only supports
startups, but on the flipside, Mondelez
International has innovation opportunities
it wasn't able to tap into before. It has invested in companies such as Hu Products,
New York, which includes paleo-friendly
and clean label snacks, and Uplift Food,
New York, which focuses on functional
ingredients. Mondelez also supports The
Hatchery Chicago, a nonprofit food and
beverage incubator that provides access
to commercial-grade production space,
resources and financing.
301 INC, an emerging food brand
elevator through General Mills,
Minneapolis, can help with marketing,
product development, supply chain
and channel development. It currently
partners with snack companies such as
Purely Elizabeth, Boulder, CO; No Cow,
Denver; Farmhouse Culture, Chicago,
and more.
In 2018, Springboard, a platform developed by Chicago-based Kraft Heinz Co.
to scale up disruptive brands, took on its
first Incubator Program class. A second
class was announced in 2019 and includes
five companies: Blake's Seed Based,
Chicago, which offers protein bars made
of seeds; Brami, New York, creator of lupini beans; Ka-Pop! Ancient Ingrained Snack
Co., Erie, CO, which develops popped
chips; Origin Almond, Philadelphia, maker
of cold-pressed almond juice, and
Tiny Giants Food, Los Angeles, a plantbased alternative for yogurt.
PepsiCo, Inc., Purchase, NY, developed
a Nutrition Greenhouse accelerator program in North America after successfully
implementing the program in Europe.
A 6-month course provides one-on-one
mentoring and funding for 10 food and
beverage startups in the US or Canada.
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