Starting a food business these days is pretty easy. Sustaining and scaling a food business? Not so much. How do you choose the right path to take your food business to the next level—with intensity, efficiency and authenticity? Industry-leading faculty, with expert, business-building experience, will guide you through a rigorous process of discovery to move you from insight to execution, generating new growth options, and charting the most promising path to scale.
After three immersive days of doing, experimenting and thinking, you’ll leave with actionable insights, heightened skills in identifying (and choosing between) opportunities, a cadre of advanced business tools and methods for analysis and decision-making, and your best scaling options codified in an investable launch plan.
Guest SpeakersCourse participants will engage with guest speakers who are leading industry experts in their field. Guest speakers will include Robyn Rutledge, an Operating Partner at TSG Consumer Partners, a leading strategic equity firm; and John Foraker, President and former Chief Executive Officer of Annie’s, Inc.
Founders and senior leaders of existing F&B and food-related businesses. Participants are encouraged to attend in teams of two or more.
FBS Advisory Council Co-Chair; Founder & CEO, SBG Consulting
Advisory Board
FBS Advisory Council Co-Chair; Founder & CEO, SBG Consulting
Advisory Board
You are a passionate, successful food entrepreneur with a healthy start-up. You slogged through the myriad financial, legal, regulatory and supply chain morass of the industry, secured a market position, fostered a customer base and built a brand that reflects your vision and values.
Business is good. And efficient. Now you’re thinking it could be better. BIGGER.
But you’re stuck: how do you choose the right path to level up with the same intensity and authenticity that got you started, without losing the efficiency gained?
The Scale Up Your (Authentic) Business intensive gives you the know-how and tools to make the leap into mainstream, sustainable scale, in a capital-efficient manner, while staying true to who you are.
Our world-class faculty and industry coaches know that scaling requires a magical orchestration of design and execution mastery, and are ready to get you there. Over three days, they’ll guide and push you through a high-powered, hands-on process of discovery insight to execution, generating growth options and charting the most promising path to scale.
Short, dynamic lectures are blended with intense, multihour work sessions where you’ll assess and visualize your options through the lens of the consumer, the marketplace, your organizational culture and your own leadership skills. Using cutting-edge frameworks and business-model tools, you’ll pressure-test growth options and compare their pros and cons.
Continuing feedback and critique from faculty, coaches and peers will thrust you out of your comfort zone and have you looking at yourself and your business in new ways.
You’ll learn how to:
• finance growth initiatives through equity, debt and strategic partnership
• clarify the right size for the next chapter of your business
• orchestrate a“cross-over hit”
• protect your authenticity
• build organizational capacity and capability to stretch and take the leap
• test the “permission level” of your business to move up and away from your core
• determine the right structure(s) to scale, from strategic partnerships to acquisition
It’s three inspiring, challenging, fun and fast-paced days where you get the mental and physical time and space to focus, explore, discover and chart the next stage in your growth.
You’ll leave with fresh ideas, new insights and confidence–with your best options codified into an investable plan, ready for execution.
(Faculty and guest experts subject to change.)
