Expert Insights: Quick Tips on Food Entrepreneurship from Cullen Gilchrist, CEO and Founder of Union Kitchen

The food industry is an exciting space for entrepreneurs, with countless opportunities for new and meaningful products to enter the market. But food entrepreneurs also face unique challenges when launching and sustaining their ventures, particularly in times of uncertainty like the COVID-19 pandemic.

To help guide food entrepreneurs through their business journey, the LIFE Project created this Expert Insights video series with Consortium member Union Kitchen. Cullen Gilchrist, Union Kitchen CEO and Founder, shares his advice for current and aspiring food entrepreneurs, drawing from his own experiences and observations in the food incubator. Union Kitchen is among the leading food and beverage business accelerators in the U.S., and provides the LIFE Project with tried and true expertise on facility design and operations, member management, and sustainability. Based in Washington, D.C. Union Kitchen's program guides entrepreneurs through establishing their businesses, from concept to launch, launch to local saturation, and multi-regional expansion with a tailored curriculum, networks, and strong local ecosystem.

Expert Insights: Starting and Scaling Your Food Business

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Expert Insights: Biggest Mistakes When Starting Out

“In entrepreneurship, you’re really taking the value of yourself and your passion, and trying to bring it to market.”

The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is thinking of a product that they want, rather than a product that the world wants and they can be passionate about. Entrepreneurs should find a product that not only has a demand, but also a reason behind it.

Expert Insights: How to Save Cash

“In the early stages you are going to make a lot of mistakes. But the experience of getting things wrong is what will, in the future, enable you to get things right”

Keeping costs low is critical, especially in the early stages of starting a business. Entrepreneurs should be thoughtful about the cash they have, and limiting startup costs such as packaging, design, legal fees, and other expenses that can be done later when entrepreneurs are more experienced and have a better understanding of their needs.

Expert Insights: What to Spend on When Starting Out

“You want to have a clear strategy that you can execute, and to do that, you need to have a product on the shelf. So focus your capital on that.”

Entrepreneurs should focus expenses on the most critical elements to get to market: packaging, ingredients, and everything that it takes to put a product on the shelf. Big-picture investments such as PR should come later.

Expert Insights: E-Commerce Quick Tips

“The key is to be full and up front, to have all your products, have the prices, and make it easy for people to buy.”

The fundamentals of e-commerce are the same as physical sales: products have to be visible (or available online with good photos), prices have to be clearly marked and competitively set, and potential customers have to be able to find you.

Expert Insights: Favorite Business to Help Build

“To work as a team, to employ all the lessons we learned, and then to see it on shelves across the country has been pretty cool.”

The most exciting businesses to help build are ones that start with a great idea and connect it with what consumers want.

Expert Insights: Favorite Learning Experience

“The food industry touches everything. It’s not an isolated world where you just do one thing, but rather you are doing something that is a part of everything.”

Entrepreneurs learn in so many different stages in the food industry - and they learn fast. From learning to produce a satisfying product, to establishing a team, entrepreneurs will face challenges at each stage. But at the end, seeing customers enjoy the food they created is their reward.

Expert Insights: Building a Successful Business During COVID-19

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Expert Insights: Starting a Business During COVID-19

“We’re strong believers that now is the perfect time to start a business.”

Despite the challenging environment, entrepreneurs have built businesses that are highly adaptable and responsive to uncertainty. This will strengthen their business well beyond the pandemic

Expert Insights: New Opportunities for Entrepreneurs from COVID-19

“These challenges allow entrepreneurs to test themselves, and to build solutions. And that’s really what I think an entrepreneur is about.”

Despite the challenging environment from COVID-19, entrepreneurs have seen new opportunities emerge. Pivoting to meet shifting consumer demand for packaged products and online shopping has opened new opportunities for businesses to scale and expand their offerings.

Expert Insights: Pivoting to On Demand

“We’ve seen many businesses make this transition to online spaces and the in-demand space, and they found success.”

Catering businesses that face decreased demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic can pivot their business models to online and delivery-based on-demand services. This removes the need for large events and in-person activities from their business operations.

Expert Insights: Tips to Adapt During COVID-19

“Really focusing on sustainable business models where they’re able to maintain their own cash has been a tremendous shift that food businesses have taken.”

Food businesses have found success in adaptation strategies during COVID-19. These strategies include focusing on flexibility, and building products that provide better margins and long-term returns without relying on outside capital.

Expert Insights: Ways to Attract Customers

“Having a strong online presence, and having a strong physical presence that tells your story without you having to be there is a really powerful way to attract people to your company.”

During COVID, attracting customers to your brand and your product is especially crucial because in-person interactions are limited. However, the fundamental strategies are the same: entrepreneurs have to be able to speak to people - even if through digital channels - and make sure their product finds customers where they are, whether in a store or online.

Expert Insights: What are People Buying

“As people are focusing on cooking at home and staying to the basics, it’s been interesting to see the consumer shift towards that in significant ways.”

In times of uncertainty, customers turn to the basics - and that’s what we see today during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthy foods, organic products, and immunity-boosting products are incredibly popular, as are basic staples such as flour, milk, and butter.