Nevada City – This January, Sierra Commons will launch a new five-week course to teach food entrepreneurs the skills they need to bring their products to market and become a thriving brand.
Early Bird Registration is now open for the course called the Food Entrepreneur Accelerator. The student cohort will take a deep dive with an A-list of like-minded founders and leaders who will teach the fundamentals of starting and scaling an artisan food business, with an emphasis on navigating a rural and regional food system.
“This launch culminates a year’s worth of careful planning and development. It not only provides an essential resource for locals starting and growing sustainable food-related businesses, it also represents an important milestone for our regional food system. With more locally produced food products, using more locally grown ingredients, our community will ultimately become healthier and wealthier,” said Sierra Commons Executive Director Robert Trent.
The course will be held Jan. 16 – Feb 15. In-person classes will be held Tuesday and Thursday nights from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and Online Accountability Meetups will be held Wednesdays from noon to 1 p.m.
Built on the successful formula of the Business Ignitor Course going strong since 2010, the Food Entrepreneur Accelerator course focuses specifically on starting or growing a food product business.
Like the popular Business Ignitor Course, the new food curriculum will cover core topics and provide one-to-one advising through the Sierra Small Business Development Center (SBDC), industry contacts, accountability meetups, peer mentoring and a pitch fest with expert feedback.
The program is broken up into nine class sessions led by expert instructors, a round table discussion with established food entrepreneurs and a pitch fest with a panel of business experts and community food stakeholders. A graduation celebration at the end of the course will round out the experience.
Topics include Food Permits, Processed Food Registration (PFR) and Food Safety; Non-traditional Funding Opportunities; Manufacturing and Scalability; Getting on the Shelf – Pricing and Distribution; Sourcing, Storage, and Packaging; Building Your Team and Streamlining Operations and Building Your Brand.
Instructors include Amy Irani, Director of Environmental Health of Nevada County, Mani Niall-Founder at Mani’s Test Kitchen, Chris Maher General Manager at BriarPatch Food Co-op, Arno Hesse Co-founder Investibule, Dana Frasz Founder of Food Shift.net and Chelsea Bialla – Chief Marketing Officer at BOBABAM.
“Food is a cherished connector in all communities. Yet it remains a blind spot in most investment portfolios. Only half of the US economy is represented on Wall Street. The other half are the small and medium businesses in our communities. We know that healthy and sustainable food has to be local. That’s why investors need to feed locally what feeds them,” said course instructor Aron Hesse. Hesse Co-founded Credibles and Investibule and is a founding member, investor, regional coordinator for Slow Money Northern California.
The curriculum of the Food Entrepreneur Accelerator course emphasizes food production but anyone with a food business stands to benefit from the course, including caterers, restaurant and food truck owners, say organizers.
“We hope that caterers and restaurants consider exploring adding retail products to their offerings. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know. We adjust content once registration is closed to best meet the needs of our students,” said Trent.
Early Bird registration begins now and a free introductory call will be held on Dec. 11 for folks who are interested in the program and have questions. Registration is required for the Dec. 11 info session and can be made at the link below. Early Bird Registration ends on Jan. 2 and Regularly Priced Registration closes on Jan. 12.
Sign up for the information session and learn more at www.sierracommons.org
Since 2009, Sierra Commons has been committed to creating a more sustainable and resilient local economy by helping folks turn their passions into jobs with a purpose.