Greetings Food Entrepreneurs!
Another wonderful Brown Bag Lunch meet up Tuesday. Several eager students dropped in to get connected, share their business ideas and giving each other good feedback.
News and Cool Stuff
Conversation over paper vs plastic bags. What do you all think?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444165804578006832478712400.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124473522987806581.html
PacoJet Ice Cream Maker- Rather than slowly churning some plastic paddles, it spins a set of high-strength silver or titanium-nitrate blades at 2,000 RPMs. The blades power through the frozen block in seconds, turning it into the familiar ice cream.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/06/pacojet-high-end-technology-smart-luxury-icecream-maker.html
Student Startup Ideas
There was seven of us present but this week, but we got to hear ideas and updates from four entrepreneurs.
Margaret, a student of the social entrepreneur Bridging Disciplines Program is interested in opening up a restaurant with a flexible pay scale. She is also looking for collaborators on the UT Micro Farm (See last week’s notes). Check out the Survey for the new Food Studies BDP program.
Jessi, a graduate student in Urban and Regional Planning is in the process of getting more fresh produce into convenience stores. She is looking for local farm partnerships and wants to utilize already existing infrastructure. She gots some connections to talk with at in.gredients about small convenience grocery stores and local farm partnerships. And was encourage to meet some people working on the Food for Black Thought projects.
Krishna, a student starting up a Indian snack company, is aiming to provide a variety of sweet and savory products. The group got to try out some diverse treats from South Asia. Jalebi, the Indian Funnel Cake as we started to call it, was crunchy with a creamy jelly on the inside. Some more snacks we tried were Spicy Boondh, Mixed Mithai, and others. We talked about the importance of packaging for specialized product like this. The group shared ideas about we could design a unique packet and we made some decisions on what steps to take next.
Henry, a senior in history is in works to create a Gourmet Marshmallow Company. In addition to Marshmallows, he and his family are going to produce jellies and sorbet. We talked the importance of incorporating his family history of making these foods into his products. Business is personal and that be reflected in his marketing/branding. We came up with potential collaborations with a local hot chocolate company? Check out Dr. Metcalfe’s review of a new sipping chocolate company.
Few more links mentioned:
social cause http://smoresgrant.blogspot.com/
idea for unique gourmet marshmallows http://www.plushpuffs.com/
provide local marshmallows to coffee shops http://www.halcyonaustin.com/slide/tableside-smores/
get ideas from spaghetti companies - https://www.jelly.com/product/1028/artichoke-heart-and-asiago-cheese-pasta-sauce
If you have any ideas or resources, we invite your share them in the comments below and come have lunch with us next week!
