Christina Ng

It’s a staple of the past few years that anyone who has come up with a good idea – or thinks she has – has probably thought about putting it up on Kickstarter.

While snacks have long been defined by in-between meal consumption, consumers increasingly utilize the small food servings as meal replacements, and entrepreneurs would be wise to take advantage of this expanding market.

Nina Hooper is a Harvard astrophysics student by day and a “guilt-free,” vegan, chocolate lava cake baker by night – well, by early morning. At 6 a.m. several days of the week, Hooper gets up to bake cakes for her business, Holistic, which is now a project on Kickstarter.

Entrepreneurs who understand how a small-scale grocery service works will understand many of the demands and considerations bigger retailers will have when it comes to carrying their products — but they also have the benefit of understanding the way these new, web-based grocers function, as well.

While starting a local, grocery delivery service is not something we typically hear about from food and beverage entrepreneurs on the producing end, the process of forming the business and getting the necessary connections with suppliers and distributors is actually very similar.

Multicultural consumers currently account for more than 38 percent of the total U.S. population and by 2044, the U.S. Census predicts they will become the numeric majority.

For entrepreneurs, the shift represents a major opportunity to innovate and attract a rapidly growing consumer set that’s already altering the food and beverage landscape.

In FBU’s final series of interviews with attorney Adam Dash, we focus on intellectual property law and contracts between companies and their employees and third party contractors. These two segments will help entrepreneurs better understand how to protect their brands and also shed some light on the importance of having a contract between themselves and the people they work with.

FBU attended several of the educational sessions featured at the 2015 Natural Products Expo West, and it was apparent that the ones focused on special diets were drawing in the biggest crowds. While not an examination of the science behind the diets, the sessions did focus on the evolution and rise in consumer adoption of each, and, consequently, the effect on innovation for manufacturers.

In part one of our interview with attorney Adam Dash, we focused on what entrepreneurs need to know about forming a business entity. Today, we’re continuing the discussion with Dash, who talks about the permits, licenses and regulations that food or beverage entrepreneurs will require when launching and expanding their businesses.

If you work in the natural or healthy products industry, chances are you were at Expo West this past weekend. It’s the world’s largest natural products trade show and though the process was somewhat of a disorienting experience – hacking our way through rows of nearly 3,000 exhibitors, trying out hand creams, puffed quinoa and vegan burger patties alike – FBU found the experience to be equally exhilarating.