Top Feature

This week’s featured guests, investors Wayne Wu (VMG) and Robert Brown (Encore Consumer Capital), offer financing advice and discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on investment in food and beverage companies, from sourcing and closing deals to changing terms.

Three entrepreneurs believe they have figured out how to succeed as a food and beverage brand: plan for a bit of failure. The Naked Market launched into retail late last year as a food and beverage platform “for millennials, by millennials.” With the debut of their third product, AvoCrazy avocado puffs, earlier this month, the company feels it’s now dialed in a pathway to see a “grand slam.”

As the food industry adjusts to some version of ‘new normal,’ legislation was introduced this week to extend food workers’ financial protections during COVID-19, while the SAFE Banking Act for cannabis businesses was added to the House’s latest stimulus bill. Here’s the latest COVID-19 news from around the industry this week.

One month after announcing the cancellation of Summer Fancy Food Show 2020, originally slated to take place June 28 through 30 in New York City, the Specialty Food Association (SFA) has followed up by enacting several cost-saving measures.

On Tuesday, May 19 at 3 p.m. ET, investors Wayne Wu (VMG) and Robert Brown (Encore Consumer Capital) will offer financing advice and discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on investment in food and beverage companies, from sourcing and closing deals to changing terms.

NOSH’s Pitch Slam, presented by 301 Inc., returns this summer — virtually. Although the current pandemic has hit the pause button on in-person events like NOSH Live, early-stage food brands are still growing and evolving, and now more than ever they deserve a platform to share their latest innovations.

In this video, NOSH editor Carol Ortenberg spoke with Alex Marx, director of category management for KeHe, about how he has seen the retail industry shift and how innovation has a key role to play in helping the market to recover from disruption.

What do you do when your revenue practically disappears overnight? For healthy office snacks and meals startup Oh My Green, the shuttering of offices across the US at first left the company with a highly uncertain future. Now, the company is pivoting, launching a direct-to-home snack box model that the company hopes will help it survive and hire back many of the employees it had previously laid off.

Consumers’ salty snacking appetites seem to grow with more time spent at home — and brands, facing decreased store trip frequency, have quickly had to adjust their retail channel strategy and product mix to help keep them satisfied.

The eleventh round of Elevator Talk Livestream features leaders from Suji’s, HARVST, Renewal Mill, Nightfood, Kefla, Gharana Foods and more. Watch founders and CEOs jump into the livestream and provide a brief recap of recent news and updates. This week’s special co-host is Lauren Jupiter, managing partner at AF Ventures.