The “Food Startup Academy” is a practice-oriented program for founders and startups
The Food Startup Incubator (FSIWS) has launched a new training program in October 2023: An 8-week course that provides founders or startups who are still at the beginning of their business idea with all the important content about starting a business in the food sector. The academy is practical and part-time, aimed primarily at crafts, gastronomy and agriculture.
In October 2023, 10 participants started the Food Startup Academy. The program started directly on site at the Institute for Food Technology at Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University, where the FSIWS is located. This was followed by three days with an interactive program from design thinking, business model canvas, team building to product development and sensor technology. Here the FSIWS received active support from our partners StartinFood with Christine Purnell and Walther Bruckschen as well as from the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) with Moritz Hoffmann.
The 3-day workshop was followed by 6 weeks of online-based seminars on other topics from food production and entrepreneurship. Particular highlights were the external speakers from Straub Verpackungen with Anne Dieterle, who presented sustainable packaging solutions to the founders, and Alexander Grimm, who explained sales strategies based on his own many years of experience. Of course, special attention was also paid to financial planning, including individual coaching carried out by Christine Purnell (StartinFood) and Jerome Hamacher (SCE).
At the end of the program in week 8, our founders came back to the FSIWS. Here they learned first-hand from Selda Morina, innovation manager at the REWE Süd Startup Lounge, how their products can successfully get into the food retail sector and stay there in the long term. Successful market entry also requires the right brand building and packaging design. Katharina Schiessl covered this topic as an independent graduate designer.
The following day things got exciting again. In a final pitch, the academy participants were able to win food retail coaching for the REWE Süd Startup Lounge with Selda. And instead of just one coaching session, two coaching sessions were given. The product ideas that won were: reduced-sugar cake mixes and vegan mozzarella.
Many thanks to everyone involved who made it possible for us to put together such a great program!
The next academy will start in March 2024. For all further information: https://fsiws.com/wissens-hub/certificate-food-startup-gruendung/ , write to info@fsiws.com
