Startups @ HSWT | Part 22: Honey Guad

In this interview series, HSWT presents startups that are part of the Food Startup Incubator Weihenstephan ( FSIWS ). The series presents the companies and their product ideas, how they work and how they overcome challenges.

In part 22, Andrea reports about her Freising startup 'Honigguad'. The founders receive support from the food startup incubator Weihenstephan .

Your product idea explained in a few sentences:

Honey is healthy, contains antioxidants and bioactive substances. However, the variety of honey's taste is limited to the respective costume; for many people it simply tastes "sweet" and is therefore usually relatively the same. We want to change that. We combine fruit and spices with honey to create new flavor combinations. The honey comes, of course, from our own bee colonies.

What makes your product unique?

Honigguad is unique because of our own honey. It is harvested with respect for the bees, in harmony with nature.

How did you come up with this idea?

I didn't want to eat the same honey over and over again. Of course, every honey harvest tastes different. However, since I am not a “honey purist” and love honey, I wanted to do something different based on honey.

Which aspects of the product, packaging and sales are particularly important to you with regard to a possible market launch?

Honey is a purely natural product. We depend on nature in all its facets, we treat our bees with respect. Because in nature bees can get along without humans, but humans need bees. 75% of global food crops require help from bees to pollinate them.

What difficulties did you have to overcome in the product development process?

The consistency of the honey in combination with the other ingredients sometimes made me despair. The spreads should be spreadable and, above all, stay that way.

How did you motivate yourself when things weren't going so well?

Then we looked back and saw what we had already achieved. And realized that it was worth just not giving up.

Working together as a team certainly wasn't or isn't always easy, right? How did you design this so that it works well?

We have a clear division. I make 'Honigguad' and everything that goes with it (marketing, recipe, etc.) on my own. Christine, my wife, does everything that has to do with beekeeping (honey harvesting, bee care, etc.).

What was the most triumphant or emotional moment for you so far?

When our 'Honigguad' jars were on the shelf of a farm shop for the first time.

Do you exchange ideas or network with other startups? How?

The FSIWS monthly get-togethers via Zoom have helped me through emotional startup lows every now and then because I then had the feeling that I was not alone. The FSIWS summer festival was also interesting for exchanging ideas with other startups.

What tips can you give other startup founders in the food industry or elsewhere?

Just do it! There are a lot of experiences waiting that you probably wouldn't gain in your usual environment.

What plans do you have for the future of your startup?

The 2021 honey harvest was not optimal, so in the end we would not have had enough honey to sell. We wanted to avoid this delivery bottleneck from the outset, so we now want to be represented in more sales outlets with the new 2022 harvest.

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Info: HSWT food startup incubator

At the beginning of June 2019, HSWT launched the Weihenstephan Food Startup Incubator (FSIWS) This enables students and employees of HSWT and the institutions affiliated with the Weihenstephan campus to bring their business ideas in the food sector to market maturity. Through the FSIWS, non-university founders can recruit competent students from all areas of the food value chain as partners or employees, for example as part of theses or with the students as co-founders.

Link to last month’s startup:

Startups @ HSWT | Part 21: www.hswt.de/presse/news/article/startups-hswt-teil-21-die-frischemanufaktur.html