Idella Yamben, Ph.D., shares how the Wisconsin Center for Technology Commercialization helps early-stage businesses test assumptions and secure grants to foster commercialization.

Cliff McConville discusses building multi-enterprise All Grass Farms from the ground up and managing the finances to ensure profitability.

Will Glazik of Cow Creek Organic Farm and Silver Tree Beer & Spirits discusses his evolution from organic grain grower to distillery co-owner.

Sylvie Charles, M.D., traded a stable career as a physician for the wild ride of entrepreneurship when launching organic real-food sweetener company Just Date in 2018. She shares the mission behind her endeavor, along with her business arc and growth strategy.

Wisconsin's international trade expert Chris Wojtowicz discusses how food and farm entrepreneurs can successfully expand their business beyond the U.S.

Ron Henningfeld, owner and cheesemaker at Hill Valley Dairy, drops by to discuss putting his own spin on a family farm business and expanding into new opportunities.

Andy invites in Grassway Organics’ Chaz Self for an inspiring conversation about farming business models, growing a diversified ag operation, and regenerating local communities.

Brad sits down with Mark Cottone and Jim Rush of Clean Beam, maker of a dry, chemical-free footwear sanitizer powered by pulsing UV light. This innovation protects processing facilities from contaminants while proving predictive analytics that can enhance operations.

Stephanie Schneider discusses starting Together Farms with no prior experience and growing it into a thriving operation with direct-to-consumer sales and on-farm Burger Night.

In Edible-Alpha® podcast #111, Brad talks with Steve Mehmert, managing partner at T4 Solutions, a Pewaukee, Wisconsin-based consulting firm that helps grocers and other food distributors map out profitable e-commerce programs, from ordering platforms through delivery. Brad and Steve have a fascinating conversation about key challenges, opportunities, and innovations in the rapidly evolving grocery landscape. Steve started T4 Solutions in 2019, shortly after selling his first company, Mehmert Store Services. He’d spent 30 years designing and developing grocery stores, focusing primarily on independents. Through his new venture, he could leverage his expertise and connections to continue serving that market. Prior to the pandemic, independent grocers were increasingly—but reluctantly—launching e-commerce just to stay competitive. Typically, their systems were inefficient and incapable of much volume. They’d lose money on every order, but since e-commerce represented a tiny percentage of total sales, they’d shrug it off. Anticipating where the market was heading, Steve knew, as did most of these retailers, that these systems weren’t sustainable long-term. But nobody foresaw COVID-19 or its impact on the food industry. With millions of Americans suddenly wanting to buy groceries online, brick-and-mortars had to up their e-commerce game STAT. Now Steve’s services were in even hotter demand. T4 Solutions helps identify, develop, and deliver the best technology, tools, and systems to make each client’s e-commerce program run smoothly and cost-effectively. For example, the firm offers technology-managed, temperature-controlled lockers that hold online orders for customer pickup, as well as temperature-controlled delivery vehicles to replace crowdsourced drivers. T4 also helps clients set up micro-fulfillment centers, onsite order storage, and other e-commerce infrastructure. Brad and Steve discuss how the food landscape has shaken out over the last two years. Today, grocers’ sales remain well above pre-pandemic levels, and many continue to do robust online business. Though most retailers have streamlined e-commerce, there are still kinks to work out and improvements to be made, especially amidst the challenging labor market. Next, they dig into Amazon’s grocery strategy and how corporate grocers are expanding e-commerce services. Steve says even the big guys don’t have everything figured out. He firmly believes independents can and should compete, and those willing to evolve and embrace technology can thrive. He envisions grocery stores big and small moving to more micro-fulfillment models, finding them more efficient and able to serve even more customers. T4 isn’t done devising solutions either. Steve loves a challenge, and in today’s food industry, new ones arise constantly. He details the latest projects he’s working on, including figuring out a merchandiser for impulse purchases to accompany the lockers. And while most of his clients are grocers, he’s also working with food banks and organizations serving rural and urban food deserts. This podcast is packed with many more insights, so be sure to tune in!

In Edible-Alpha® podcast #110, Brad chats with Sara Parthasarathy, co-founder of FillMyRecipe, which makes Indian spice kits, spice blends and sauces under the Flavor Temptations brand. She and husband Partha Sabniviss launched the business 10 years ago to share their joyful, vibrant Indian culture with Americans and make it easy to cook authentic Indian cuisine. Both IT professionals, Sara and Partha moved to the U.S. in the late 1990s and settled in Madison, Wisconsin. When their son went off to college, he wanted to cook Indian food but struggled to replicate his mom’s dishes, which Sara had learned from her mother. She set him up with recipes, sachets of premeasured spices, and step-by-step instructions—and it worked! Sara then realized that many people were in the same boat as her son. Wanting to help them connect with Indian culture, create joy in the kitchen, and take pride in their culinary creations, she started preparing cooking kits for friends and family. This was just a hobby at first, but a new business was brewing. In 2012, Sara and Partha incorporated FillMyRecipe, rented commercial kitchen space, and built an Amazon store, planning to sell exclusively online. But when a 2013 writeup in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel supercharged their business, local grocery stores started picking up their products, then branded Ethnic Spicery. Through mentorships and entrepreneurship workshops, Sara and Partha honed their strategy and rebranded as Flavor Temptations. In 2014, they met FFI founder Tera Johnson. “She took us under her wing and walked us step-by-step through packaging, merchandising, how to approach distributors and retailers, and how to scale,” Sara says. “She helped us approach a copacker in India, which made sense because that’s where the spices come from.” With production now outsourced, Flavor Temptations expanded into 70 grocery stores throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota. They also branched into food service, not a channel they’d considered, but one that made a lot of sense. Soon they got in with a Minneapolis school district, followed by some 50 school-district customers nationwide. During this period of explosive growth, Sara and Partha participated in the FaB Cap Accelerator (now the FFI Fellows Program). Brad remembers them traveling constantly to do demos, wearing many hats, and spreading themselves thin. Then COVID-19 happened, shuttering schools, suspending retail food service, and sending grocery shoppers online. Fortunately, about six months prior, Flavor Temptations had begun shoring up their e-commerce strategy, taking a course from Amazon sales guru Mike Fenrici, featured in Edible-Alpha® podcast #84. They pivoted their focus to Amazon, stepped up innovation, and expanded their offerings. Sales skyrocketed, which, along with some grants and loans, kept the company afloat through 2020. Then in early 2021, with foodservice customers still not returning, Sara and Partha considered closing up shop. But then an Edible-Alpha® Scenario Planning course helped them look at their business objectively, refocus, and set goals for the future. They decided to shrink their retail footprint to just Madison, freeing them up to drill in on the other channels. Now into 2022, the food service business has picked up again, and Sara is sharing her expertise in Indian cooking at conferences.