Top Natural Foods Industry Podcast Features D.C. Food Accelerator Union Kitchen and Its Model for Revitalizing Inner-City Food Entrepreneurship
Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk Highlights Cullen Gilchrist, CEO of Union Kitchen, Who Shares About His Revolutionary Ecosystem for CPG Entrepreneurs
BOULDER, Colo. (Feb. 14, 2024) – Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk kicks off 2024 with Episode 35 of its popular podcast series by exploring the impact an innovative food accelerator is having on revitalizing food entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C., with special guest Cullen Gilchrist, CEO of Union Kitchen.
Union Kitchen is a Washington, D.C.-based food business accelerator that strives to empower local food founders by offering expertise and support from launch to scale. Since 2012, Union Kitchen has supported more than 300 brands through its four-phase accelerator and, overall, launches products seven times faster than the national average. In addition to its accelerator, Union Kitchen has six store locations throughout the Washington metro area, with products made locally and throughout the nation.
Union Kitchen connects entrepreneurs with the resources, capital, distribution and networks they need to establish sustainable success with their food businesses. Recently recognized as the "Best Startup Accelerator of 2023" by Startup Savant, Union Kitchen goes beyond being a typical culinary incubator and partners with food businesses of all sizes to grow and accelerate the success of their emerging food and beverage brands. Remarkably, their goal is to take a company from product to being on shelf within only 90 days.
“We started Union Kitchen as a solution to a problem,” says Gilchrist. “Historically, entrepreneurship has been reserved for people with capital and this has created barriers to entry for people who don’t have access to funding. Our model is based on removing this barrier for people who are passionate about food, passionate about business and about feeding their community. We take the financial risk away so as an Accelerator Member they just pay a monthly fee which allows businesses to get started in a way they couldn’t before.”
During the Coffee Talk conversation, Gilchrist shares his recipe for helping businesses launch successful brands. Union Kitchen empowers brands on their journey through four phases: from Launch to National Scale. At each phase brands are given tools and resources they need to seize opportunities, overcome challenges and reach new heights whether a brand is launching locally or ready to saturate nationally.
Phase 1: LAUNCH is about building a cohesive concept, executing the technical elements of a market-ready product and launching into the market.
Phase 2: PRODUCT MARKET FIT is focused on learning what consumers want and how to deliver that consistently through scalable systems, team building and leveraging Union Kitchen’s ecosystem.
Phase 3: GROWTH is expanding a product that has achieved regional product market fit and building the operations to support that.
Phase 4: SCALE is achieving national market penetration by outselling the leading competitors.
Brands that have emerged on the national scene due to Union Kitchen’s support include Compass Coffee, Snacklins, Myles's Comfort Food, Swapples, Aji Tea and many more.
Watch the recorded podcast and learn more about Union Kitchen’s roots, from a small commercial kitchen to their current 50k-square-foot manufacturing facility and how it enables entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to build their businesses.
If you’d like to nominate a business leader for a future Coffee Talk episode, click here.
About Compass Natural Marketing
Compass Natural is a leading PR, branding and business development agency serving the natural and organic products industry. Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk podcast is co-hosted by industry veterans Steven Hoffman and Bill Capsalis and features lively interactive conversations with leaders and experts in the natural products space. The podcast is designed to help entrepreneurs and businesses of any size succeed in the natural, organic, regenerative, hemp-derived and other eco-friendly products market. Watch all Coffee Talk episodes on Compass Natural’s YouTube Channel.
Media Contact
Steven Hoffman, Compass Natural, steve@compassnatural.com, tel: 303.807.1042
Oct. 19: Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk to Feature Annie Ryu, CEO and Founder of Jack & Annie’s and The Jackfruit Company
Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk, a popular live webinar series featuring conversations with top business leaders in the natural, organic and sustainable products industry, is also pleased to announce its new primary sponsor, Compass Coffee, an independently owned coffee roaster and cafe company based in Washington, D.C.
What: Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk
When: Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023, 8 am PT; 9 am MT; 10 am CT; 11 am ET
Presented by: Compass Natural, Connecting Media and Markets in Natural and Organic Products
Sponsored by: Compass Coffee, Presence Marketing, Naturally Boulder, Naturally New York and Naturally San Diego
Register: Register for free here
BOULDER, Colo. (Sept. 14, 2023) – Annie Ryu, CEO and founder of Jack & Annie’s and The Jackfruit Company, producing delicious meat substitutes made from jackfruit, will appear Oct. 19, 2023, on Compass Natural’s popular Coffee Talk podcast, which features lively conversations with natural products industry leaders, innovators and experts designed to guide entrepreneurs and businesses to succeed in the market.
Annie Ryu discovered jackfruit in 2011 while working in India to implement a maternal and child health care program as part of her Harvard pre-med studies. Annie saw an opportunity to convert an underutilized crop to nutritious, delicious food and to create income and opportunity for Indian farming families. The company introduced jackfruit to retailers nationwide in 2015, and Annie left medical school later that year to focus on expanding the company.
Annie Ryu
While Annie’s passion for jackfruit was immediate, the path to creating Jack & Annie’s took a decade. Annie worked relentlessly to help popularize jackfruit, nature's meatiest plant, as an ideal innovation and to build a supply chain to transport jackfruit from India to the U.S. Today, Jack & Annie’s offers a wide selection of nutritious meat alternatives made primarily from jackfruit, the fruit of the jack tree, and the company operates the farm-to-fork supply chain, supporting over 1,500 farming families in India.
Hosted by natural and organic products industry veterans Bill Capsalis and Steven Hoffman, Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk is produced by Compass Natural Marketing, a leading public relations, branding and business development agency serving the natural, organic, eco-friendly and hemp products industries. Capsalis and Hoffman will interview Annie Ryu to learn more about her and her company.
From India to the U.S.
The jackfruit trees, native to India, require no fertilizers or inputs and are the highest-yielding tree crop in the world. Since Jack & Annie's harvests from existing trees, and uses the most carbon-efficient transport to bring its jackfruit from India to North America, a Life Cycle Assessment showed that the company's jackfruit has a 94% lower Global Warming Potential vs. beef. Further, partnering directly with farmers enables Jack & Annie's to ensure that their farmers earn 10-40% incremental income annually from jackfruit sales.
About Our New Sponsor, Compass Coffee
Compass Natural is proud to announce Washington, D.C.-based Compass Coffee as the primary sponsor for Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk podcast. The independently owned coffee roaster and cafe company was founded in 2014 by two former Marines, who were looking for the perfect cup after years of drinking terrible coffee on deployment. Working with a global network of farmers, Compass Coffee is committed to ethical sourcing, masterful blending and peak roasting in small batches.
Register for Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk With Annie Ryu
Register here for free to participate in Compass Natural's Coffee Talk podcast, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023, 11-11:30 am ET.
About Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk
Take a 30-minute virtual coffee break with Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk. Hosted by natural industry veterans Bill Capsalis and Steve Hoffman, Coffee Talk features lively interactive conversations with industry leaders and experts designed to help entrepreneurs and businesses of any size succeed in the market for natural, organic, regenerative, hemp-derived and other eco-friendly products.
Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk is produced by Compass Natural Marketing, a leading PR, branding and business development agency serving the natural and organic products industry.
Previous Episodes of Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk
View the entire library of Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk episodes on YouTube. Co-hosted by natural products industry veterans Steven Hoffman and Bill Capsalis, Compass Natural’s Coffee Talk has featured notable professionals such as Jared Polis, governor of Colorado; Steve Hughes, co-founder of Sunrise Strategic Partners; John Mackey, CEO and co-founder, Whole Foods Market; Miyoko Schinner, CEO and founder, Miyoko’s Kitchen; John Foraker, CEO of Once Upon a Farm; Emerald-Jane Hunter, founder of the MyWhy Agency; Heather Terry, CEO of GoodSAM; Milton Zimmerman, executive vice president, Presence Marketing; Jennifer Maxwell, founder and CEO of JAMBAR®, and more.
Contact
Steven Hoffman, Compass Natural, steve@compassnaturalmarketing.com