Our Sponsors

SPINS

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Wells Fargo

The Wells Fargo Food & Beverage Finance Group, is a national team of experts with dedicated focus on the Food & Beverage industry. This team possesses vast experience and deep industry knowledge of what is important to our customers.

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MISTA

MISTA helps startups and large organizations optimize ideas, products, people and investments as they work toward solving some of the world’s greatest challenges while also taking advantage of some of the greatest innovations and opportunities in the food and beverage industry.

On their own, no one company or organization can solve our biggest food challenges. MISTA is creating a multi- dimensional, hyper-connected ecosystem to bring ALL aspects of the food system together to address challenges the ENTIRE food system is experiencing.

All of this comes together at the MISTA Optimization Center (MOC), a state-of-the-art development lab and co-working space located in San Francisco.

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ePac Flexible Packaging

ePac Flexible Packaging is based on the premise that emerging digital technology will significantly disrupt the service and manufacturing models that have served the flex pack industry for decades.

Founded in 2016, with a charter to serve small and medium size businesses throughout the United States, ePac is technology driven and built to provide our customers a fast and easy way to buy flexible packaging.

Offering competitively priced short to medium run length orders, and 10-day turnaround, ePac is the first supplier in North America built entirely on the latest wide-web digital printing technology – the HP Indigo 20000. With our manufacturing platform optimized to provide industry leading customer service, ePac offers true high-definition custom printing with variable imaging and the elimination of plate fees, while enabling customers to print to demand and avoid inventory and obsolescence costs.

With locations throughout the United States; our offices in Austin, Boulder, Madison, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Houston, and Los Angeles are open to serve local and regional brands of all sizes.

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Trinity Brand Group

For those looking to unlock the full potential of their brand and business, Trinity is a small(ish) brand strategy, design, innovation and activation firm that’s been helping big brands—and brands with big plans—win for nearly 20 years. Flagship office in Berkeley, with outposts in Chicago, Detroit and Dublin, Ireland.

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Bedrock Analytics

Bedrock Analytics makes it easy for CPG manufacturers to turn raw scan data into compelling and convincing sales stories for retail buyers. Our platform aggregates, harmonizes and analyzes sales information from all major syndicated and retail portal data providers, and helps you find and act on the key insights that drive your business. Understanding CPG sales and marketing data has never been easier.

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Social Nature

With a mission to shift consumer purchasing patterns to more natural products, Social Nature is a trusted online platform for consumers to discover, try & review natural products.

Brands tap into our community of half a million shoppers to build and activate consumer demand for natural products at retailers online and offline.

We collect over 50 data points on each member so we can hyper-target our community for sampling and insights.

Over 500 better-for-you brands leverage Social Nature’s community to:

• Drive targeted sampling at retailers online or offline

• Syndicate product reviews to e-commerce channels

• Collect consumer feedback and test new product concepts

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Drip Capital

Drip Capital

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Baker Tilly

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Whole Brain Consulting

Looking for comprehensive outsourcing operations management services? Whole Brain Consulting is a fully integrated consultancy providing operations and supply chain management services to companies that outsource the manufacturing of their product. We provide a full suite of services, from contract manufacturer management to food quality and safety services.

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Once Upon A Farm

Once upon a time… we dreamed of bringing baby food back to the roots with organic fruits and veggies harvested from local farmers, blended with love and served fresh from the fridge. We dreamed of feeling less stressed about mealtimes because we could feed our little ones foods that give them all the nutrients they need – and then some! We dreamed of a company filled with co-workers we’re happy to spend time with every day and that offers the balance between work and life that every parent needs. Now, with Once Upon a Farm, our dream has come true. Learn more about our farms, our family & our mission.

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Albertsons

In 1939, Joe Albertson, a former Safeway district manager, took $5,000 he saved and $7,500 he borrowed from his wife’s Aunt Bertie, and partnered with L.S. Skaggs to open his first Albertsons store on 16th and State Streets in Boise, Idaho. Joe knew the keys of running a really great store, and it was all about working hard for the customers: give them the products they want, at a fair price, with lots of tender, loving care.

Today, Albertsons operates as a banner of Albertsons Companies, one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States. With both a strong local presence and national scale, the company operates stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia under 20 well-known banners. Albertsons Companies is committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood. In 2017 alone, along with the Albertsons Companies Foundation, the company gave nearly $300 million in food and financial support. These efforts helped millions of people inthe areas of hunger relief, education, cancer research and treatment, programs for people with disabilities and veterans outreach.

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Kite Hill

Kite Hill creates delicious dairy-free foods with taste at the forefront, using classic culinary traditions and simple artisan ingredients consumers crave. We are plant-based pioneers crafting velvety nut milk yogurt, almond milk cream cheese, ricotta, pastas and dips perfected by Tal Ronnen, our visionary chef. To ensure a consistent and delicious product every time, Kite Hill uses only the highest quality ingredients and hand selected premium almonds from California’s San Joaquin Valley to create delicious homemade almond milk. The Kite Hill line is sold through Whole Foods Markets, Kroger Super Markets and leading natural and specialty grocery retailers nationwide.

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Guayaki

Reach deep into yerba mate culture and you’ll discover people have long gathered to imbibe mate to awaken the mind, perform extraordinary feats and to exchange confidences. Even Yari, the mythical goddess of mate decrees it the symbol of friendship. We’ve always believed there was a magical tree in the rainforest with powers to unite and energize. Come to life with this high energy infusion brewed from the mighty, emerald green mate leaves.

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The Burbank Hafeli Schiller Group – Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management

The Burbank Hafeli Schiller Group at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management has focused on helping food, beverage and consumer products entrepreneurs prepare for success and manage their financial lives for over 25 years. Mike Burbank’s family co-founded Bristol Farms, which was acquired by Albertsons in 2004, and Mike experienced the challenges of growing a business, coordinating tax and estate planning advice, and diversifying after a liquidity event first hand. Today the Burbank Hafeli Schiller Group manages over $1.7 billion and has been recognized by the Financial Times as one of the Top 400 Advisors in the United States every year from 2013 to 2017.

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Omnium

Omnium is a team of mathematicians, data scientists and CPG experts who work closely with sales teams to optimize their trade investments and provide strategic counsel for go-to-market strategies and challenges. Clients include Amy’s Kitchen, Clif Bar, Lundberg Family Farms, Musco Family Olive Company, Organic Valley, Wild Planet and more.

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SBG Growth

SBG Growth is a consumer-focused investment and advisory business in San Francisco that invests in early-stage branded consumer companies. In addition to providing funds, they work actively with startups to help them grow the business.

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NIQ

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TIG

At TIG, we are focused on helping emerging food and beverage brands grow. With an omnichannel view, we design and execute customized route-to-market and go-to-market strategies that build velocity, gain distribution, and win share of stomach.

We help small companies become strong regional brands and help strong regional brands become powerful national ones. We work internationally with companies who wish to bring their brand to or expand their presence in the North American market.

Our clients come to us with products that are innovative and disruptive. They have great stories to tell and a passion for what they do. They’re committed to the triple-bottom-line, doing what is best for people, planet, and profits.

We combine our clients’ innovative products, stories, passions, and triple-bottom-line focus with our proven process, industry knowledge, and omnichannel experience to create growing investment-ready brands.

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RSF Social Finance

RSF Social Finance is a San Francisco–based nonprofit financial services organization dedicated to catalyzing transformation by circulating capital to social enterprises for a more just, regenerative, and compassionate world. RSF works at the intersection of social change and finance, enabling investors and donors to align their money with their values, connecting entrepreneurs with diverse forms of capital, and developing breakthrough ideas in social finance. Since 1984, RSF has issued over $850 million in loans and grants supporting social enterprises in the areas of food and agriculture, education and the arts, climate and the environment, women’s economic empowerment, and racial justice.

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PSC

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Fiscalini Farmstead

Fiscalini Farmstead is a cheesemaker in Modesto, California.  They make award-winning cheeses using traditional methods and milk from their own herd of cows. They take great pride in the quality of their cheeses and the care of their cows, and they are deeply committed to sustainability, including recycling the waste from their farm to produce electricity.

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Whipstitch Capital

Whipstitch Capital is a specialized investment bank that provides mergers & acquisitions and private placement advisory services to consumer products companies.

Whipstitch is a full-service investment bank providing unmatched experience, industry knowledge, relationships and ability to execute optimal transaction outcomes. To do so, we focus on the following areas:

Food and Beverage | Branded Products Ingredients | Consumer-Related Technology | Private Label Manufacturing | Nutritional Supplements & OTC/Pharma | Retail & Restaurants.

And within the areas above, our deep expertise in the healthy and active-living subsectors can’t be matched.

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Creative Alignments

Creative Alignments is a Time-Based Recruiting® company that partners with quickly growing companies in the natural products/CPG and technology industries. They work with clients that are using business as a force for good, whether by creating people-first cultures, innovating impact-focused products or services, or committing to DEI. Over the past decade, their client-aligned hourly recruiting model (as opposed to the traditional commission-based model) has enabled Creative Alignments to work as an extension of their client’s teams to help them hire the talent they need to achieve their mission. Companies like Halo Top, RXBAR, Kodiak Cakes, CAULIPOWER, MUSH and more have relied on Creative Alignment’s expertise and collaboration to build their teams.

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Kuli Kuli Foods

Kuli Kuli is the leading brand pioneering sustainable superfoods like moringa in the US. Moringa is a naturally energizing green superfood packed with protein, antioxidants and vitamins. Kuli Kuli offers the highest quality, most nutritious moringa by partnering with local entrepreneurs and sourcing directly from small farmers, prioritizing African and women-led social enterprises. Kuli Kuli’s superfood powders, wellness shots, and snacks are sold in 11,000 stores nationwide and online at kulikulifoods.com.

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Better Food Ventures

Established in 2013, Better Food Ventures has assembled a team of experienced, international investors looking to identify and develop companies that can improve the performance of the food and agriculture industries through the application of information and communications technology. As investors we are full-consequence driven, focused on achieving outsized financial returns and “positive impact”.

As a byproduct of our financially-focused investing, the application of information technology to food and agriculture will lead to better economic, nutritional, and environmental outcomes across the world. Information technology is the key lever to develop a variety of solutions to meet the changing market demands and challenges of today and the future. To seize this opportunity the food and agriculture industries need to more fully embrace technologies such as:

• Mobile and cloud-based computing
• Sensor technologies and “the internet of things”
• Robotics, artificial intelligence
• Location-identification and image recognition
• Massive and real-time data analytics
• Collaborative production and consumption and social marketing

We are keen to see the application of information and communications technologies that we have helped develop over the last decade now create value in vertical applications like food and agriculture.

Better Food Ventures is affiliated with The Mixing Bowl which strives to “connect people who are feeding the world with people who are changing the world through tech innovation…”

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Pellucid