The Tidbit

Have you ever been ready for growth but external factors limited your ability to reach your goals? This is the piece of the supply chain puzzle that Alice Blayne-Allard identified as a problem area as our craft spirits industry continues to boom. Freestate Cooperage is the only #madeinMaryland cooperage, creating heritage new white oak barrels for Mid-Atlantic made spirits. Fun fact: Alice is also...

Three sisters out of Philadelphia — Jackie, Shelby, and Amy Zitelman — started Soom Foods. Their goal? To make tahini a staple in American pantries. But to start, they began with chefs. Who are your early adopters and how can those customers become your biggest brand advocates? How do you know when to diversify your sales channels? Tune into this episode of The Tidbit to learn the Soom story with...

We talk a lot about access to financial capital when starting a business - who has capital, how can you pitch to get more capital, what can you do to prove you’re worth capital, etc. What we don't talk enough about is access to social capital. In today’s era, one could plainly state that it is the sum of people you surround yourself with. But… what if you weren’t born into a particular sphere of p...

We're live on-site at the Chesapeake Food Summit where we're learning about innovation in food systems change throughout this region. One of the biggest areas of opportunity to effectuate change is through procurement - hello, local sourcing! We sit down with Baltimore Food Policy Director, Holly Freishtat, to talk about government's role in sourcing food and how contracts can be written (and brok...

In 1986, Occasions Caterers started in a tiny apartment kitchen with just a few printed business cards and a small van. They gradually built a team of executives, chefs, captains and waiters who were also committed to the Co-Founders’ vision (fun fact: the Co-Founders are also twin brothers!). Fast forward thirty years later and Occasions has indeed grown but the focus remains the same: a boutique...

Food is a multi-sensory experience, but typically served in a semi-standard setting - or at least in a setting one is used to experiencing food. What if you took a part each piece of that sensory experience and created a new way of consuming, a new way of looking at food or beverage by getting hyper-focused on one of your senses? We're joined today by Kelly Bryden, Art Director for the Rosé Mansio...

Over the past two seasons of The Tidbit we’ve discussed the foundations of starting a business, tactics to grow one’s business, and we’ve featured some amazing small business owners and their entrepreneurial journeys. As we head into our third season, we are going to take those topics and add another key voice to the conversation. Who are the businesses that are putting their money where their mou...

The Homegrown by Heroes program provides consumers a tangible way to support veterans. We're joined in-studio with Gary Matteson from the Farm Credit Council (the trade association for the nationwide Farm Credit System) and Calvin Riggleman, the owner of Big Riggs farm - an idea that was born in the sandy deserts of Iraq in 2003. Cal shares his story from military to civilian life, and finding a n...

Entrepreneurship meets food science on this episode of The Tidbit with Dr. Eric Schulze — VP of Product and Regulation at one of the leading cell-based meat companies, Memphis Meats. We talk manufacturing of cell-based meat and its impact on our future. Plus his tips on building a business without a predetermined roadmap, and how to make the world more creatively nerdy.

Drink Local. Live Wild. This is the motto of Wild Kombucha. Over the past 3 years, they've has seen a 200 percent increase in sales with zero dollars of outside investment. We sit down with Sid Sharma, Co-Owner of Wild Kombucha to talk about starting a food manufacturing business in the Mid-Atlantic, where that motto comes from, and their journey from starting in a garage to growing into a 4,000 s...

It takes a special team to take a classic food item and bring a new vibe to its creation. The nostalgia of a menu you fondly recognize and love, but with a unique spin. This is what our guest today has a special knack for crafting. On this episode, we sit down with Andrew Dana, the owner of the acclaimed Timber Pizza Company (a featured 2017 Best New Restaurant in Bon Appétit) and Call Your Mother...

Arabbing is a long-standing, locally-specific African American tradition out of Baltimore. An Arabber is a street vendor selling fruits and vegetables from a colorful, horse-drawn cart. Once a common sight in American East Coast cities, only a handful of Arabbers still walk the streets of Baltimore. On this episode, we sit down with James Chase, President of the Arabbers Preservation Society and a...

Entrepreneur Spotlight: we welcome another incredible mission-driven entrepreneur on The Tidbit that is tackling a huge problem at the intersection of nutrition, dietetics and agriculture. Tambra Raye Stevenson is the founder and CEO of WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics, and Agriculture, an organization inspiring a new generation of women and girls to become ‘food sheroes’ in Africa and...

Our brains process not only stories, but the human emotions behind them. In this episode, we discuss with expert storyteller Nate Mook the importance of aligning your product, your business with a compelling brand narrative. Nate has worked with Senators, CEOs, and Entrepreneurs on crafting their stories on and offline through digital media, documentary film, and public speaking forums like TED.

On The Tidbit, we talk a lot about building businesses for both profit and purpose. But how do you measure your impact? What are ways in which you can create Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to tangibly see the results you're driving? This episode: we sit down with Mark Frieden of Crossbow Strategies - a firm that works with socially-conscious busineses on becoming B Corp certified and creating B...

Do you run a small business, or have dreams to start one? Each episode of The Tidbit we talk through tidbits of knowledge around starting or running a small business — with a food and beverage lens! On this Minisode: what are parts of the process to consider when deciding if a "pop-up" concept is worth it for your business?

One of the biggest opportunities and struggles of entrepreneurship is the ever-present work/life blend. I'm not even going to say that there is balance! How does one navigate management, delegation of tasks, and empowering employees to step-up and take the reins? On this episode, we talk with Deborah Haust, VP of Culinary Enterprises at Humanim - a human services and workforce development nonprofi...

There is no denying that the world is changing at an extremely rapid pace. We are at a moment in time where there are shifts in power and — whether you're an activist, a politician, or a business owner — it's important to recognize how social movements get started and begin to grow. Visiting Scholar at Stanford University within the Global Projects Center, Jess Rimington, joins us in-studio to dis...

Adaptability. If there's one thing farmers can teach entrepreneurs its the ability to adapt to forces you just have no control over. Caroline Howe, Project Specialist in the Sustainability Innovation & Urban Resilience department at the University of the District of Columbia, blends her worlds of farming, entrepreneurship, and improv on this episode. Listen in as she shares with us lessons on...

Do you run a small business, or have dreams to start one? Here are The Tidbit, we’ve got your back. Each week we talk through tidbits of knowledge around starting or running a small business with a food and beverage lens. On this Minisode: what are parts of the process to consider when registering a LLC (Limited Liability Company) in Washington DC.

Throughout this debut season of The Tidbit we discussed the importance of building community-based businesses, and how to set-up your organization with both profit and purpose in mind. In this season finale episode, we sit down with Lisa Wise, Founder of Nest DC to discuss why she is investing in her local community — and we award one of our highlighted entrepreneurs with $1,000 to support their a...

Food touches every sector. Food is what we consume — but it's also job creation and economic development, it's tourism and activism, it's history and it's current events. On this episode of The Tidbit, we explore the intersection of food, history, culture and art with AUBERGINE lead actor, Tony Nam, and community organizer/activist, Steph Hsu of The Chinatown Collective in Baltimore — and how you...

Samuel Adams was founded in 1984. Did you know that throughout the 1970s, there were fewer than 100 breweries in the entire country! How does Sam Adams continue to stay relevant in this growing - more than 5,000 independently operated - craft brewery revival? On this episode, we have the absolute pleasure of talking with Samuel Adams Master Brewer Jennifer Glanville to learn more about how the com...

Creativity and productivity are often at odds with each other. How do we as entrepreneurs continue to foster our creative selves, while operating in a system that requires constant output? We sit down with Krystal Mack, founder of BLK SUGAR and BLK MARKET, to discuss our creative processes, our self-care rituals and pivoting for passion preservation. This episode is supported by Compass, the futur...

A main thread that has run throughout this show has been the importance of defining your purpose, and how that purpose will fuel your passion in creating and sustaining business operations. We sit down with Jeff Cherry, CEO of Conscious Venture Lab and Shift Ventures - an accelerator and investment firm for purpose-driven businesses, and discuss why is it so important that this definition of WHY i...