“When the coronavirus pandemic began ravaging the food industry in 2020, Cureate Chief Executive Officer Kim Bryden decided it was time to hit the road and explore the possibility of launching a hub office in America's heartland. Bryden journeyed across nine states to assess the nature of the food-service industry, which she had seen wilt under the pandemic as restaurants were closed and workers thrown out of jobs.

After a stop in Northwest Arkansas, visiting with economic development officials and food-related entrepreneurs and vendors, Bryden decided the area was ripe for her company's offerings.

"When I got to Northwest Arkansas, I was overwhelmed by the amount of entrepreneurial spirit emerging from the area," she says. "It really shocked me."

Cureate, founded in Washington, D.C., in 2014, opened its first regional office in Bentonville last July and by the fall was offering courses to 10 area businesses that participated in an eight-week business development initiative that targeted food and beverage entrepreneurs.”

Northwest Arkansas Business Journal - Cureate & FORGE, Inc. feature. “The fall program recently ended with a pitch competition that included a $5,000 cash prize. The winner was Ola Atilola of Asami Tea. The judges selected him as he was able to connect the story of the brand and the existing supply chain. He plans to invest his earnings into more sustainable packaging.”

Is Cureate the Next Food and Beverage Matchmaker in Northwest Arkansas? We recently sat down with Kim Bryden, founder of Cureate, to discuss her organization and the service they provide, “food and beverage supply and demand matchmaking.” Cureate is only seven years old, but they have built a three-legged stool of services to help these small businesses grow. Tune in to learn more.

Cureate and FORGE, Inc. are partners in a new project to help ten food and beverage entrepreneurs better understand how to make dreams in the food and beverage industry become closer to reality ...and stay in business.

“[Kim] Bryden said one of the main missions of School of Food is to focus on woman- and minority-owned businesses, as there is often not ingrained knowledge or resources available for those owners. “We like to emphasize the importance of social capital, because if you weren’t born into a network ... how would you know some of these core tenants of starting and running a business?” Bryden said.

As both a woman and minority-owned business, [Nikevia] Lebron said having a program that gives her access to resources and connections and makes her feels safe and supported is crucial.

“As a minority business or woman-owned business, sometimes it can be harder to connect, so for me it’s encouraging to know that there are organizations out there who see the need for women or minorities to have that support and make that available,” Lebron said.”

“The innovative company is helping to build a robust (and local) supply side of the food system. Cureate offers one-on-one technical assistance to food businesses as well as tailored courses and educational resources that empower entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills necessary to sustain their businesses. She explained how a farmer might be “really skilled in harvesting or ranching, but perhaps might be unsure as to how to diversify their revenue streams or access new markets.” By connecting small and mid-sized food businesses with large-scale buyers like hospitals, universities, and hotels, Cureate facilitates a more localized and diverse food procurement. “By us driving sales for our buyers, more sales are directed to smaller businesses. It’s win-win-win all around!” Kim exclaimed. Not only does this generate more sales for smaller businesses, it also ensures a resilient food system that will be better equipped to withstand extreme weather events or future pandemics.”

CUREATE IS RESTORING THE 'SMALL BUSINESS AMERICAN DREAM' BY CONNECTING LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS WITH LARGE BUYERS

"Years before the coronavirus pandemic shined a harsh light on the fragility of long, global supply chains dominated by a handful of multinational companies, Kim Bryden founded Cureate® [and built its platform Cureate® Connect] to connect local food and beverage manufactures with large institutional purchasers to meet a growing consumer demand for local products, empower entrepreneurs, and "shift the dollar" back into communities." - FoodNavigator

The Small Business Development Center has partnered with Cureate Courses to host a free, six-week program to help food and beverage producers grow and scale existing businesses.

“We’re doing an intensive course that’s going to help them sort of grow and scale,” SBDC Manager of Craft Beverage Assistance Chris Van Orden said. “It’s really targeted towards that are at that inflection point where they’re looking to grow into a new area, they’re looking to start distributing, but it’s really supposed to help get people up to that next level.”

In this episode, I interview Kim Bryden, CEO, and Founder of Cureate, a social enterprise based in Washington DC that aims to empower the food and beverage supply to meet the changing consumer demand. Kim has over 10 years of experience working in the food and beverage industry, and she helps small businesses build diversified revenue streams and identify new market opportunities.

In 2014, aged 27, Kim decided to skip an MBA and get the experience from starting her own business. She brings the business side to companies in the local food and beverage supply, empowering them through courses, consulting, and procurement matchmaking.

“What do I do now?”

That’s the question many small business owners and entrepreneurs are asking right now as rising COVID-19 cases keep people at home.

Cureate is a D.C.-based company helping entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry answer that question. The company has a local purchasing team that buys from small business suppliers, and they recently launched Cureate Courses, a curriculum designed to empower local entrepreneurs and anyone thinking about starting their own business.

From factory farmed meat production to packaging, labeling, cold storage, labor shortages, and distribution hiccups, the system stalled when much of the country shut down and the complex systems in place were suddenly no longer sufficient. What are the solutions the market demands?

The Impact Minute is a weekly, short video series where thought leaders discuss entrepreneurship and creating sustainable business that aim to address environmental and social issues. In this episode, Kim Bryden, CEO of Cureate, discusses her thoughts around entrepreneurship during times of crisis, and how companies can still find ways to solve current problems and create solutions that lead to a better and brighter tomorrow.

WASHINGTON (ABC7) — In 2014, Kim Bryden founded Cureate, a mission-driven firm with a suite of products and services for connecting big and small businesses and the cities they serve. Cureate is launching Cureate Courses, a workshop series for local food & beverage entrepreneurs looking to grow and Kim joins us with all the details.

The specialty foods industry is on the rise, reaching $127 billion in sales in 2016, up 15 percent since 2014. And data shows craft culinary products are outpacing their non-specialty counterparts in categories up and down the grocery aisle.

But turning your grandma’s sweet pastries into a profitable business isn’t always as easy as pie.

It requires a business plan, startup funds and access to a commercial kitchen. Then there are regulatory hurdles, marketing strategies and hiring tactics.

For those far removed from the business world, these responsibilities can be overwhelming. That’s where School of Food comes in — a yearlong educational curriculum for current and prospective food and beverage business owners.

“In this time of COVID-19, a lot of governments and economic development authorities want to put money back into the community,” explained Kim Bryden, CEO and founder of Cureate, which helped organize the event and coordinate the vendors. “My company is the local, purchasing arm for governments and big businesses, and we connected the food vendors with the public-works facilities.

“This helps the local restaurants because the meals were purchased from them,” she continued. “Furthermore, a lot of people recognize healthcare workers and first responders for their efforts, but not always public-works employees – who are also essential workers. So with this event called Operation Appreciation, we wanted to acknowledge everyone helping us thrive at this time.”

A new program coming to Frederick will cater to entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry that are hoping to expand or create a business.

School of Food is a nine-month course that focuses on branding, merchandising, food safety, small business accounting and other topics that will better prepare students that are interested, or already involved, in the food industry. No cooking or baking is done in the program.

The courses would most benefit an at-home baker/cook, a food truck operator, small caterer, a farmer, a farmer’s market vendor or someone with experience in the industry and is looking to expand, said Kim Bryden, School of Food program curator.

"When you come to the Big Bean Theory, you're gonna find out that I'm a beanologist and they're bean-ilicious," McDowell said during her presentation at Pixilated Baltimore.

McDowell was the last of five food and beverage entrepreneurs to make her case at the demonstration day and pitch competition organized by the School of Food, a curriculum-based program that aims to remove barriers to success for local food entrepreneurs. Its 28 students attend nine monthly classes on topics ranging from honing a mission statement and crafting the perfect business pitch to complying with Maryland health regulations and capitalizing on the marketing power of social media.

Kim Bryden, CEO of Cureate, joined us for a discussion on how her company built a movement to replace our broken supply system, fulfill unmet consumer demand and shift dollars back into local economies through local sourcing. Cureate built suite of products and services for big and small businesses, and the cities they serve, to work together and create the foundation of a new local supply system.

In today’s political landscape, it might be an underestimate to say that focusing on economic policies that put “America First” is at the top of the agenda.

But Kim Bryden thinks her new platform might be able to capitalize on that political momentum. With the launch of Cureate Connect, Bryden is rethinking how consumers “shop local.” Instead of simply raising awareness around the cause—telling people to support local business, hosting events with local businesses—Bryden is looking for a way for big businesses and institutions to amplify the voices of local, small business through her company’s new service, Cureate Connect.

An extension of her current Cureate service that provides resources for local food entrepreneurs, Cureate Connect is an online marketplace that serves as a Match.com for new business and big businesses looking to partner with local producers.

“Scale thoughtfully. Source locally.”

My ears perked up.

I had just finished listening to an episode of The Tidbit on Full Service Radio hosted by Kim Bryden, Founder and CEO of Cureate. The show discusses tidbits of knowledge around starting and running small businesses with a food and beverage lens.

The outro Kim uses to sign off from each episode reverberated through my mind.

Scale thoughtfully...