Austin Foodshed Investors Rolling Roadshow Helps Put Capital on Entrepreneurs’ Plates

BURNET — When food entrepreneurs start looking for ways to get more capital for their businesses, they often turn to the most common sources: loans and grants.
But these aren't the only options available to them, nor are they always the best ways to fund growth.
That’s one reason behind the Austin Foodshed Investors' Rolling Roadshow, which is 8:30 a.m.-noon Thursday, Oct. 5, at the Burnet County AgriLife Extension Office, 607 N. Vandeveer in Burnet.
“We’re going to lay out the entire lending ecosystem,” said Jarred Maxwell, partner and co-founder of Austin Foodshed Investors. “Then, we help them piece together the best source and fit of capital for them. Not everyone, especially in food and agriculture, needs the same thing.”
The program is free and geared toward food industry business owners looking to expand. Maxwell said that while AFI occasionally works with start-ups, it predominately focuses on established businesses in the food industry.
That’s a wide spectrum, which Maxwell describes as a food life cycle.
“It’s anything from inputs, which farmers or raisers use, to farms themselves, then the product to processing,” he said.
It goes on to include distribution centers and retail outlets and, eventually, waste capture.
Waste capture includes composting, which, Maxwell pointed out, is a type of input farmers and producers use in their fields — hence, a life cycle.
AFI also works with businesses that offer services to food producers such as banks, consultants, and technical support and solutions.
“We think of anything that has to do with the food system,” Maxwell added.
AFI came about as a way to help Central Texas food entrepreneurs connect with investors and vice versa. One thing Maxwell and his partners, Curt Nelson and Eric de Valpine, realized is there are several venues for food entrepreneurs to get capital beyond loans and grants, but most people don’t know about those options or how to get the funding.
During the Rolling Roadshow, AFI will cover the different capital sources as well as hand out workbooks and materials to help food entrepreneurs determine which type is best for them.
“For some, it might be debt (a loan), but for others, that might not be the best way for them to go,” Maxwell said. “In the end, it’s about getting the lowest-cost capital for them.”
Since creating AFI, Maxwell and his partners also realized something else regarding food-related businesses: Many entrepreneurs don't really understand the value of a business plan or keeping good books.
“What we found is we also had to do a lot of mentoring,” Maxwell added.
By the time an entrepreneur completes the handouts and workbooks provided by AFI at one of the roadshows, Maxwell said they’ll be ready to step into any lending institution, grant provider office, or private equity firm with all the pertinent information.
And that, he pointed out, is a big step toward getting additional capital for growth.
They do it all through a “regenerative lens,” Maxwell said, describing AFI as a company that works with “local, sustainable food entrepreneurs.”
Though the terms “capital,” “equity,” and “investment” often conjure the image of people in suits poring over spreadsheets, AFI knows the people with whom it works are typically those who get their hands dirty — both literally and figuratively.
Maxwell himself owns and manages a 400-acre ranch in northern Burnet County. He also worked as a broker and partner with the Luedecke Group out of Bertram for six years before starting The Happy Land Co. in 2010. It focused on acquisition, restoration, and preservation of rural land.
The three partners started Austin Foodshed Investors in 2014 but, with it being located in Austin, realized it wasn’t a convenient spot for food producers living in outlying counties. To fix that, AFI created the Rolling Roadshow, which makes stops at AgriLife Extension Service Offices.
“We’re taking what we do, a list of resources and other things, and offering it to them,” Maxwell said. “We’ll also bring some of our specialists with us. It’s a relatively short program that focuses on information and networking.”
Registration is free, but people should sign up through eventbrite.com by searching for “Funding our Foodshed” or “Rolling Roadshow.”
Go to austinfoodshedinvestors.org for more information on Austin Foodshed Investors.
daniel@thepicayune.com