Boot Camp Registration & Networking

Welcome Remarks

Brand Design

• Kelly Criswell

  Chief Creative Officer, The GRO Agency

  

  Kelly Criswell

  Chief Creative Officer, The GRO Agency

  Kelly Criswell is a visionary and creative leader, shepherding The GRO Agency as the Chief Creative Officer based in the Los Angeles office. With a fierce love of beverage branding and a 16+ year career in CPG brand development and packaging design, Kelly will relentlessly push brands to the next level for success on shelf. Over her career she has worked with such notable brands as Dunkin’ Donuts, Nestlé, Premier Nutrition, Diageo, and Red Bull. Her latest modus operandi is harnessing her extensive experience in CPG to help entrepreneurs and start-ups launch their brands. Her current passion project is Kabaki Kenyan Purple Tea- she has teamed up with the founder Martin and helped him position, brand, package, and develop go-to-market strategy for a 2018 launch. When she’s not obsessively taking photos in grocery stores (say hi if you see her!) she’s painting or hiking with her two kids.

• Danielle Muller

  VP of Strategy, The GRO Agency

• Kelly Criswell, Chief Creative Officer, The GRO Agency
• Danielle Muller, VP of Strategy, The GRO Agency

Your E-Comm Toolkit

• Betsy McGinn

  Founder, McGinn eCommConsulting

  

  Betsy McGinn

  Founder, McGinn eCommConsulting

  Betsy is the co-author of The Amazon Roadmap: How Innovative Brands are Reinventing the Path to Market, the quintessential start-to-finish guide for brands who want to launch, recalibrate, or optimize their business on Amazon and ensure continued growth on this powerful platform. As Seventh Generation’s first eCommerce channel director, Betsy pioneered the company’s innovative eComm strategy and created a thriving multimillion-dollar partnership with Amazon and other key online retailers. Since founding McGinn eComm in 2014, Betsy has worked with hundreds of natural and specialty brands to establish and strengthen their presence on Amazon. From product development and profitability analysis to guiding organizational change, McGinn eComm leads clients through every step of this complex channel, helping to ensure a successful and profitable online businesses. With more than a decade of eCommerce experience, Betsy is a thought-leader and regular speaker at workshops and conferences globally. Visit Betsy at mcginnecomm.com

• Betsy McGinn, Founder, McGinn eCommConsulting

Understanding Cap Tables & Finance

• Jeremy Halpern

  Partner; Co-Chair Food and Beverage Group, Nutter

  

  Jeremy Halpern

  Partner; Co-Chair Food and Beverage Group, Nutter

  Jeremy Halpern is a partner and co-chairs and serves as the Director of Business Development for Nutter’s Emerging Companies Group. Jeremy’s practice focuses on emerging companies, private equity, venture capital and angel financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, executive and team compensation matters, and general start-up support. Serving as the firm’s entrepreneur-in-residence, Jeremy often works on strategy and corporate development matters with companies, investors, and executives in technology, life sciences and the food and beverage industry. Jeremy is an active angel investor and is a member of the board of The Capital Network, a Boston based non-profit serving entrepreneurs seeking high growth capital. Jeremy serves on the Advisory Board and the Executive Education Committee of the MBI Health Program and on the Advisory Board of Pintley, a MassChallenge 2011 finalist company providing marketing solutions to the craft brewers and bars. He continues to serve as a mentor at MassChallenge and LearnLaunch, an expert advisor at the Innovation Hub at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and as a speaker, reviewer, judge or mentor for MIT HackingMedicine, HackingPediatrics, the Mass Tech Transfer Center, the Mass Life Science Center, M2D2, BranchFood and Startup Institute. Previously Jeremy served on the Board and Investment Committee of MassVentures, an early stage venture capital fund funding technology companies in Massachusetts. Jeremy taught entrepreneurial leadership at Tufts University for nine years and cofounded a company in the mobile technology synchronization space. Jeremy received his B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles.

• Jeremy Halpern, Partner; Co-Chair Food and Beverage Group, Nutter

The Entrepreneurial Life

• Robert Jakobi

  Founder & CEO, BOU

  

  Robert Jakobi

  Founder & CEO, BOU

  Robert is a food entrepreneur. He is the CEO and Founder of BOU and the former CEO and Co-owner of Metcalfe’s skinny and Metcalfe’s Food Company. In May 2017 Robert launched BOU which is a better-for-you range of bouillon and gravy cubes with the aim of disrupting categories in the food industry that have not seen innovation in years. BOU recreates timeless kitchen staples by packing better for you ingredients into easy to use cubes that never compromise on flavor or quality. By innovating a stale category, they were able to grow into a national company overnight by securing major retailers such as Amazon, Fresh Direct, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods and over 4,000 other retailers. Their current range of bouillon and gravy cubes are convenient and hassle-free and never sacrifice on taste or quality. They also just launched an exciting and innovative instant, better for you range of soup cups. All their products are non-GMO, made with no artificial ingredients, and have less sodium than leading brands.

• Robert Jakobi, Founder & CEO, BOU

Networking Break

Sales Channel Priorities

• Ian Kelleher

  Sales & Strategy Consultant,

  

  Ian Kelleher

  Sales & Strategy Consultant,

  Ian Kelleher co-founded the pioneering brand Peeled Snacks when healthy food wasn't yet cool. As part of a generation of mission-focused food entrepreneurs, he helped lay down industry groundwork and standards for an ever-improving food-landscape we can luckily now take for granted. With a hand in every aspect of the business, he grew Peeled Snacks from a cute-idea-hatched-at-the-breakfast-table into a multi-million dollar manufacturer of organic snacks with coast-to-coast distribution. Since his successful exit in 2017, he's helped dozens of food companies large and small navigate the industry's ever-shifted seas. An expert in sales, hiring, and corporate strategy, Ian is a mentor, coach, board member and investor. He lives with his wife and two shockingly wonderful children in Brooklyn, New York.

• Ian Kelleher, Sales & Strategy Consultant,

Company Structure

• Bob Burke

  Founder, Natural Products Consulting Group

  

  Bob Burke

  Founder, Natural Products Consulting Group

  As a consultant since 1998, Bob Burke provides assistance in bringing natural, organic and specialty products to market across most classes of trade. This includes work in strategic planning, growth strategies, writing sales, marketing and business plans, budgeting, pricing, building distribution, broker selection and management, organizational development, strategic options, branding and trade spending management. He is also the co-author and co-publisher of the Natural Products Field Manual, Fourth Edition and The Sales Manager's Handbook. Prior to consulting, Bob was with Stonyfield Farm Yogurt for 11 years as Vice President, Sales & Corporate Development and Vice President, Marketing & Sales. He has held marketing positions with Colombo, Inc. and Sperry Top-Sider. He received an MBA from Babson College.

• Bob Burke, Founder, Natural Products Consulting Group

Networking & Expert Tables