and

 

  Present
  Food Investing Conference
 

Thursday, August 21, 2014 

08:00 am-05:30 pm

 The International Culinary Center,

462 Broadway, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10013

Meet the panel of investors, who will be discussing trends in Early-Stage Investing, things that are most important to Investors when they are considering an Investment, the best and worst things an entrepreneur can do to get their attention, grow their business, use crowdfunding, additional advice for entrepreneurs, and, of course, the best ways to reach these and other Investors. 

The Soho Loft - The Voice of Capital Formation - and Victoria Global, an emerging force in the Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and Public Relations arena, with FundingPost join together to bring you this groundbreaking conference. 

 

The panels for the day:

• Early-Stage Food and Food-Tech Investing: How to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check!
• Growing your food or food-tech business: Protecting and selling your product, and positioning it for a capital raise.
• Using CrowdFunding to raise capital for your food company
• Keynote: Crowdfunding for food companies.

 

Who should attend?
 

• Food entrepreneurs raising capital.
• Food Investors (VCs, Angels & Corporate) to meet companies and speak on our panels.
• Exhibiting Companies to demo their stuff for partners and investors.
• Sponsors to moderate panels, exhibit and meet Food companies and investors.

This conference features:
 

• Breakfast Workshop - a Pitch Workshop from 8am to 10 am for food entrepreneurs serious in elevating their elevator pitch to investors. During this workshop we will completely deconstruct your pitch, and work with you on formulating a clean and concise elevator pitch giving the important information that investors NEED to hear to make an educated decision on your company!
• Networking Lunch
• After-event Cocktail Party
• Exhibiting companies with amazing projects to showcase. These companies will give a 2 Minute Elevator Pitch in person to the Panel of Investors during the event. Only fourteen (14) slots left. 
• Plus: Investor Kit - As an entrepreneur attendee your company brief and contact info will be included in this kit that will be provided to all investor speakers and attendees.

SPEAKERS:

Trevor Nelson

Managing Partner, Alliance Consumer Growth

As a co-founder and managing partner of ACG, Trevor enjoys providing a unique level of partnership and capital to entrepreneurs with consumer businesses poised for compelling growth. He has years of experience investing in the consumer industry and executing a variety of financial transactions. Trevor currently serves on the board of Phil's Fresh Foods, maker of EVOL-branded frozen food products.

Prior to founding ACG, Trevor was a principal with The Lessing Companies, a consumer-focused private equity firm. Earlier in his career, Trevor worked for Texas Pacific Group (TPG Capital), one of the world’s largest private equity firms with over $48 billion of capital under management. As a generalist at TPG, Trevor was involved in transactions in the consumer, industrial and healthcare sectors.

Before TPG, Trevor spent three years working for the New York-based private equity firm, Harvest Partners where he completed investments in the juvenile products company Evenflo, the natural personal care business Nature's Gate & Nature's Gate Organics, the personal care and beauty business Arbonne International, and the transit bus manufacturer New Flyer Industries.

Trevor began his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Lehman Brothers. Trevor holds a B.A. from Northwestern University where he studied political science and was the captain of the men's varsity NCAA soccer team.

Gabriele Corcos

Chef and Host, Cooking Channels Extra Virgin

Born in Florence, Italy, Gabriele Corcos was raised in the Olive Country of Fiesole. His grandmother and mother taught him everything he knows about Tuscan food and traditional farmers' cuisine. Gabriele has an insatiable fascination with food, a love for organic ingredients, and foremost a determination to feed his wife and children in the healthiest and most natural way he knows...the Tuscan Way. After a few years spent in L.A. catering high-end events and cooking for many celebrities and clients in the entertainment industry, Gabriele was hired as the consulting chef for the prestigious Montauk Yacht Club in Long Island in the summer of 1012. His menu featured traditional farmers cuisine from his home country and a few Super Tuscan takes on American staple recipes. He is currently living in Brooklyn and in the process of opening his first restaurant. 

The hit Cooking Channel show, Extra Virgin, invites viewers into his family's Brooklyn home, where Gabriele and his wife, actress Debi Mazar, share their passion for food and each other. She's a modern girl from Queens, and he's a food purist from the hills of Tuscany. With their two young daughters, they have a home life that is pleasantly chaotic and filled with only home cooked Tuscan meals. Gabriele and Deborah created, produce and host the show Extra Virgin which airs domestically on the Cooking Channel and globally on the Food Network International platforms. 

The couple is set to release their first cookbook with Clarkson/Potter during Spring 2014. 

Ray Payne

Angel Investor Ray Payne, Angel Investor 

Former Chief Marketing Officer for Citarella, LLC and its subsidiaries; 5 unit Citarella Gourmet Foods, two unit Citarella Restaurant Group, and Lockwood & Winant, the wholesale fish business of Citarella, LLC; in aggregate, a $150MM privately held family business. 

Former CEO and owner of Uncle Louie G’s, a Brooklyn NY based Italian Ice and Ice Cream franchise concept. Initially acquired the 3 unit chain and grew it to 71 units in 24 months with locations stretching from New England to Florida as well as development and expansion into pre-packaged product program for sale at retail. 

Private Investor in an event planning and production company specializing in the Craft Beer, Wine and Spirits market with gross revenue in excess of $4MM per annum. 

Private Investor in Rachel’s, a Mexican fast casual concept with one current location in Brooklyn, NY with per annum single unit gross sales in excess of $1.3MM. 

Private Equity Investor and Partner in Global Ventures Business Advisers, LLC, an active acquirer of middle-market food and beverage concepts with a focus on franchising and private labeling. The majority of the companies we acquire are entrepreneurial or family owned. We are highly experienced at working with individuals, family groups and management teams and understand the many challenges and sensitivities involved in the transition process.

 

Alain Bankier

Angel Investor, New York Angels

Alain Bankier is active shareholder and board member of The Manischewitz Company, a serial entrepreneur and an active early stage/ angel investor. In 2002, Alain co-founded the Saveur Food Group (SFG) to create, acquire and build small to midsized branded food companies and in2008 Manischewitz was merged with SFG. In the mid 90’s,Alain was a co-founder of NYNMA’s angel investment group, which was the precursor of the New York Angels(NYA). As a leading member of the NYA, Alain invests in a wide variety of technology, media and content companies. Alain has been a board member and advisor to a variety of companies and has been instrumental in achieving exit opportunities for several of these businesses.

Combining his knowledge of the food industry and his experience in the tech and media startup world, Alain has been focusing on investment opportunities at the intersection of food, media and technology. This includes investments, among others, in Mouth.com and Plated.

Before his adventures in the food industry, Alain was a founder of an international boutique investment bank, which he sold to BNP Parisbas, where he was the Head of Mergers and Acquisitions- Corporate Finance North Americas.

Jordan Gaspar

Principal, AccelFoods

Jordan is a Co-Founder and Principal of AccelFoods, an accelerator platform for earlystage food companies. AccelFoods offers hands-on operational and financial support, a deep bench of mentors, strategic partnerships and access to capital in an effort to instill best practices in the businesses that it works with so that they can scale more effectively. The team is currently in the process of developing the platform with the intent to launch its first "class" of entrepreneurs in January 2014. 

After graduating from Columbia College and Fordham Law School, Jordan began her career as a corporate attorney spending most of her time at Morrison Cohen LLP, a full-service law firm primarily servicing clients in the middle-market private equity space. While at Morrison Cohen, Jordan advised financial sponsors and their portfolio companies, with a practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, securities and debt financing. Jordan spent considerable time conducting due diligence on behalf of funds seeking to acquire companies between $1-100 million in revenue, identifying business issues prior to acquisitions. 

A food enthusiast at heart, Jordan left her legal career behind to found and run a New York City based catering company, Flatiron Kitchen, where she oversaw all aspects of operations including vendor and strategic partnerships, accounting/finance, sales, marketing and regulatory compliance. Representative clients included: Ogilvy and Mather, Levi Strauss, New York & Company, as well as several political campaigns and galleries. 

In addition to her role at AccelFoods, Jordan also serves as a Managing Director of Golden Seeds, a national angel network that invests in women-run companies, where she serves as a lead member of the Consumer Sector Group.

Sam Klepfish

CEO, Innovative Food Holdings

Sam Klepfish is the CEO of Innovative Food Holdings- a company which operates innovative gourmet food related businesses. Innovative Food Holdings also leverages it’s unique operating position in the gourmet food space to invest in food related companies. Investments are in seed to early stage food related companies which can leverage the food industry value add, that Innovative Food Holdings brings to the table. Sam is also a partner at Tri State Ventures- a NYC based angel investment group and is an angel investor in seed stage companies with clear monetization strategies.

 

Toan Huynh

Angel Investor, 37 Angels

Toan Huynh is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor focusing on food, technology, and start-up. As a successful three-time entrepreneur, Toan has started and successfully exited 2 out of 3 start-ups, including her most recent venture that is a cloud computing firm.

While Toan enjoys technology, her true passion lies in the creation of a business and food- she has had that opportunity to combine both with her third start-up. The Saucey Sauce Co. is an producer of artisanal, ready-to-serve Vietnamese savory sauces or “nuoc cham”, based locally in Brooklyn, NY. Started on a shoe string and while traveling all over for her other businesses, Toan and her co-founder Ken has grown the business and the sauces can be found in over 25+ specialty stores and on-line e-commerce sites, and ships internationally to Canada and overseas.

Toan also invested in food start-ups, including the New York Distilling Company, founded by the famed Tom Potter, founder of the Brooklyn Brewery. She is also a member of the 37Angels women-only Angel investor network, specializing in early-stage, seed-round start-ups.

Kevin McGovern

Angel Investor

SPONSORS

 

Refund Policy: Up to 14 days before the event, The Soho Loft will issue a refund for the ticket price paid. Up to 5 days before the event a 50% refund will be granted. No refunds will be made available after this date. A substitute attendee may be sent. There are No Refunds or Credits for No-Shows.