Church Street in downtown Evanston. Photo: Paul Sableman / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Evanston’s food business community was set to get its own pitch night on Thursday, May 7, 2015, when Now We’re Cookin’ hosted a Startup Showcase aimed at food and beverage entrepreneurs. The session was to begin at 5:30 p.m. at the incubator’s home, 1601 Payne St.
How the evening worked
Organizers planned a five-by-five format: five Evanston food or beverage companies, five minutes each. Pitches were to start at 6 p.m. Each founder would describe the business and name a specific need, whether technical help, expertise, funding or other resources. A panel and audience members would then spend five minutes on questions.
A networking reception was to follow the presentations, giving founders a chance to meet people who might fill the need they had named. Earlier showcases in the series drew roughly 150 people, a mix of investors, entrepreneurs, service providers, mentors, residents and elected officials. Space at the Payne Street venue was limited, and companies that wanted a pitch slot applied in advance.
The host
Now We’re Cookin’ opened in 2007 at 1601 Payne St. and, according to the Daily Northwestern, rents commercial kitchens to chefs and small food businesses that lack their own, an arrangement owner Nell Funk described as a rent-an-office model for chefs. The center also runs cooking classes and hosts private events. For a startup selling baked goods, sauces or prepared meals, shared professional equipment can stand in for the cost of building a commercial kitchen.
The May session was the next in a series of Startup Showcases that had earlier featured companies outside the food business. Organizers described the audience as entrepreneurs, students, funders, developers and designers backing Evanston’s newer companies. Holding the food edition in a kitchen incubator put the pitches in a room where food founders already worked.
Food startups face a particular hurdle: a licensed commercial kitchen is expensive to build, and a shared one lets a founder test recipes and demand before signing a lease. Each company at the showcase was to close its pitch with the specific help it needed next.
Event details from the organizers’ announcement; background on Now We’re Cookin’ from the Daily Northwestern, Jan. 27, 2010.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
