Innovate MN presents a Community Jam featuring: Techstars Future of Food Powered by Ecolab

Innovate MN presents a Community Jam featuring: Techstars Future of Food Powered by Ecolab

Innovate MN is proud to partner with Techstars Future of Food Powered by Ecolab, to bring you a unique offering in this Community Jam session. 

By collaborating together, we will provide valuable feedback through our Idea Jam’s iterative process to 10 innovative companies challenging the future of food.

What are Community Jams? While we usually keep our “spotlight business” a mystery in our regular season sessions (because surprises can be interesting and fun!), our new Community Jams are great for allowing our members to collaborate across established professional communities in a wide variety of industry areas. As you may have already guessed, this leads to more opportunities for divergent thinking and potential market-disrupting, world-changing ideas!

In short, our Community Jams feature organizations announced to our members ahead of time as we bring two or more professional communities together and watch the sparks fly!

Event Purpose:

Connect with other Innovate MN members and our entrepreneurial Future of Food community to refine and strengthen the pitches of 10 cutting-edge startups as they prepare to present to investors. Your insights and perspectives are crucial in shaping these groundbreaking pitches. 

Add in the opportunity to network across industry areas and catch a few awesome takeaways of your own— and this is a Community Jam session you won’t want to miss!

What to Expect:

The Innovate MN team will provide direction at the event, guiding you through our proven ideation process and collection format. Come with an open mind to hear more about these exciting companies and contribute your thoughts to their pitches.

Participating Companies:

1. 3R Pallets: 3R Pallets makes durable, eco-friendly pallets using bamboo fibers and recycled plastics, offering a sustainable alternative to traditional wooden and plastic pallets with a closed-loop system for reuse and recycling

2. Bairu: Bairu makes sales automation accessible for independent restaurants in Latam

3. Big Brain AI: Big Brain AI empowers frontline workers for peak efficiency with AI

4. Hop Robotics: Hop Robotics provides venue and event operators draft beer dispensing systems. They use robotics to increase revenue through speed of service while enhancing the guest experience

5. Inspectle Food: Inspectle Food specializes in the real-time detection of food non-conformities through computer vision

6. Perks: Perks boosts restaurant revenue and profits by using AI to analyze weather, local events, employee availability, and past sales data, automatically generating a 2-week schedule that efficiently staffs based on business needs

7. Plate: Plate is an analytics platform that provides sell-through and conversion data for CPG brands and grocery retailers by enabling brands, content creators, and celebrity chefs to market products on social media

8. Segura: Segura improves the world's water quality through easy, accurate, take-anywhere testing

9. Served: Served is a SaaS solution that makes allergy-safe dining easy

10. TAINR: TAINR is a robotic dispensing technology that helps grocery retailers reduce operating expenses and boost dry goods sales through real-time inventory data and demand forecasting—without the waste.

To learn more about each company, check out the announcement here: Announcing 12 startups in the Techstars Future of Food 2024

Why Participate?

• Learn About Cutting-Edge Innovations: Gain exclusive insights into 10 innovative companies shaping the future of food technology. Expand your knowledge of emerging trends and solutions in the industry.

• Contribute Meaningful Feedback: Exercise your critical thinking skills by offering thoughtful constructive criticism. Your unique perspective and insights can directly impact how these startups refine and improve their pitches, potentially sparking new ideas or approaches as they prepare to present to investors.

• Network with Purpose: Connect with fellow innovators, entrepreneurs, and industry professionals who share your passion for innovation. Build meaningful relationships that could lead to future collaborations or opportunities.

Join Us! Whether you're a startup founder, an innovation enthusiast, or simply curious about Minnesota's entrepreneurial scene and the Techstars: Future of Food, we invite you to bring your ideas and energy to this exciting collaboration. This event is designed to be inclusive and welcomes everyone who shares our passion for entrepreneurship and innovation. 

Together, let's shape the Future of Food!

Reserve Your Spot:

We have 50 spots available for this high-impact event, and they're sure to fill up quickly. 

Once all spots are filled, a waitlist will be opened. When this happens, we encourage you to join the waitlist as spots may open up closer to the event date.