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From baby food to honey spirits, buffalo to bitters, curcumin to hemp to olive oil, and crackers to cookies (plus
a catalytic disinfection technology for good measure),
our cohort seems well-poised for growth.
Ten Wisconsin food and beverage manufacturing entrepreneurs' journeys have led them to create products and demonstrate success, earning them a spot in Wisconsin's premier industry-specific accelerator.
The competitive process attracted 49 applicants from across the state. "The ten selected demonstrated a path to success wed to their vision, authenticity, business readiness, and products that are distinct, scalable, and leaning forward for the industry," said Brad Rostowfske, FaB's Director of Industry Growth. Meet the FaBcap companies for 2018-2019:
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MCFARLAND, WI - Meet Pete Marsnik,
interim CEO of
Bioionix
.
He's been an investor and board member since the company started in 2006. A manufacturer of disinfection equipment that uses a patented catalytic disinfection process for food industry process water and brine, they're improving food safety and eliminating purchased chemicals.
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MILWAUKEE, WI - Meet Ira Koplowitz and Nick Kosevich. Ira took a love for the craft cocktail scene honing his skills at The Violet Hour in Chicago and turned it in his life's passion. With an aspiration to stay in the craft cocktail arena, he moved to Milwaukee to start Bittercube in 2009 with his friend Nick, who added his bitters experience to the duo. They offer handcrafted bitters with real botanicals and no pre-made extracts or flavors.
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MADISON, WI
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Meet Dominic DeSano.
His story centers around his love for bees, their honey, and meadmaking - fermenting honey. His experience as the Head Meadmaker for Brazilian-based Melvino Meadery led to him starting
Domeloz
in 2017, making award-winning distilled mead called honey spirits.
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MILWAUKEE, WI
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Meet Qasim and Asim Khan.
Born and raised in Pakistan and moving to Chicago at a young age, these brothers went on to become investment bankers. After seeing how a natural remedy of turmeric paste relieved their father's diabetic nerve pain, they saw an opportunity to heighten the medicinal benefits of curcumin in turmeric. In 2017, they started
DRINK ZYN
making water infused with a high-absorption form of curcumin.
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MADISON, WI
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Meet Luke VandenLangenberg and Dan Hager.
After meeting in a Physics 202 class, they came to share an ambition to transform a local sector. Setting their sights on Wisconsin's legal, industrial hemp industry, they formed
Hempire Farms
in 2017 to grow and extract Cannabidiol (CBD) oil as a food ingredient.
(*Hemp is the variety of cannabis with low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the cannabinoid most known for its psychoactive.)
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KAUKAUNA, WI -
Meet Amanda
Santoro, a busy mother of four and nurse. Her youngest child Jake, born premature, required what she wanted for all her young children - convenient, fresh frozen, high quality, organic crafted baby food. In 2017, Amanda started the
Little Food Company
.
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MADISON, WI - Meet Nancy Potter.
Nancy, with her son Peter Weber, took her bakery experience as a former owner of New Glarus Bakery in pursuit of offering consumers a deserving cracker to pair with the growing production of exceptional cheeses. In 2016,
Potter's Crackers
started making small batch, artisan, organic crisps and crackers with Wisconsin's organic ingredients.
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MADISON, WI - Meet Sascha Dhanjal.
A move to Chile in a position at a private equity firm that had an investment in an olive oil farm grew her knowledge of product adulteration in the olive oil industry. In 2017,
Saffi Foods
was started to provide consumers and chefs unadulterated olive oils and vinegars in bulk.
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CADOTT, WI
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Meet Sean Lenihan.
Sean found his calling when a marketing research project with the National Bison Association and a desire to change his lifestyle intersected. He wanted to deliver trust, along with meat products made with the highest quality and most humanely-raised buffalo, elk, and venison, using the best regenerative grazing practices. In 2012,
The Honest Bison, Inc.
was formed.
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NEW BERLIN, WI -
Meet Susan Knutson.
Susan always loved to bake and was known to her four sons and their classmates as The Cookie Lady. She considered culinary school before receiving her degree in accounting. In 2013, she started
The Naked Baker
on a mission to bake the best tasting gluten-free cookies, naked of preservatives, additives, and GMOs.
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