Chicago Booth Magazine Three Experts Energize the Food & Beverage Industry

The Challenge: Since 1965, Gatorade has been the go-to sports drink for athletes. But 50 years in, sports have evolved. Customer research in 2017 revealed an opportunity to provide beverage solutions to athletes when they are off the field as well.

“Gatorade had never created a product designed for the off-the-field athlete, and we were unsure if our current brand could successfully take us there,” said Carolyn Braff, Gatorade director of brand marketing. How could Gatorade create a product geared to a different usage occasion without suggesting the original core product was inferior?

The Strategy: The team uncovered an opportunity to create a foundation for a larger category of sports drinks. The new product would complement what Gatorade always stood for—scientifically proven functional hydration—but would appeal to the needs of a nutritionally discerning consumer who wanted “clean,” or more natural, offerings.

Creating a product that could launch an entirely differentiated category required a cross-functional team. There was some internal resistance, Braff said, since it was a complete change in mind-set from the normal process of launching a new product. She reframed the problem as a new way to look at consumption categories, rather than simply thinking about a product for inactive consumption. To get buy-in, Braff spent time trying to understand the trepidations of the team and listening to their concerns. She also used data to underscore the importance of this brand in Gatorade’s future business. Helping subject matter experts see the bigger picture went a long way toward driving successful ways of working as a team.

The Challenge: Most of the investments in China’s food system are downstream, focusing on the consumer. But bringing safe and healthy food to consumers requires investment across the supply chain. Unlike in Europe and the United States, where there is a vibrant ecosystem of investment that has a long-term view regarding the need for better food production and safety across the supply chain, in China the investment community can be short-term focused. How can an entrepreneur bring cleaner, more sustainable food choices to the nation’s growing population?

The Strategy: Matilda Ho saw the need for greater investment in China’s food supply chain when she was running an online farmers market offering sustainable groceries to Shanghai families in 2015. So in late 2016 she founded Bits x Bites, a food tech VC fund looking to invest in innovative companies across the food supply chain.

Initially she found little interest from Chinese investors who had no interest or understanding of food tech or opportunities outside of consumer-focused innovation. Those who were interested had a very short-term mind-set. “I was asked a lot: ‘How can we invest in e-commerce and have it become a unicorn in one year?’” Ho said. But she wanted to create a fund with sustainability in mind, which requires long-term thinking.

The Challenge: At many coffee shops the number of options can paralyze customers as they try and choose, leading to long ordering lines and impatience from the people who know exactly what they want. Ordering coffee through online apps requires setting up an account, and pickup can be a hassle. Randy Paris was looking for a way to streamline getting his morning coffee. How could retailers give consumers a good quality product and experience where they are also able to avoid long lines?

The Strategy: Paris discovered BrewBike, a small company run by college students. The students had come up with three solutions to serve great coffee quickly on their campus. First, take a retrofitted industrial bicycle that serves only cold-brew coffee through a keg system and park it on a campus quad. Second, open a small indoor stand serving coffee, tea, and limited food options. Third, deliver wholesale coffee. By focusing on just a few high-quality, key products that can be served quickly, the company allows customers to simply grab and go. BrewBike had the concept Paris wanted—but the company lacked access to capital.

Paris joined BrewBike in January 2018, and in February he entered BrewBike’s narrow-focused food service concept to compete in the Polsky Center’s Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, in order to seek equity funding and raise capital. “We wanted to determine if there really was a viable business concept in BrewBike and if we could make traction to get investors,” Paris said.