Entrepreneurial Spirit / December 21, 2016

Dingman Center Board Member Offers Wisdom on Investing in Food Startup Industry

Dingman Center Board Member Offers Wisdom on Investing in Food Startup Industry

Serial entrepreneur Jason Cohen ’96 is an aspirational figure to student entrepreneurs at University of Maryland. The journey Cohen took after graduating in marketing from the Robert H. Smith School of Business led him to a brief stint in selling life insurance until he realized his knack for locating opportunities in the snack food industry. Now as the co-founder and CEO of Halen Brands, with partner Leigh Feuerstein, he has made multimillion-dollar deals and controls a $300 million investment fund, backed by Clearlake Capital. The Smith School recently honored Cohen with a plaque for his generous establishment of the Jason and Jamie Cohen Entrepreneurship Fund that benefits the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.

In fall 2016, Cohen was named to the Dingman Center Board of Advisors. In his new role as board member, Cohen is looking to share his expertise with student entrepreneurs hoping to break into the food industry as well as leverage the Dingman Center’s network in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., startup community. His company Halen Brands is responsible for the success behind ubiquitous snack food brands such as Skinny Pop. The company looks for food startups from all over the country not just to invest in, but also to infuse them with the Halen Brands extensive network and expertise.

Chef’s Cut, one of the company’s most recent acquisitions, is a high-end beef jerky that, according to Cohen, “Tastes like steak in a bag.” Cohen saw the superiority of the product compared to conventional beef jerky as an asset in finding new users looking for an on-the-go snack that’s high in protein. After acquiring the startup, he and his team helped Chef’s Cut grow their business from $400,000 in sales to more than $40 million in just two years.

His newest brand acquisition is Road Crew Crunch, a Vermont-based food startup that produces a gluten-free snack mix drizzled in chocolate made with Fair Trade certified ingredients. As an investor, Cohen remarked on the process for determining a food product’s potential value: “Gut, backed by data.”

Road Crew Crunch is an example of a growing trend toward gluten-free or otherwise allergen-friendly foods. Using “clean label” ingredients, such as Fair Trade chocolate, is another way to appeal to an increasingly health-conscious and also socially conscientious customer base. Another example of this is CORE Hydration, the fastest growing independent water brand, which uses 100% recycled materials in manufacturing its bottles. But above all, taste is key: “Our way to win is by sampling. If the product doesn’t deliver by taste, it’s very hard to build your brand,” said Cohen.

Cohen’s food industry knowledge combined with his keen intuition for market needs makes him a valuable investor to growing food startups. His advice for any entrepreneur thinking about seeking funding is to be strategic in giving away equity. For a growing food startup, receiving an investment from a company like Halen Brands amounts to more than just funding. 

“Take the smart money over the dumb money. You can get a higher valuation from athletes and people who don’t understand the industry. But that might not get you from point A to point B,” said Cohen, adding, “Be very prudent on who you take money from and how you take money.”

Cohen notes that when looking for funding, it’s important for founders to find the right investors who have expertise in the industry the venture is breaking into. Cohen went on to talk about what young entrepreneurs can do while pursuing ventures as students.

“If you want to be an entrepreneur, teach yourself when you’re at school to network. Meet as many people as you can, find out what they do, what their families do, so when you’re out of school and that great idea pops up you know who you went to school with that may have the relationships you’re looking for.”

For more information about the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, visit: http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman

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About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business

The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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