A group of Minnesota food and agriculture organizations that includes Fortune 500 companies like General Mills and Land O' Lakes is seeking fresh ideas from local entrepreneurs and innovators.
The Bold Open reverse pitch collaboration, set for next month, will flip the traditional pitch model to find innovative solutions to food and ag industry challenges. It is powered by the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute in partnership with MBOLD.
MBOLD is a coalition of more than a dozen Minnesota food and agriculture entities, including Cargill, Ecolab, Grow North, Target and Techstars Farm to Fork. The group is working to find solutions to issues in the ag industry to meet the needs of the growing global population.
Through the Bold Open, the MBOLD coalition will solicit solutions from entrepreneurs, researchers and businesses from around the world to address specific industry challenges.
"The Bold Open is a game-changer for linking innovators and entrepreneurs with our region's globally leading cluster of food and agriculture businesses as we work together to address critical food and ag challenges," MBOLD Managing Director JoAnne Berkenkamp said in a release.
The goal of Bold Open, organizers say, is to "help companies and entrepreneurs accelerate the commercialization of innovative solutions." The participating organizations will share distinctive issues and invite the audience to propose solutions. This is different from a typical pitch competition, where typically entrepreneurs pitch to investors – not the other way around.
"By having these leading food and ag entities issue innovation challenges, we hope they will uncover novel approaches to accelerate solutions to a variety of opportunities, from ingredient and product development to identifying new sustainable industry practices," Shannon Schlecht, executive director of AURI, said in a statement.
Bold Open will post challenges and open registration on its site in early July. The event is scheduled for July 27.
