Team P is developing an online platform called Foodzone to connect food manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and facilitate product distribution. In the first week, Foodzone had 10 customers yesterday and 45 customers total. The platform allows manufacturers to showcase their products and link with retailers and distributors. Retailers can access new product information. Foodzone's revenue model includes subscription fees and transaction commissions. The team conducted customer interviews, identified pain points around increasing sales, and plans further customer validation and testing service ideas to analyze partnership opportunities.

1. Team P – Original Name: Organic Food Platform
Number of
customers
FOODZONE
yesterday: 10
Total Number
of customers
this week: 45
Platform to bring together food manufacturers,
distributors & retailers and facilitates distribution.
Alessandro Pradelli Joyce Jabbour Mallie Timiraos Marcos Sheeran Yong Kwon
Columbia
Business
School FOODZONE

2. The 5 stages of Lean Launchpad
Columbia
Business
School
FOODZONE

3. The 5 stages of our canvas
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
Columbia
Business
School
FOODZONE

4. Foodzone Canvas
• Trade Shows • CRM • Direct sales 1. Manufacturers of
• Distributors • User 1. Manufacturers • Strategic specialty packaged
of natural & interface showcase their partnerships goods
specialty management products and link (trade shows,
products & integration with retailers and magazines, 2. Small and mid-
• Media distributors associations…) size retailers of
specialty products
2. Retailers can
• Tech staff & easily access A one-stop website
programming curated new where
tools products with peer manufacturers and
• Business reviews, popularity, retailers can
Development and media coverage connect
1. Subscription fees (including additional services)
• Staff
2. Transactions fees incl. sales commissions on
• IT costs
long-term contracts
3. Free for retailers

5. Homepage

6. Content sample
Price Range
# Facebook Friends
# Twitter Followers
Media Exposure
Customer Reviews
Recent Sales Volume

7. Specialty food value chain
Bodegas &
Broker
(5-8% GM)
local stores
(30-40% GM)
Small &
Manufacturer Distributor mid-sized Consumer
(25-30% GM) stores
(30-40% GM)
Direct Sales
Scope of FoodZone (web, direct Large Retail
sales to all chains
(35-45% GM)
others)
Columbia
Business
School FOODZONE

8. Market Opportunity
• Assuming 1% of
the total U.S.
sales of specialty
Total Total
foods, the target
Target Market
US Food Specialty
~$7Bn
market is
Industry Foods
$673Bn [1] $75Bn [2]
(1% of SAM) approximately $7
billion
[1] Organic Trade Association’s 2011 Organic Industry Survey,
2010
[2] The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, The
State of the Specialty Food Industry 2012
Columbia
Business
School FOODZONE

9. Marketing Campaign
• Increase online / email visibility:
– Banner and newsletter content exchanges with:
• Food fairs
• Online version of food magazines
• Industry associations
– Google ads and adwords
• Direct promotion:
– Exhibit and hand out brochures at food fairs
• Partnerships:
– Work with associations to reach out to their members (win-win
situation)
Columbia
Columbia
Business FOODZONE
FOODZONE
School

10. What We Learned
From our interviews:
• The main concern for food retailers is increasing their sales
• The main concern for food start-ups is increasing their sales
• It’s difficult and time consuming for food retailers and food start-
ups to connect
From the class:
• It’s not that hard to get people to talk to you!
• And it’s completely worth it to talk to them
• It’s easier to identify individual pain points than to extrapolate
themes
• Working successfully in a team under time pressure requires
organization and communication
Columbia
Business
School
FOODZONE

11. Next steps
• More data needed: set additional interviews with retailers
and start-ups
• Test additional service ideas:
– weekly shipments of a selection of samples tailored to the
retailers’ needs
– services facilitating new product demos in the stores
• Analyze logistics options: discuss partnership model with
shipping companies
Columbia
Business
School FOODZONE

12. Appendix 1: Current Competitor Offering

13. Appendix 2: Thought Process