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Cases.
Company Background Video (run time: 13:19)
Company: Spoon University
1. 00:00:13.056 Spoon University is a food media company for
young people.
2. 00:00:16.128 So what that means is we're a lot like the
Food Network
3. 00:00:18.688 and that we have recipes, restaurant reviews,
healthy eating tips, food news all
about

4. 00:00:23.552 how food can fit into your life
5. 00:00:25.344 but it's all made by college students and young
people on campuses all around
the world.
6. 00:00:29.696 So we empower teams of students
7. 00:00:31.744 that work with a student  publication on
their campus
8. 00:00:34.048 to come together to form a community, to build
a team, and develop skills and
then start having the fruits of their labor
9. 00:00:40.448 and their work is seen on an international
scale.
10. 00:00:43.520 So Spoon originally got started when Sarah
and I were undergrads at
Northwestern.  We had moved off-campus for the first
time into our
11. 00:00:49.920 apartments
12. 00:00:50.944 and suddenly realized we had to figure out
how to feed ourselves
13. 00:00:54.016 and we've been prepared for so many things
run our lives except for this really
important aspect of
14. 00:00:58.880 college.
15. 00:01:00.416 It was so strange to us because there are so

many other students on campus
who were probably going through the same thing.
16. 00:01:05.024 We basically wanted to bring everybody
together to figure this 
17. 00:01:07.584 this thing out together.
18. 00:01:08.864 There was a ton of food media out there like
Food Network, Bon Appetit, all
these amazing resources out there
Cases.
19. 00:01:15.008 but nothing really for us specifically.
20. 00:01:17.056 You know college students  do not have
a lot of time or money or
experience or resources and so
21. 00:01:22.176 the best
22. 00:01:23.200 the place to learn was from our
peers and from each other. So we
wanted to build something to bring everyone together around
that
23. 00:01:28.832 we started a publication on campus
24. 00:01:30.624 built the team to about a hundred students.
There were  writers,

photographers, editors,  videographers
25. 00:01:35.232 marketing people ad sales kind of
26. 00:01:38.304 the whole spectrum.
27. 00:01:39.328 And we started getting emails from
other people from other
schools who had heard of Spoon
28. 00:01:42.912 and wanted to bring it to their university and
so
29. 00:01:45.984 what we realized after launching our first
couple of chapters [in our] senior year
was that
30. 00:01:50.848 a lot of college students wanted to be
entrepreneurial that needed the help to
get started
31. 00:01:55.968 and a lot of people are suddenly interested in
food. Whether that was just
32. 00:01:59.552 for sustenance to try to feed themselves or it
was this new passion that people
have they wanted
33. 00:02:04.160 explore
34. 00:02:04.928 and really this idea of bringing people
together around the community and
35. 00:02:08.512  having all the content and the
experiences are really authentic

36. 00:02:11.584 was
37. 00:02:12.608 really impactful in a way that I think has been
done before.
38. 00:02:15.936 So when we graduated we decided to test out
over the summer to see if
Cases.
39. 00:02:20.800 Spoon was a viable thing that could
exist in other universities.
40. 00:02:23.872 Sarah spent the summer teaching herself how
to code, building a website that
could accommodate these first initial schools
41. 00:02:29.760 and I was going out on campus virtually trying
to find other students to start
chapters.
42. 00:02:34.368 It was just me and her on the couch in
Evanston finishing out our
leases
43. 00:02:38.720 and by the end of the summer had a lot of
great interest in starting new
chapters, the site was launched it was alive
44. 00:02:45.632 and then we knew that moving to New York
was going to the best place for

media for startups and entrepreneurship and we could build our
network here.
45. 00:02:52.800 So we moved to New York
46. 00:02:54.336 spent that first-year kind of just
47. 00:02:56.640 plugging away on our couch building more
chapters building more things on
the site
48. 00:03:00.736 and it was it was quite a grind I think that
looking back on it it was
49. 00:03:06.624
50. 00:03:07.392 difficult although we didn't know how
difficult it was going to be and I think
that's what allowed us to kind of push through.
51. 00:03:14.560
52. 00:03:15.840 And so we began doing that for about a year
we were at about what, 30
campuses
53. 00:03:18.912  maybe and then
54. 00:03:20.448 got into the Tech Stars accelerator program in
New York.
55. 00:03:23.776 That was really turning point for us because
suddenly we were a little bit of
investment we had  other people who
56. 00:03:30.176 we're validating what we were doing

57. 00:03:31.200 and that program kind of really help us
58. 00:03:33.760 set on this trajectory towards where we are
today.
Cases.
59. 00:03:41.952 So the monetization model for Spoon is to be
able to connect brands into our
audience in an authentic way.
60. 00:03:47.840 So what traditionally media companies have
done the past is try to reach scale
try to get
61. 00:03:52.192 millions  [and] millions of people on
their site so they can monetize with
against banner ads that brands wanted to put their
creative against.
62. 00:03:59.104 You very much see that the industry is moving
away from that. So rather than
going that route work completely ignoring the banner ad
63. 00:04:06.016 monetization route saying we want to
build more authentic
experiences. We want to have this engagement in this life
deeper connection with the students
that

64. 00:04:12.416 already trust us.
65. 00:04:13.440 So the way that we're connecting brands into
that is through sponsored
content.
66. 00:04:17.280 So working with
67. 00:04:18.303 a company
68. 00:04:19.071 understanding what their needs are, what their
pain points are, what values
they want to communicate
69. 00:04:23.679 and then  pairing them with students
who have
70. 00:04:25.471  been top
71. 00:04:27.263 contributors for a while and saying okay let's
bring this brand to life let's
communicate
72. 00:04:31.615 they want to communicate
73. 00:04:33.919 in a college student voice.
74. 00:04:34.687 So that could be on content on the site, video,
even 
75. 00:04:38.527 it even extends into social media. So a lot of
brands are also wondering how do
we reach this audience in social media
76. 00:04:43.647 as it's not native to them at all. 

77. 00:04:45.439 So we can also create authentic content
Cases.
78. 00:04:47.231 whether it's on Snapchat or Instagram or
promoting things across Facebook
79. 00:04:51.071 and charge brands to be able to have access
our community but also kind of in
the consulting way of understanding how people are using
80. 00:04:58.495 these platforms. And then we are also able to
activate events
and experiential 
81. 00:05:02.335 campagins  on campus as well.
82. 00:05:05.407 So for a lot of like
83. 00:05:06.687 food companies, specifically with a CPG there
is a lot of product
84. 00:05:09.759 they want to get into the hands of the right
people
85. 00:05:11.807 and so are you able to connect them similarly
with our network of students to
be able to throw
86. 00:05:16.415 events around a  product on
campus or some sort of activity

87. 00:05:19.487 that is beneficial for the campus in the chapter
themselves that is also
beneficial for the brand.
88. 00:05:26.143 Another thing that we're actually exploring is
this whole idea around
89. 00:05:29.215 consumer insights and understanding behavior.
90. 00:05:32.543 College students are looking for kind of
a black box
91. 00:05:34.591 for a lot of companies and so  we can
92. 00:05:38.175 help connect them with 
93. 00:05:39.711 our students whether it's in focus groups or
surveys or
94. 00:05:43.039 your product testing things like this and
there's a lot of opportunity kind
of 
95. 00:05:47.391 as a side revenue stream to be able to explore
96. 00:05:50.463 and helping
97. 00:05:51.487 big companies understand really what young
people want and what they're
thinking and what their preferences are.
98. 00:06:01.471 So our community team is kind of where it all
started and our first fire was

Cases.
Andrea
99. 00:06:06.335 who actually work with us at
Northwestern.
100. 00:06:09.663 She came on to basically 
101. 00:06:10.687 help us launch
102. 00:06:11.711 new chapters at
103. 00:06:12.735 universities and maintain them and grow
them and help all the
104. 00:06:15.551 student be successful. So it really starts at
the community team.
105. 00:06:18.367 Right now we have 4 Community
Managers
106. 00:06:20.927 and one is responsibility  for growth
so getting new people
107. 00:06:24.767 interested in Spoon, getting their chapter is
up and running and getting them
launched.
108. 00:06:28.351 Then we have three Community Engagement
Managers

109. 00:06:30.655 who are responsible for maintaining all the
chapters we already have
launched, helping them solve problems, helping them
grow helping them
110. 00:06:37.055 be as successful as possible.
111. 00:06:38.591 There really the core of where it
all begins.
112. 00:06:41.407 We also have our Editorial Team. So
113. 00:06:43.711  we have 3 editors right now they're
responsible for basically
114. 00:06:47.551 coaching the writers on campus and
making sure
115. 00:06:49.855 the quality of the content that we're putting
out on the site is super high
116. 00:06:53.439 and so you know
117. 00:06:54.719 after the community team of writers, editors
118. 00:06:57.791 photographers, the editoral team
119. 00:06:59.071 helps them guide them through the process
and help 
120. 00:07:02.143 train them for future jobs and internships.
Cases.

121. 00:07:04.703 We also have
122. 00:07:06.495 our video team
123. 00:07:07.519 so we have kind of a split video strategy
right now.  We have a couple
people who are focused on like HQ videos
124. 00:07:14.431 just the stuff that we produce in-house. It's
basically a lot of testing different
formats, testing different ideas
125. 00:07:19.295 and being able to have a controlled
126. 00:07:21.343 Video Production Studio here that we can
learn a lot and then be able to help
students be successful in their creating videos.
127. 00:07:27.743 They also have on the Production Manager
who's responsible for overseeing
our
128. 00:07:31.839 video programs. So for right now in about 40
129. 00:07:34.143 video contributors at
130. 00:07:35.167 different universities
131. 00:07:36.191 and he makes sure that
132. 00:07:37.727 similar to the editors of the community
managers everyone has all the
information there is successful as possible

133. 00:07:43.359 and if they feel super empowered to
134. 00:07:45.151 make amazing work.
135. 00:07:46.175 Then we have our marketing
136. 00:07:48.479 social media team that's like slowly growing.
137. 00:07:52.575 We have Rachel who is our Social Media
Editor who
138. 00:07:55.391 was actually an editor-in-chief on one of our
campus is it at University of
Illinois so we like to let's keep people in the family.
139. 00:08:03.839 But we have social media on many
channels all the ways that we
140. 00:08:05.631 take the content that all of our members are
creating and get out there in the
world how people appreciate their work.
141. 00:08:11.263 So that's everything  from social media
to email
Cases.
142. 00:08:13.823 to different partners that we work with
143. 00:08:17.407 both content and social side.

144. 00:08:18.943 And then we have our sales team,
145. 00:08:21.503 what is brand new,
146. 00:08:22.271 this is how we're going to be
147. 00:08:24.319 intergrating brands
148. 00:08:25.343 into this
149. 00:08:26.111 whole conversation.
150. 00:08:27.135 So a lot of
151. 00:08:27.903 companies specifically food companies, but a
lot of companies in general
152. 00:08:31.487 are having a hard time reaching
153. 00:08:33.535 this audience and because
154. 00:08:35.327 we have this amazing network of students
and this amazing community
155. 00:08:38.143 we're able to integrate these brands
authentically into that conversation. So
we have a sales team now who is
156. 00:08:43.519 working on finding the
best brands  we want to work with the
kind of represent our values that our students would be
like to be excited about and trying
to find that connection to build 
157. 00:08:51.455 value for both our community and also the

brands themselves.
158. 00:08:58.111 One challenge that I
159. 00:09:00.415 that I face is
160. 00:09:02.207 in
161. 00:09:03.487 delegating
162. 00:09:04.767 responsibility. I think that
163. 00:09:06.559 when you're starting a company
Cases.
164. 00:09:08.351 from the very beginning, it's you doing
165. 00:09:10.911 all of the things that wearing all the
hats
166. 00:09:15.775 and being 
167. 00:09:16.799 like
168. 00:09:17.567 working in a growing company an entirely
different skill set
169. 00:09:20.383 it entails not doing any not doing that hands-
on work but

170. 00:09:25.247 empowering other people to do that work and
finding people who can and
171. 00:09:28.575 and making sure that they feel capable of
doing all the things that they need
to do and that they have no roadblocks.
172. 00:09:33.951 Which is a really great skill but it's
173. 00:09:35.743 very different skill than doing everything
yourself.
174. 00:09:38.303 And I think that transition is really it is a
funny transition for a lot of startup
founders to make
175. 00:09:43.679 and one that I've definitely struggled
with for a little bit.
176. 00:09:46.495 One of the things that I think is really
exciting is
177. 00:09:48.799 when  I was in Journalism School
178. 00:09:51.103 in college and I was told often
179. 00:09:53.663 about the end of media and how media
business models just don't
work and
180. 00:09:59.039 someone needs to figure out this problem and
I think that we're in an industry
that
181. 00:10:03.135 is going to need to figure out if it is it's
going to be decided  it's own

idenity and future so it's really exciting time to be in this
industry.
182. 00:10:11.839 The other thing is I think that we have a
really
183. 00:10:14.911 innovative way of approaching this problem
184. 00:10:17.471 because there are a lot of contributor
networks like
185. 00:10:20.031 Huffington Post
Cases.
186. 00:10:21.823 and other media  companies that take
advantage of contributor
networks but ours is so different because it's really turning
187. 00:10:28.223 that hole
188. 00:10:29.247 process onto it's head.
189. 00:10:30.783 So instead of us having a contributor
network
190. 00:10:33.343 full of people that
191. 00:10:34.623 feels a little bit like it's taking advantage of
all this free labor

192. 00:10:37.695 we're an educational platform to
help these students
193. 00:10:40.255 develop their skills that gives them a
platform to be seen on a larger scale
than they ever could have been seen otherwise.
194. 00:10:46.143 It's all about
195. 00:10:48.191 personal development as opposed to
196. 00:10:50.495 content production
197. 00:10:51.519 and I think that's a really important
distinction that makes
198. 00:10:54.591 are system at it's core fundamentally
different than a lot of companies that
look like us.
199. 00:11:00.223 And that priority in structure
200. 00:11:03.039 affects everything that you do here
201. 00:11:05.343 and that affect the choices that we make with
how we interact with the
students
202. 00:11:09.695 and how we pitch story ideas and how
we help them set goals
203. 00:11:14.047 and how we like
204. 00:11:16.607 incentivize them and try
to reward their success

205. 00:11:20.447 so I think that's a core part of what we do
that I think is awesome.
206. 00:11:28.895 So here are the strategic vision for the
next year is being able the next
couple months actually to test out a couple different thing to be
a
Cases.
207. 00:11:35.295 able to have
208. 00:11:36.063 at least a few theories on how we should
move forward.
209. 00:11:38.623 So we know that we want to continue to
expand to more campus and
we've really gotten that process down.
210. 00:11:43.999 So campus expansion is a big priority over
the next year.
211. 00:11:47.839 A few things that we are testing and we do
want to expand is our video
program so right now it's kind of a closed program
212. 00:11:54.239 40 students that flucuates from semester to
sememster but
213. 00:11:58.847 as people are starting to see video become
way more prevalent in media

214. 00:12:02.687 there's a lot of interest in creating the stuff
too so we want to be able to
provide the tools to students to be able to create video if they
never have
215. 00:12:09.087 and have it be seen by millions of
people.  So trying to figure out
exactly how we're going to expand and scale our video program
is a big priority.
216. 00:12:16.511 We're also really interested in testing out
217. 00:12:19.583 what's Spoon could look like in cities after
college.
218. 00:12:22.655 So we have a lot of students are graduating
from our chapters who still want
to be connected they still want to participate in Spoon
somehow
219. 00:12:28.799 so this summer we're going to be testing
220. 00:12:31.103 what could this community look like you
when you're  working full-time
221. 00:12:34.431 in a new city trying to explore in a similar
way but kind of different life stage.
222. 00:12:39.807 We will also be experimenting more with the
sales side of things. So
223. 00:12:44.671 really trying to figure out how we can drive
the most value to brand's, how we
can really be creative

224. 00:12:50.047 and provide products that no other media
companies offers
225. 00:12:53.887 and then also to constantly checking with her
students and saying
226. 00:12:57.215 trying to figure out did you like his
campaign?  how do you feel about
this brand now? that what kind of impact or actually making
with
227. 00:13:03.103 companies that we're working with
Cases.
228. 00:13:04.639 and how can we better that experience for all
of our members all of our
audience and also the brands we want to work with, too.
Cases.
Company Background Video (run time: 13:19)Company: Spoon
University
This following document was prepared for poojan patel to
provide a textual
transcription of the video Case Prompt: Designing for Lean

Editorial Management (run
time: 4:12) from the Real Time Cases platform on March 02
23:16, 2020.
This document is intended for use by poojan patel only.
No further reproduction or distribution of this document or text
is permitted by
electronic transmission or any other means.
Cases.
Case Prompt: Designing for Lean Editorial Management (run
time: 4:12)
Company: Spoon University
1. 00:00:08.192 So another 
2. 00:00:09.984 challenge that we face
3. 00:00:11.776 is we're a small staff that's working on
editorial. There are three people currently
working
4. 00:00:17.920 on editorial and it doesn't seem like there are
plans
5. 00:00:21.760 to bring in a 50 editor's nor should there be
plans for that.

6. 00:00:25.856 But at the same time
7. 00:00:27.904 as we add  chapters as we expand
into something like Spoon City
which is going beyond campuses
8. 00:00:34.048  we're going to have thousands upon
thousands of people contributing
work
9. 00:00:38.656 and how do we
10. 00:00:41.216 screen that and empower writers and make
sure that the content on
our  site doesn't just become this open
11. 00:00:47.616 platform with
12. 00:00:49.664 plenty of mistakes and kind of lower barrier-
to-entry. How do we still maintain
that really high-quality brand
13. 00:00:56.000 of content while still staying lean
14. 00:01:00.672 and as small 
15. 00:01:02.720 at the core as we can.
16. 00:01:04.768 And so we're definitely trying to figure out
processes
17. 00:01:09.888 different workflows maybe different ways of
we can organize our strategy and
18. 00:01:15.776 really any solutions that could keep

19. 00:01:19.104 our team as small as possible
and churning out the best quality work
Cases.
20. 00:01:23.712 still growing outer contributor base as large as
it could get.
21. 00:01:27.296 Currently and this might be out of date by the
time this case is going on
22. 00:01:31.392 but currently we work in WordPress
23. 00:01:34.976 and that is the CMS
24. 00:01:37.536 that all of the interactions that take place I
know that there
25. 00:01:41.888 are plans and ideas to soon roll out our own
proprietary CMS
26. 00:01:46.496 which maybe change some of these
27. 00:01:48.032 processes.
28. 00:01:49.568 But as of right now there are two major things
that editorial is doing every day
29. 00:01:55.456 it is coming up with new pitches and finding
writers to execute our editorial
vision 

30. 00:02:02.624 and also managing
31. the ideas and pitches that are coming from you know
150 to 160 campuses
32. 00:02:11.072 and the ideas of this massive
contributor base. How do we approve [or]
reject and work on these ideas
33. 00:02:19.264 and I know I said two but the third is
actually going through the content
itself and making sure it's up to our editorial standards and
guidelines we laid out in terms of our
style, formatting
34. 00:02:32.832 and also just figuring out ways to
empower  
35. 00:02:37.952 teams like social
36. 00:02:39.232 so we're not only thinking okay is this
intrinsically a good article but
37. 00:02:43.584 how is this article going to
38. 00:02:46.656 promote growth, how is going to lead to page
views, lead to more people being
introduced to Spoon. So we are considering all those different
things and I think you asked about
numbers earlier
39. 00:02:59.968 We  might we will try and edit upwards
of 75 pieces a day right now at
our current

Cases.
40. 00:03:07.392 and that's all that's published 75 different
pieces a day.  So the writers
need to respond to feedback and edits and get something that's
up to snuff
41. 00:03:17.376 for 75 a day. So that means to be in over a
hundred submissions. So it's just
really about figuring out a way to deal with that volume of
submissions that go with that wide
contribute base
42. 00:03:27.872 and turn out a product that is consistent
quality.
43. 00:03:31.968 What we're trying to do in this case is
optimize the processes and strategies for
dealing with this huge contributor network of chapters and
maybe that means empowering
students, maybe that means
44. 00:03:47.840 figuring out a faster way to edit or a better
CMS or a better communication
portal with our editorial directors. So regardless of what that
solution is what is the best way to
deal with both volume and quality simultaneously. 

Cases.
Case Prompt: Designing for Lean Editorial Management (run
time: 4:12)Company: Spoon University
Company Background Packet
Proprietary & Confidential 2
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11092018
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Users acknowledge that the
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Inc. and its licensors, and their respective assignees. Users
agree to respect and not to alter,
remove, or conceal any copyright, trademark, trade name, or
other proprietary marking that

appears in this document.
COMPANY PROFILE
............................................................... 4
Leadership Team
.............................................................................4
Company Overview
..........................................................................5
Fast Facts
........................................................................................5
History and Development
.................................................................5
Industry
............................................................................................7
Competitive Environment
.................................................................7
Product
............................................................................................8
Sales and Marketing
........................................................................9
Business Activities
...........................................................................9

Company Profile
Company Name: Spoon University
Location: New York, NY
Founded: 2013
Website: www.spoonuniversity.com
Holding Type: Acquired by Scripps Media in 2017
Company Size: NA
Estimated Valuation: NA
Industry: Lifestyle, TV
Leadership Team
Mackenzie Barth
CEO, Co-founder
Sarah Adler
CTO, Co-founder
In her role as CEO, Mackenzie Barth works
the front end of Spoon, utilizing her
combined background in communication,

marketing, and psychology from
Northwestern University as well as her
experience in public relations and audience
research.
Sarah Adler takes the lead on technology
from the Spoon site to the training and
analytics tools used for internal operations
and connecting with Spoon’s vast contributor
network. She gained experience in design
and worked to integrate journalism and
technology while attending Northwestern.
http://www.spoonuniversity.com/
Company Overview
Spoon University manages a foodie digital media blog network
made for millennials by
millennials. Co-founded at Northwestern University as a student
club producing a local foodie
magazine, it has grown into chapters at 450+ college campuses,
all led by students. The
students contribute articles with support and training from
Spoon University headquarters,
which has grown to a staff of around two dozen, including

editors, video production specialists,
community managers, and tech developers.
Spoon University is on a mission to make food make sense.
Spoon’s mission to simplify food for young adults resulted in a
cult-like fan following. Spoon
has transcended the digital experience with events and
dining/cooking activities on campus.
Spoon University relies heavily on social media to get articles
shared virally and to grow
readership and develop an editorial leadership training program
called “Secret Sauce” to
manage their 5,000+ contributors, optimize the content
produced, and build loyalty from the
inside. With a highly engaged, loyal, large, and growing
readership base, the company has
strong potential for monetization through sponsored content to
promote food brands to
millennials.
Fast Facts
• Graduated from TechStars’ 2015 four-month-long accelerator
program with $3 million in
first-round seed funding and a network of mentors
• Operates out of a New York City headquarters with a core
staff of 24 across five
departments: Community, Editorial, Marketing and Social
Media, Video, and Sales
• Publishes 75+ articles a day across all chapters

• Onboards all contributors with a program intended to refine
skills and facilitate career
development
History and Development
Spoon University cofounders Mackenzie Barth (not a foodie)
and Sarah Adler (total foodie)
started the company as undergraduates at Northwestern
University in Evanston, Illinois in
2012. After moving to an off-campus apartment, Barth and
Adler were faced with meeting their
own food needs, day in and day out, for the first time in their
lives. While there were already
many food media outlets, none targeted college students—who
are uniquely lacking in time,
experience, and resources.
“Spoon University…is the everyday food resource for our
generation, on a mission to make
food make sense. On our site, you can find the simplest recipes,
the most obvious hack
you can’t believe you didn’t know, and the best restaurants
around campus that you
haven’t found yet.” Sarah Adler, CTO & Co-founder, Spoon
University

Knowing that they couldn’t be the only students struggling with
this issue, Barth and Adler
started a campus-wide publication that gave their peers a place
to come together to explore
food in a community and learn from each other. In the fall of
2012, they recruited a team of
about one hundred fellow students who took on roles as writers,
photographers,
videographers, editors, and marketing specialists to produce and
promote the magazine
around Northwestern. Soon, Barth and Adler were receiving
requests from students at other
colleges to help them establish a Spoon chapter at their school.
By their senior year in spring
of 2013, Spoon University had successfully launched at three
other universities in the U.S.
Exhibit 1: American University’s Chapter Website
Source: SpoonUniversity.com
The Spoon University cofounders spent the summer after
graduating from college testing their
business model, building an online platform, and generating
interest at other schools. By that
fall, Spoon University had established headquarters in New
York City, officially launched their
site, and continued establishing chapters nationwide.
As Spoon University wrapped up their first year, the community
had grown to thirty chapters
around the globe. In January 2015, they announced their
acceptance into Tech Stars New

York, one of the top accelerator programs for startups in the
country. By the end of the four-
month-long program, Spoon University had developed a
network of mentors, validated the
company’s concept, and begun their seed funding, which would
amount to nearly $3 million by
the end of the round.
Industry
Since the opening of Whole Foods a generation ago—taking
organic, fair trade, and
sustainable produce mainstream—a growing awareness and
appreciation of food has
revolutionized the industry. Food is increasingly being seen not
just as a source of nutrition,
but also as a way to improve health and impact the world.
Fresh, locally grown food is now a
multibillion-dollar industry.
Although it might seem like Spoon University is a publication
company, its revenue is
generated through leveraging a reader’s data and selling it. The
increasing digitalization of our
world has and continues to fundamentally change the consumer
landscape. This created a
struggle for companies to connect to millennials and generation
Xers in a way that they find
meaningful and effective. Big Data is one of the newer industry
segments, experiencing
incredible growth for the value it could provide for companies

facing these issues—companies
that want to develop a better understanding of today’s
consumers.
Competitive Environment
With the intersection of increasing food obsession nationwide
and the rise of personal blogs
and user-generated content, Spoon University is up against a
variety of media sources
barraging consumers with food articles, blog posts, how-to
videos, and photos on every social
media platform. While more traditional food media outlets, such
as the Food Network,
Epicurious, and AllRecipes, have their place as industry models,
millennial-centric platforms
like Buzzfeed, Food52, and InsiderFood are targeting on-the-go
students and young
professionals alongside Spoon.
Food Network
Food Network is a “lifestyle network, website, and magazine
that connects viewers to the
power and joy of food.”1 Since launching as a cable TV
network in 1993, Food Network has
become one of the food and lifestyle industries’ biggest names.
While the television channel
still lands in the top twenty most watched networks in the
U.S.2, their magazine and online blog
have helped the company take hold as an industry model for
popular and trusted food brands.3
Food Network maintains their success by distributing through
more traditional media channels.
The network is available in over 100 million households in the
United States and in more than
150 countries globally.4 Their website averages nearly 10
million unique monthly visitors, while

Food Network Magazine has 1.4 million annual subscribers.5
1 About FoodNetwork.com. 2016. www.foodnetwork.com
2 Michael Schneider. Most Watched Television Networks:
Ranking 2015’s Winners and Losers. December 28, 2015.
tvinsider.com
3 Business Wire. Food Network Burns the Competition in the
Race for Food Fan Loyalty. May 19, 2016.
www.businesswire.com
http://www.foodnetwork.com/site/about-foodnetwork-com.html
http://www.tvinsider.com/article/62572/most-watched-tv-
networks-2015/
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160519005867/en/F
ood-Network-burns-competition-race-food-fan
Since 2011, overall millennial TV viewership has dropped 38%,
demonstrating that this
demographic has largely turned off the television to stream
through alternative outlets and
spend their time elsewhere.6 Against these odds, however, Food
Network has remained one of
the few networks to increase their millennial audience in the
last five years. While the number
of millennials watching the Food Network remains relatively

small, the growth trend
demonstrates that the company is providing content this young
generation increasingly
demands.
Buzzfeed
Targeting a similar demographic to Spoon, Buzzfeed produces
editorials and recipes through
Buzzfeed Food, as well as how-to videos through Tasty. In
February 2016, Buzzfeed—as well
as its two food media subsidiaries—all ranked in the top ten
media companies of the month.
Tasty, Buzzfeed’s user-generated blog that most closely
competes with Spoon, ranked number
two on the list, only behind National Geographic. In terms of
the number of fans and followers,
Tasty had over twenty million more followers than the next
highest fan base on the list, which
happened to be Buzzfeed itself. Furthermore, the engagement
for Buzzfeed Food, which
ranked fifth on the list, had increased by 50% since the previous
month. While this jump is
likely due to greater usage of videos across social media
platforms, particularly Facebook,
these high engagement numbers with Tasty and Buzzfeed Food
demonstrate the growing
engagement with food media.
Product
Spoon University
Spoon University is an online community of crowdsourced food
tips, blog posts, healthy
recipes, local menus, and how-to’s. With a presence in over 250
chapters across U.S. college
campuses, each chapter is a unique organization that caters to a
specific campus, but all of

them work closely with the New York City headquarters. Spoon
University contributors go
through an onboarding process and receive training on how to
write headlines, use Facebook
to promote their content, and manage analytics tools to see how
well their contributions are
performing. Typically, chapters are headed by two or three
student managers. These volunteer
chapter executives generally take on the roles of Editorial
Director, Community Manager, and
Social Media Manager, mirroring the makeup of Spoon’s HQ
organization. Several Spoon
chapters also have a videographer that produces original video
content.
In addition to onboarding, the New York HQ team starts their
mornings with a content
brainstorming session. They assist chapter contributors by
providing leadership guidance,
organizational structure and change management, training, and
ideation for new articles and
editorial review before publishing. The HQ editorial managers
oversee the chapter contributors’
content creation process through several stages of editorial
review and feedback before
ultimately publishing. This structure is designed to support
Spoon’s high-volume, rapid
turnaround process to publish 75+ articles per day across all
chapters.
Spoon City
6 Traditional TV Viewing: What a Difference 5 Years Makes.
July 5, 2016. www.marketingcharts.com

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/are-young-people-
watching-less-tv-24817/
Even after graduating and settling into a full-time job, Spoon’s
college chapter alumni want to
continue sharing their passion for food and engaging with others
with the same interest.
Realizing that desire, Spoon created Spoon City for college
graduates and young people.
Similar to Spoon University, Spoon City is a community of food
lovers in cities across the globe
who come together to eat, cook, photograph, Instagram, and
explore.
Sales and Marketing
The Internet has dramatically impacted the journalism industry
by increasing publishers’
competition for both readership and advertisers. For example,
the print-centric cost structure of
many newspapers is apparently obsolete, as new online-only
publications built for internet
economics are capitalizing on these asymmetries. This further
emphasizes the importance of
marketing for companies like Spoon.
While many peer companies may be providing compelling
content around food, Spoon
attempts to set itself apart by utilizing its vast contributor
network of 5,000+ loyal, highly
engaged college students. Spoon’s model of “For millennials, by
millennials” allows them to

better connect to their consumer base since their product is
created by people of similar
demographics and interests.
Another reason for Spoon’s success is that contributors see it as
an educational platform to
develop their skills in preparation for the job market. While a
passion for food may have
brought students to their site, the chance to refine their skills,
network, and gain exposure as
writers, editors, photographers, videographers, and marketers is
what encouraged them to
work as productive contributors. Additionally, students are
incentivized to start chapters where
there aren’t any, because many value entrepreneurial and
professional development aspects
that go into establishing a Spoon chapter.
Business Activities
In 2017, Scripps—owner of Food Network cable channel—
acquired Spoon University. While
the specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, the plan was
for the Spoon team to continue
their daily activities, existing as a separate division and
reporting to the head of Scripps
Lifestyle Studios. This acquisition is seen as a strategic
repositioning of Scripps, as it strives to
reach younger audiences and strengthen their online presence.
“Spoon University captures the grassroots passion for food and
community that is so important
to millennials today,” Kathleen Finch, chief programming,
content, and brand officer at Scripps
Networks Interactive said. “Food Network has become a
significant force n digital and social
food storytelling over the course of the last year, and this

acquisition will provide us with the
opportunity to build content, community, and brand as we seek
to accelerate our strategy in
the sector.”7
7 Food Network Owner Acquires Millennial Food Hub Spoon
University. May 4, 2017. www.thedailymeal.com
Company ProfileLeadership TeamCompany OverviewFast
FactsHistory and DevelopmentIndustryCompetitive
EnvironmentWith the intersection of increasing food obsession
nationwide and the rise of personal blogs and user-generated
content, Spoon University is up against a variety of media
sources barraging consumers with food articles, blog posts,
how-to videos, and p...ProductSales and MarketingBusiness
Activities

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