Launching my new venture: FoodMakers.NYC
The wealth and diversity of New York City’s population has created a food scene that rivals no other. The public face of it is well known — some 24,000 restaurants and 5,000 (licensed) street carts, over 100 different cuisines, and arguably the most talented and entrepreneurial chefs in the world, from David Chang and April Blumenfeld to Danny Meyer and Daniel Boulud.
Behind the glitz and degustation is a world less well-known. New York is also home to one of the most diverse and extraordinary food-making communities in the U.S. Joke all you want about tattooed hipsters in Brooklyn making artisanal pickles in kraft-paper wrapped Mason jars, but just in New York’s five boroughs, foodmaking is a $5 billion industry that employs more than 19,000 people. Chocolate alone is New York City’s leading specialty-food export, with $234 million worth of exports each year.
As a native New Yorker whose favorite pastime is discovering (and digesting) the city’s culinary highlights, and a journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering New York City and its business, I see a great business opportunity to bring New York’s food manufactures and food makers news and information about their industry.
There is no publication online or in print that brings independent news and information about the food business to its participants on a weekly basis. There are plenty of chef-centered, foodie publications, from Eater and Grub Street to The New York Times food section and the Edible magazines. But no one goes behind the scenes to explain the business of food.
I am developing an emailed newsletter that will go out free to foodmakers and the rest of the New York City food making community on a weekly basis. With original reported content (written by me and a group of vetted freelancers) and some curated content, I hope to serve an active community of foodmakers and others in the food business. That mailing list makes them an attractive target for business who want to reach this market. That could include banks and economic development agencies and groups seeking to reach foodmakers. Other advertising and sponsorship targets include business service providers, such as accountants or back office software firms, laundry and fleet services, real estate brokers and owners, foodstuff and raw material suppliers and others.
I hope to sell them sponsorship ads — offering the full sponsorship for 3-month or 6-month periods. As the subscriber base grows, I want to grow the community of foodmakers alongside it, offering gatherings and conferences, running an award series — top young food entrepreneurs, fastest growing food businesses and similar ideas, along with seminars on business trends or legal and political issues that affect food makers and purveyors.
Along the way I will also explore other methods of community-building from online discussions to consulting and informational exchanges. One thing I have found in years of reporting on the food community in New York is that it is a friendly group that, despite fierce rivalries, is often willing to reach out a hand to a neighboring business.
Ultimately, I see the business as a template that will allow me to expand FoodMakers to other cities with a strong local food culture — Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, Austin, Chicago.
As a business model, the idea is to be self-sustaining — generate enough revenue from ad sales to cover the meager start-up costs.
