Startup Engagement Program (STEP) by TagTaste
Calling early-stage food startups in India to rise and shine
We are pleased to invite India origin early-stage food startups to our Startup Engagement Program (STEP), which has been designed to help you with data analytics and an expert interface, as you develop or improvise new or existing products for your target consumers.
The program covers all the stages of Product Lifecycle — Product Ideation, Creation, Validation, and Launch.
The program is intended to help startups in a very systematic manner. It involves idea validation, product development through our community of experts, detailed pre-launch sensory, corrections (if any), post-launch sensory tracking followed by continuous improvement. We also support products that clock high-sensory scores with access to the HORECA channel.
The scope of this program is restricted to all kinds of food & beverage; packaged as well as cooked food. At the moment we don’t cover aspects like packaging and equipment.
Eligibility Criteria
In our first season, we are geared to accept a maximum of 25 startups, who meet the following criteria.
- The startups could be in their bootstrap or seed-funded or series A / B stage.
- They should be working on some food or beverage product(s). Food-tech (software) companies, therefore, are not eligible.
- For any new venture, the first product concept and reasonable well-developed prototype of their product(s) should be ready. Startups with just an idea and no defined-concept are not covered under this program.
- We cover and support a wide range of categories including packaged goods, all the genres of restaurant concepts, cloud kitchens and individual/blended/processed ingredients including condiments & sauces and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic products.
Brief Background
Our experience of working with 200+ food companies over the past 3 years has taught us that a key determinant of any venture’s success is a well developed and consumer-ready differentiated product.
Let me explain it in detail.
We perform sensory analysis of new & existing products of our partner companies. Each sensory analysis is specific and entails all the product-specific attributes. The responses are captured online and have live analytics.
The process is designed to gauge the market-worthiness of your product. The products that fall short of market barometer are extended further assistance in correcting their gaps using the data from sensory analysis.
Based on 25,000+ reviews that we have conducted for a whole range of products across India covering every imaginable demographics, the aggregated rank-correlation between the sensory score and the actual sales performance of the product-in-question is approximately 92%.
The sales performance indicator is usually your own measure of merit and is based on market potential, pricing, preference, and competition. Products with higher sensory-scores, in general, are meeting and exceeding sales targets.
Developing good products is as much of a science as it is an art. From getting new product ideas to testing their market-readiness, community and data-driven approach can make a world of a difference.
We are at a cusp of a massive transformation that is taking place in the market driven by the shift in demography, market channels, wellness concerns, food safety, and sustainability. By definition, we are dealing with perishable products. Moreover, consumer palate changes with age, gender, and region. Considering these complexities, it is impossible for any company to manage all of this change without collaborating with the talent and technology that sit outside of their companies.
Our program aims to help startups that have had a great start but might need handholding and analytical tools to stay relevant and differentiated in the marketplace. We can help in refining products, validate sensory matches with the target consumers, and provide access to 5000+ hotels & restaurants.
Program Details
Engagement period: 6 months to 1 year.
The program is designed to provide meaningful support to all qualifying startups.
We would love to understand your broad vision, target audience, and USP of your products.
This would be followed by a sensory analysis of your product portfolio. Based on the results, you can either qualify for product improvements or market introduction.
For those who need product improvements. They would be exposed to a network of professionals that comprise of rising and veteran chefs, food technologists, flavor-seasoning companies, and other companies with decades of experience in product development. Product improvements can take anywhere from two to six months depending upon the complexity of your product category. The market introduction will follow only after the product meets and exceeds sensory thresholds.
For those who qualify for market introduction. They would be exposed to our partner network of chef associations, purchase managers and their forums, and freelancers who are more than willing to help you in every possible way. They can either directly introduce your products to their respective markets (5000+ hotels & restaurants in India) or use them as an ingredient of a customized recipe in their menu.
Please note that this program WILL NOT FOCUS on getting retail shelf space for your products in its current season.
TagTaste has a huge network of experts and organizations who are committed to create a collaborative food industry in India. We would like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude for their continued support.
Corporate partners: Cremica, McCain, LT Foods, Burger King, Haldiram’s, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, OYO Rooms, Kejriwal Honey and the likes.
Research partners: IIITDelhi, NIFTEM, IGIB, IHMs, and Jamia Hamdard.
Pro-bono partners: WACS, IFCA, ICF, FIFI, and HPMF.
Commercials
In our endeavor to help the industry, we work only on a cost coverage basis with all our concept-proven startups. Keeping with this spirit, startups or farmers end up paying 40% of what large and medium-size companies pay. We do not charge any fee from our farmers and students.
However, since the cost cannot be reduced to zero, here is a breakup for your reference. This may change on a case-to-case basis.
- Program charges: Rs. 25,000 + GST
- # products SKUs: Maximum 3. Additional charges of Rs. 25,000 will be applicable for an additional set of 3 SKUs and so on.
- Product samples: 25–30 samples / SKU / tasting for sensory analysis. There’ll be 2–5 such tastings covering a palate-trained sample of consumers (your target market) and in certain cases experts as well.
- Product development: Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 1 lakh per SKU. These are the professional charges that we usually pay to professionals who help you. These charges vary based on product complexity and the time cycle of development.
How to apply?
Apply to this collaboration. Share a brief introduction of your company along with your contact details while applying. Alternatively, you can also reach out to us at step@tagtaste.com. It will be our sole honor to help you in every possible way.
