Minus Twenty: The Journey of an Independent Food Business
6 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsBusiness, Entrepreneurship, Food, and Travel are at the core of Minus Twenty, the podcast featuring real-life business stories from James Beard Award Winning Author and Chef Keith Schroeder and the High Road Craft Brands team. Keith went from an established career as an executive chef to founding High Road (in 2010), to better serve the culinary community with premium ice cream. Join host and Executive Creative Director Walter Biscardi and Chef Keith as they reminisce, plan, dream, and share (openly) what it's like to run one of the fastest growing private companies in America (4 consecutive years on the Inc 5000).This podcast will feature discussions on entrepreneurship, business, marketing, food, travel, life, and some random mayhem.The title, Minus Twenty, is the ideal temperature for maintaining the quality of ice cream. There is some adult language from time to time, hence the Explicit Language warning.Got questions you'd like us to tackle on the show? Drop us a line [email protected].
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Episodes
Episode 006: Facing Investor Rejection (and getting back on the horse)
January 20, 2020 13:00 - 25 minutes - 17.9 MBOne of CEO Keith Schroeder's greatest business regrets is not getting right back on the horse when his first restaurant failed. He went to work for others for 10 years before he got that push to go back after his own venture. The answer you'll get most often from the investment community is "No." For an entrepreneur with passion for their concept, all of those "No's" can wear you down. And it's ok if you never get to the "Yes" with your first idea. You need to take that rejection, learn fr...
Episode 005: Raising Capital to Start Your Business
January 13, 2020 11:00 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBStarting any business requires money, often a lot of money. But where do you start if you’ve never raised funding before? High Road CEO Keith Schroeder gives a fantastic “101 Primer” on how capital can be raised and some ideas on where to find funding. Should you start with friends and family? What should be their expectations? How do investments work? Can you get help from your local state? What’s a waterfall or a term sheet? Once you raise your funding, what does the return look like? T...
Episode 004: Becoming an Entrepreneur
January 06, 2020 11:00 - 31 minutes - 21.4 MBBecoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business is incredible. But making the transition from Employee to Entrepreneur is a major step in anyone’s career and life. Your decision can go from absolutely amazing to sideways in a hurry High Road CEO Keith Schroeder has learned a great deal about how to be both successful and unsuccessful making the leap to running your own business. Some areas we cover are the mindset of an entrepreneur vs. employee. How do you know if you have a viabl...
Episode 003: Restructuring High Road Craft Brands
October 24, 2019 18:00 - 27 minutes - 19 MBAfter almost 10 years in business, High Road Craft Brands has begun to look outside of ice cream for products. They even purchased another company to fold into their operations. With a company founded by, and still run by, chefs the opportunity to bring Ciao Bella Gelato and Sorbetto into the High Road Craft Brands family was too good to pass up. Ciao Bella has a long history in food service and it was CEO Keith Schroeder's heart that led to the acquisition of the company. As the company...
Episode 002: Expanding The High Road, Entering Retail and Moving.
October 23, 2019 18:00 - 27 minutes - 18.7 MBAfter successfully launching High Road by keeping a singular focus on food service clients, CEO Keith Schroeder was presented an unexpected opportunity to move into retail. High Road was also unexpectedly kicked out of their original commercial home. Ironically it was High Road's narrow focus on providing high quality ice cream products to food service clients in Atlanta that created the retail opportunity Keith wanted to avoid. Retail meant investment in new equipment, new processes, new ...
Episode 001: Launching The High Road
October 22, 2019 17:00 - 27 minutes - 19 MBEvery story has a beginning. High Road Craft Brands was born of one chef's frustration with the limitations in the corporate food service world. Keith Schroeder made the leap from Executive Chef to Entrepreneur to seize an opportunity in the food service manufacturing sector. But this was not a leap made blindly. In this discussion you'll hear some of the steps Keith took including business school programs to prepare himself to not just open a business, but to be successful by keeping a nar...