Direct Local Food

Brian Cronin, Nicole Bare Kinney

Idaho Press Club Awards | Public Relations Division | News Release

Executive SummaryBoise-based tech startup Direct Local Food launched in June 2013 with a much-needed, web-based service that allows wholesale food buyers to easily locate and order local food, while providing farmers with a way to easily market their products and manage their food delivery schedules. The company’s goal of connecting buyers and sellers meant that they needed to find a way to communicate the value of their service to both distinct audiences, in addition to grabbing the attention of potential investors.

THE STRATEGY

Strategies 360 developed a targeted earned media campaign to help Direct Local Food grow its membership and revenue and raise its profile nationally.

We used targeted pitching and audience-specific press releases to gain media exposure in industry publications, business journals, and major national media outlets.

THE SUCCESS

Direct Local Food was featured on Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, Venture Beat, Yahoo! Finance and in Capital Press, among other publications, resulting in the company’s first organic signups. The PR splash also helped in demonstrating viability and credibility in meetings with investors, and Direct Local Food added 2,700 members (in a highly niche audience) in all fifty states in its first year.

Press Releases & Placement“New Company Revolutionizes Local Food Movement & Markets Across the Country”Living the Country Life Online

Forbes.com

Capital Press

“Women-Led Startup Revolutionizes Local Food Movement”VentureBeat.com

“Boise Tech Startup Rides the Local Food Wave”Entrepreneur.com

Idaho Statesman Business Insider

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 13, 2014

CONTACT:Brian Cronin (208) 639-8822BrianC@strategies360.com

New Company Revolutionizes Local Food Movement & Markets Across the Country

Direct Local Food Meets Growing Consumer Demand for Locally-Sourced Food by Creating a National Directory and Network of Producers

(BOISE) – Tech start-up Direct Local Food is changing and streamlining the way farmers and buyers do business. Direct Local Food has created a wholesale online market connecting farmers and their products to restaurants and grocers seeking fresh, local food. The company, which already has more than 1,000 farmers signed up, aims to increase sales of local farm products by making it easier for buyers to find and order what they need.

Direct Local Food creates additional revenue for local food producers, while reducing time and labor costs for the many restaurants and grocers that purchase local food products. “This technology saves precious time and money for both the buyer and the seller, which makes sourcing locally more sustainable and affordable,” said Christina McAlpin, CEO of Direct Local Food. “It’s a win for farmers, grocers, restaurants and consumers.”

The service allows buyers to search for produce, meat, dairy, poultry, and bakery items, making their choices based on whether the food is GMO-free, organic and more. Buyers order online and track all orders in their account. Food producers update their inventories, list products for sale, receive orders online, and manage or-ders—all in one place.

“Direct Local Food was conceived when I learned how hard it is for grocers and chefs to find the local farm-grown products they want. I spoke with a produce manager at a grocery store who makes over 50 phone calls a week just to order local produce,” said McAlpin. “I talked with a peach farmer who was driving his peaches around town in the back of his truck in order to find buyers.”

Direct Local Food tested its technology and model in Boise, Idaho during summer 2013. Both farmers and buy-ers found the site made doing business easier. “Direct Local Food absolutely helps me keep a direct connection with the farmer even when using Direct Local Food’s convenient tools,” said Christine Reid, Owner and Chef of Locavore. Karen Evans, owner of Rollingstone Chevre, added: ”Direct Local Food is like having my own sales rep and the online ordering saves me so much time.”

Based on its success in Boise, Direct Local Food launched nationally in late 2013 and more farmers are joining Direct Local Food every day. The company is building mobile apps for iPhones and Android phones that will make it even easier for farmers and buyers to do business out in the field or on the line.

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Published on Living the Country Life (http://www.livingthecountrylife.com)

New way for farmers to reach chefs, grocers [1]

Direct Local Food aims to increase local food sales by giving grocers and restaurants a betterway to order from food producersBy Direct Local Food

The market for local food is growing steadily across the U.S., as consumersplace a higher value on freshness, sustainability, and connection with thepeople who grow their food. However, many restaurant and grocery buyersstruggle to commit to sourcing locally, due to the time required to track thechanging availability of products and to make several different purchasesper week from multiple producers.

Christina McAlpin, owner and founder of Boise tech startup Direct LocalFood [2], has launched new technology to help wholesale buyers and foodproducers transact online. Direct Local Food could change the way foodbuyers and producers interact, making it more convenient, moresustainable, and less time-consuming for businesses to meet consumers’growing appetite for local food.

Getting started

Direct Local Food launched nationally in November, 2013. As of early December, 2013, the sitehad 600 members around the country and was adding between 100 and 200 new memberseach week. Direct Local Food will contact 18,000 restaurants around the country starting inJanuary, 2014. It can take a while to build a marketplace. Direct Local Food will have someoneto help producers list products starting in January, 2014. The goal is to get products listed andorders rolling by spring 2014.

“One of the biggest barriers to wholesale purchasing from local farmers are the logistics,” saysMcAlpin. In 2012, as part of a team exploring the creation of a permanent, year-round indoorfarmers market in Boise, she picked up on a problem with the way that restaurants and grocerystores sourced their local produce. “I spoke with a produce manager at a local grocery store whomade over 50 phone calls a week just to order local produce for his store and a peach farmertold me he often had to drive his peaches around town in the back of his truck to get them sold.”

McAlpin’s interactions with these local restaurants and farmers sparked her idea for Direct LocalFood. What if grocery stores and restaurants could find and order local food more easily, whileproducers could market and sell thei r food from their farms and increase sales? “Grocery storesand restaurants want to source their food locally, and consumer demand for local food is there.

But it has to be easy. I saw a way to increase the overall demand for local food by making iteasier for the restaurant and grocery buyer.”

Web site

McAlpin founded Direct Local Food in 2012. The site, www.directlocalfood.com [2], went throughbeta testing this summer in Boise, Idaho. The service is currently free to use and charges nocommission on sales. Buyers can search for produce, meat, dairy, poultry, and even bakeryitems, narrowing their options based on production methods, whether the food is GMO-free,organic and more. Buyers order online and can track all their orders in their account. Farmerscan update thei r inventories, list products for sale, receive orders online, and manage orders –all in one place.

McAlpin grew up on a cattle farm in in rural Virginia, and later watching her father produce hisown specialty coffee brand, McAlpin developed an appreciation for the demanding work ofbuilding a food business. Understanding the challenges of food production is precisely whathelps her connect with her customers.

The response from Direct Local Food’s farmer and buyer members in Boise has beenoverwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. Recently, Ridley’s Market agreed to buy through DirectLocal Food in their Middleton store. Other local businesses that buy on Direct Local Foodinclude Life’s Kitchen, The Dish, Salt, Locavore, State and Lemp and the Boise Co-op deli. Local producers selling on the website include Rice Family Farm, Global Gardens, M&N Cattle,Homestead Natural Meats, Rollingstone Chevre, Life Springs Farm, Full Circle ExchangeCoffee, and Gaston’s Bakery.

The technology to directly connect wholesale buyers and local sellers in one convenient onlinelocation has the power to transform the market for local food. “This technology saves precioustime and money for both the buyer and the seller. Creating an easier way for the restaurant andgrocery buyer to purchase local food will increase sales for local farmers,” says McAlpin.

Tags:

Farm business [3]

Copyright © 2012, Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Source URL (retrieved on February 19, 2014): http://www.livingthecountrylife.com/country-life/food/new-way-farmers-reach-chefs-grocers/

Links:[1] http://www.livingthecountrylife.com/country-life/food/new-way-farmers-reach-chefs-grocers[2] http://www.directlocalfood.com[3] http://www.livingthecountrylife.com/tags/farm-business

http://onforb.es/1pp5r8s

An Easy Way To Buy Local Food

On the one hand, there’s been a steadily growing surge of interest in eatinglocally produced food. Look at the number of farmers markets in the U.S.–more than 8,100 by the USDA’s last count, up 4% from just the year before.

On the other, it isn’t easy for restaurants and grocery stores to buy directlyfrom local farmers. They generally have to make a lot of phone calls to onesupplier to place just one order—a very inefficient and time­consumingprocess.

That’s where Direct Local Food comes in.

A few years ago, Christina McAlpin was working with a nonprofit in Idahotrying to create a year­round indoor farmers market. In the course of herwork, she started hearing more and more stories from grocers and chefsabout just what a pain in the neck it was to source food from local producers.And she wondered: Shouldn’t there be a platform aimed specifically atconnecting wholesalers with farmers? With about a $5 billion market forfruit and vegetables harvested by local growers, it seemed to be a bigopportunity. In 2012, McAlpin, who grew up on a cattle farm in Virgina, co­founded Direct Local Food to provide such a platform.

I cover for­profit social enterprises and the people who fund them

(Farmer, buyer and consumer benefits, from Direct Local Food’s web site)

McAlpin got the idea as she researched farmers markets and the problemsfacing both consumers and wholesale buyers, like restaurants. Busyconsumers, for example, barely had time to get to their supermarket, muchless take an extra trip to a farmers market. As for buyers, one producepurchaser at a grocery store recounted making 50 phone calls a week tostock his shelves with local food. “There needed to be a way to serve thosepeople who weren’t willing to call 50 people,” she says.

Still, she was surprised by what she ended up concluding. Although McAlpin hadworked previously for several nonprofits, the more she thought about it, the moreshe decided that any effective way to increase farmers’ sales required a for­profitengine. “If you want to have a big impact, you had to find a way for mainstreambusinesses to buy locally, not create another market people might go to once aweek,” she says.The key was not to insert a cumbersome new process into the works. DirectLocal Food would provide an online platform that would mesh easily withthe buyer­supplier relationship, just making it more efficient. She and co­founder Candace Sweigart spent a long time understanding the sales process“so we could replicate that online,” she says. The upshot: a site throughwhich buyers would be able to see what’s available and order and pay online.(The system through which buyers and sellers indicate their criteria andconduct the transaction is patent pending).

McAlpin decided not to take a commission on the sales. Instead, theplatform would be membership based. “Farmers already end up paying acommission to so many people in the sales channel,” says McAlpin.

After a beta test in Idaho in the summer of 2013, the site went live lastspring. Now, with approximately 2,000 members–1,100 farmers, 900 chefsand a handful of grocery stores–McAlpin and Sweigart are fine­tuning thesystem with lessons they’ve learned since launching. The plan is to have afree and a $28 a month premium version, and to start charging in thesummer. With the free option, farmers provide a profile, list their productsand have the ability to do online transactions. With the latter, they also can,for example, send product updates to area buyers. As for restaurants andgrocers, they pay extra to be able to order online and track sales through thesystem. (The company also is adding a mobile version).

Direct Local Food isn’t the only platform out there linking local buyers andsellers. For example, GrowBuyEat connects farms to local restaurants andAgLocal matches independent and family meat farms to wholesale and retailbuyers.

So far, members say the site answers a real need. Jered Couch, for example,who opened The Dish, a restaurant in Boise, in June, makes weekly and bi­weekly purchases through the platform. “To the best of our ability, we try touse locally sourced food,” he says. He figures he’ll buy 50% of his fruits andvegetables through the site next spring.

The next big step for the company is to add grocery stores. There’s anindependent chain testing the platform now, according to McAlpin but,“Thesales cycle with restaurants is a lot shorter,” she says. “Grocery buyers youneed to talk to many many times.”

But thanks to customer demand, using locally sourced fare is something thatmost restaurants and grocery stores can’t ignore. “This is such a big trendtoday,” says Couch. “And you have to market in a way that meets whatpeople need.”

Sean Ellis/Capital Press Direct Local Food CEO Christina McAlpinspeaks with Jim Birdsall, marketing director for M&N Beef, June 21 atthe Boise Farmers' Market. McAlpin started an online businessdesigned to make it easier for wholesale buyers to purchase fooddirectly from local farmers.Buy this photo

Website links wholesalers, farmersSean EllisCapital Press

Published:June 23, 2014 12:23PM

A Boise entrepreneur's plan to make it easierfor wholesale buyers to purchase food fromlocal farmers is paying off but more work isneeded before it can be taken across thecountry.

BOISE — Christina McAlpin has a plan formaking it easier for wholesale buyers around

the country to purchase food directly from localfarmers.

Her online business is already paying off forseveral Boise­area farms but she admits a lotmore work, and revenue, is needed to take theidea national.

“My ultimate vision is that restaurants and theneighborhood grocery store would order morefood from local farmers,” says McAlpin, CEO ofDirect Local Foods. “The idea is to increaseorders for farmers.”

The Boise­based business has already resultedin increased sales for southwest Idaho farmers and ranchers and McAlpin said the company is expanding into SanFrancisco and New York.

DLF is different from other online local food sites in that it is designed to help farmers sell their products to wholesalebuyers such as restaurants and grocery stores, not consumers, and the business doesn’t do the delivery, farmers do.

The website has 2,600 members, about half farmers and half buyers. The goal is to have 30,000 farm members acrossthe country and 30,000 buyer members.

DLF has 50 farmer members and 50 buyer members in Boise, which has been the test market. So far, so good, for thefarmers at least.

“We’ve gotten a number of orders through Direct Local Foods,” said Jim Birdsall, marketing director for M&N Beef of Bliss.

“We’ve gotten a number of orders through Direct Local Foods,” said Jim Birdsall, marketing director for M&N Beef of Bliss.“I think it’s a good idea.”

Matt Williams, co­owner of Waterwheel Gardens in Emmett, said the site has already benefited his farm, which producesberries, fruit trees and vegetables.

“It’s almost as if we hire them as marketing people for us,” he said. “It’s already put us in touch with a few restaurants thatconsistently buy directly from us.”

Jered Couch, owner and chef of The Dish restaurant in Boise, said he orders directly from a lot of growers on the website,including M&N, and he said it’s the best online tool he’s seen for facilitating local food sales.

“There is no other system as good as this one is to contact farmers directly,” he said. “There is no better way to do that.”

After farmers sign up for an account, they list their products and let buyers know what days they can deliver. When abuyer purchases a product, the system sends the farmers an email letting them know they have an order and updates thegrower’s inventory in real­time.

McAlpin said she has put a lot of money into the site to ensure it has the latest software upgrades but the struggle for thebusiness is to find a way to start generating more revenue so it can expand into other markets.

The site doesn’t charge any commission based on sales and only recently started charging members a $28 fee to sign up.

Birdsall said the site could be a big benefit to a lot of farmers if it’s successful.

“She has a long­term game plan for this and it’s a real good idea,” he said.

Christina McAlpin

Occupation: CEO Direct Local Food

Location: Boise

Age: 36

Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics, Colby College; master’s degree in public policy, University of Colorado

Family: Husband, Hans­Peter Marshall; daughter, Sofia, 3

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 7, 2014 CONTACT: Brian Cronin208-639-8822BrianC@strategies360.com

Women-Led Startup Revolutionizes the Local Food Movement

It’s no secret that the world of high-tech can be a hostile arena for women, even as female power brokers like Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer make headlines and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg convince more women in busi-ness to “lean in.” Tech startups are even tougher: female-founded startups are less likely to raise venture capital than those led by men. One female-led tech company, Direct Local Food, is determined to defy the odds, lever-aging a unique partnership between the CEO and chief web architect to establish and promote the company’s foundational values of trust and collaboration.

In creating an online marketplace that brings together food growers and wholesale buyers, CEO Christina McAlpin joins a mere three percent of tech startups that are led by females. And while female-founded tech startups are a rarity, no statistic even exists for companies whose CEO and web architect are both women. And yet McAlpin cites the relationship she has with chief developer Candace Sweigart as the force the drives that company forward and sets the tone for how the company relates to its customers.

“Admittedly, It was a steep learning curve for me on the technology side,” says McAlpin. “Nevertheless, Candace took me seriously and believed in and trusted me from the beginning.” Sweigart, the owner of software develop-ment firm Agilefront, felt similarly simpatico with McAlpin when she was first approached about developing the website. “There aren’t a lot of women developers and fewer still at my level with 15 years of experience under my belt, and I’ve noticed that people often don’t expect a woman in a senior technology role,” notes Sweigart. “Chris-tina and I clicked immediately and that connection has allowed us to collaborate as true partners.”

Two women working in high-tech and simultaneously raising toddlers may be the basis for some natural affinity, but the relationship runs much deeper. “It’s not about working exclusively with women,” says McAlpin, “It’s about working most effectively with people you understand and trust and who feel similarly about you. I was able to ask her questions about complex issues of web development without feeling embarrassed or stifled. Similarly, she can bounce ideas off of me knowing that I respect her opinion and her business acumen. Sometimes women have a hard time doing that when they’re in a room full of men.” And according to both McAlpin and Sweigart, the built-in comfort and trust has made for a highly productive working relationship. “We have the most efficient meetings I’ve ever seen,” notes Sweigart. “The back and forth is really fun and together we come up with great solutions.”

McAlpin seeks to apply the same elements that make her team gel to the customer facing side of her business, creating a sense of trust, appreciation, and partnership among food businesses. Direct Local Food connects farmers and food producers with local chefs and grocers online, but encourages rather than circumvents the offline relationship between grower and buyer. “Our model helps to foster those connections because the grow-ers continue to do their own distribution and build relationships,” says McAlpin. Direct Local Food primarily addresses the operational issues that prevent wholesale buyers from sourcing locally.

“One of the biggest barriers to purchasing local food is logistics,” McAlpin asserts. “I met a produce manag-er who made 50 phone calls a week just to order local food. A peach farmer told me he often had to drive his peaches around town in his truck to get them sold. That inefficient system makes it hard for businesses to connect and establish a stable relationship. We’re trying to rectify that.” By using Direct Local Food’s website, farmers can easily market their products to buyers, while chefs and grocers can commit to regularly sourcing local food, giving both parties the confidence and trust they need to grow their businesses.

Since launching in Idaho in June 2013, and using the pilot in her home state to further refine the site’s function-ality, McAlpin has been aggressively pushing into new markets around the country. Direct Local Food intends has just surpassed 1000 registered food producers from all 50 states on the web site. Meanwhile, her team is developing a mobile app that will make it even easier for farmers and buyers to do business out in the field or on the line.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feburary 24, 2014 CONTACT:Brian Cronin (208) 639-8822BrianC@strategies360.com

Boise Tech Startup Rides the Local Food Wave

Direct Local Food aims to meet the growing demand for locally-sourced food by giving grocers and restaurants a better way to connect with food producers

(BOISE) — The market for local food has grown steadily for over a decade across the United States, as consum-ers have placed a higher value on freshness, sustainability, and connection with the people who grow their food. Within the last two years, Boise saw growth in the local food movement with the establishment of new farmers markets and the opening of a Whole Foods, which sources some of its food locally. Established entities like the Boise Co-Op and the Capital City Public Market continue to flourish. However, many restaurant and grocery buyers struggle to commit to sourcing locally, due to the time required to track the changing availability of prod-ucts and to make several different purchases per week from multiple producers.

Christina McAlpin, owner and founder of Boise tech startup Direct Local Food, is pioneering technology to help wholesale buyers and food producers connect online and via their mobile devices. Direct Local Food could change the way food buyers and producers interact, making it more convenient, more sustainable, and less time-consuming for businesses to meet consumers’ growing appetite for local food.

“One of the biggest barriers to wholesale purchasing of local food is inefficiencies in the emerging local food systems,” says McAlpin. In 2012, as part of a team exploring the creation of a permanent, year-round indoor farmers market , she saw a problem with the way that restaurants and grocery stores sourced their local produce. “I spoke with a produce manager at a local grocery store who made over 50 phone calls a week just to order local produce for his store. A chef from a local restaurant used a wad of sticky notes shoved in his apron to keep track of his orders for local meat and produce. And a peach farmer told me he often had to drive his peaches around town in the back of his truck to get them sold.”

McAlpin’s interactions with these local restaurants and farmers sparked her idea for Direct Local Food. What if grocery stores and restaurants could find and order local food more easily, while producers could market and sell their food from their farms and increase sales? “Grocery stores and restaurants want to source their food locally, and consumer demand for local food is there. But it has to be easy. I saw a way to increase the overall demand for local food by making it easier for the restaurant and grocery buyer.”

Christina and her business partner, Garrett Goldberg, founded Direct Local Food in 2012. The site, www.direct-localfood.com, went through beta testing this summer. The service, which is currently free to use and charges no commission on sales, allows buyers to search for produce, meat, dairy, poultry, and even bakery items, narrow-ing their options based on production methods, whether the food is GMO-free, organic and more. Buyers order online and can track all their orders in their account. Food producers can update their inventories, list products for sale, receive orders online, and manage orders – all in one place.

Direct Local Food joins only about three percent of other tech startups that are owned by women. Neither McAlpin nor her web architect and developer, Candace Sweigart are intimidated by that statistic: “Idaho’s agri-cultural tradition and Boise’s friendly environment for tech startups make this fertile soil for a food and technol-ogy company,” states McAlpin. Nor is she unaware of the difficulties of running a food business. Having grown up on a cattle farm in in rural Virginia, and later watching her father produce his own specialty coffee brand, McAlpin developed an appreciation for the demanding work of building a food business. But understanding this difficulty is precisely what helps Christina really connect with her customers. “We have heard from so many pro-ducers that when they work with us, they feel that Direct Local Food really cares about the food producer,” notes McAlpin. “That’s what makes all the hard work of building the company worth it because it truly is what drives us to do a great job for our customers every day.”

The technology to directly connect wholesale buyers and local sellers in one convenient online location has the power to transform the market for local food. “This technology saves precious time and money for both the buyer and the seller, which makes sourcing locally more sustainable and affordable. Ultimately, creating an easier way for the restaurant and grocery buyer to purchase local food more efficient market will provide end consum-ers with what they clearly want: more access to local food options,” says McAlpin.

The company plans to launch a mobile app in the coming months, which will allow producers and buyers to list and purchase items on their mobile devices.

***FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO SCHEDULE AN INTERVIEW, PLEASE CONTACT:Brian Cronin, (208) 639-8822, brianc@strategies360.com, orNicole Kinney, (208) 716-0382, nicolek@strategies360.com

CONNECTED ENTREPRENEUR

How Relationships Are Fueling OneOnline Locavore MarketplaceSarah Max

MARCH 20, 2014

Small-scale farmers and chefs have a common complaint: There just aren’t

enough hours in the day. Chefs want to source food locally, but the farmer’s

market isn’t the most convenient option, and contacting farmers individually eats

up too much time. Farmers, meanwhile, want to sell directly to chefs and other

wholesale buyers, but most don’t have the bandwidth to extensively market and

distribute their products.

Environmental economist Christina McAlpin set out to create a new-school

solution for this age-old problem. In 2013, she launched Direct Local Food, an

online marketplace that makes it easy for wholesale buyers to find local food,

place orders and schedule deliveries. After testing the platform in Boise, McAlpin

is now working to build local networks nationally.

Entrepreneur spoke with McAlpin about how connecting farmers and foodies –

and removing logistical barriers in the process – can bolster the food movement.

Entrepreneur: What inspired you to try to tackle the local food movement?

McAlpin: I’ve always interested in ways that business can benefit the environment

and society, and the other way around. I was working on creating an indoor, year-

round space for a farmer’s market, and through that I heard about the challenges

wholesale buyers face in sourcing local food. Farmers work really long days and

don’t have time to market their products. On the other side, chefs have to make

50 calls to check availability and place orders. It almost creates such a barrier that

some chefs may be unlikely to buy local food. If they’re going to support local

food, they need to do it in the least time-intensive way. The vision with Direct

Local Food is to not only make it easier for people who are already buying local

food but also make it so easy that more people will use more local food.

Christina McAlpin, CEO and Candace Sweigart, Web Architect

Image credit: Direct Local Food

Entrepreneur: Why is traditional distribution not the best option for many

farmers?

McAlpin: Food is traditionally distributed via distribution centers and large trucks.

For example, before potatoes from Idaho to get into a chain grocery store in

Idaho, they go to Salt Lake City to get distributed and then get trucked back up

here. That means you need to pick sooner, need more sprays, there’s a bigger

environmental impact. It also adds costs in the supply chain that aren’t beneficial

to the farmer.

Entrepreneur: And the farmer’s market?

McAlpin: I love going to the farmers market. It’s a wonderful experience.

Sometimes you don’t have time for an experience, especially if you’re a chef.

Entrepreneur: The local food market hasn’t exactly embraced e-commerce, in

part because of the logistics of distributing fresh food. Why do you think this

model can work?

McAlpin: I spent a lot of time talking with farmers and buyers about how they do

business and how they could see this working. What I heard loud and clear was:

‘We really like our relationships. It’s why we do what we do. We love being

connected.’ People love how food connects them and how doing business in

food connects them. With that in mind, we built platform so there is full visibility of

phone numbers. They can call if they have questions and even call to place an

order. We had to change our whole business model [from fee-based to

membership-based] in order to support that.

Entrepreneur: What other changes did you make?

McAlpin: We de-emphasized email links because chefs and farmers aren’t on

their computers all day. People said it might be two or three days before they

checked email. They’re more likely to be on their phones, so calling, texting and

mobile apps are a better option. We’re working on apps for this coming summer.

Entrepreneur: Your beta in Boise was successful, but how will you roll this out

nationally?

McAlpin: Because of the way we’re approaching the business model, not taking

commission and offering free memberships to farmers, we’re connecting with

people across the country who are volunteering to help us spread the word. Our

customers want to be connected.

LEADERSHIP

If You Want to Build Good Relationships,Stop Hiding Behind Your Email

Image credit: illustration © theispot.com/WESLEY BEDROSIAN

Entrepreneur: Given what you’ve learned about your customers, how have you

personally changed how you communicate with them?

McAlpin: I think the best time to connect with someone is when they want to

connect with you. That sounds flippant, but I mean it. I see customer support as

my number one tool for staying connected, because that’s when they need to

speak with me. That’s the number one thing when I’m organizing my work. When

they contact me I get right back, and I always try to pick up the phone when it

rings.

Lambeth Hochwald