Have you ever had an amazing idea, but didnāt know what to do with it? The folks at Ā鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę· take those ideas to our own Shark TankāThe IĀ鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę·BATOR.
Started in 2012, the IĀ鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę·BATOR has helped 70 students and alumni with mentorship and funding to turn their good ideas into reality. And these ideas have, in turn, generated more than 60 jobs throughout the region.
Rodney DāSouza, director for the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, says people who bring ideas to the IĀ鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę·BATOR receive more spotlight attention than the program itself.
For parents, the daily struggle to win the vegetable war with their kids is real. And letās face it, losses far outnumber wins for moms and dads. Waged since the beginning of time, mealtime skirmishes have shown no sign of a cease-fireāthat is, until Josh Young (ā11) added a revolutionary new weapon to parentsā dinner-table arsenal.
Young was studying business administration at Ā鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę· when he decided to develop his idea of Vegy Vida, an all-natural dip that helps children enjoy the taste of vegetables. But he had one key caveat: He wouldnāt resort to using artificial ingredients or sugar in developing his product.
āKids donāt eat enough vegetables. And kids who donāt eat vegetables become adults who donāt eat vegetables,ā Young says. āThere was a lot of research that showed that when you covered vegetables in sugar, kids would eat them, which doesn't help anybody.ā
Rather than searching for a flavor to mask the presence of vegetables, Young discovered an ingredient in cucumber extract that actually removes unpleasant flavors while improving the taste. The extract, referred to as the ābitter blocker,ā changes the way bitter compounds in food and beverages interact with taste receptors in a personās (and especially little person's) mouth.
āI found a way to use the bitter blocker to take away the bitterness of veggies so kids would eat more of them,ā he says. āThatās important, because kids actually have three times more taste buds than adults do.ā A study conducted by the University of Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, backs up this claim with a finding that adolescents are more sensitive to sucrose or sweet flavors.
Photo by Scott Beseler
With the help of Ā鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę·ās IĀ鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę·BATOR, a cross-campus inititave that enables students from different backgrounds to connect and start a business together, Young was able to have the foundation in place to start his journey.
āIt was a good experience,ā Young said. āAnd it made you think about the business, and made you make sure you werenāt putting energy and funds toward something that isnāt viable.ā
Soon after Young graduated from the IĀ鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę·BATOR, he received an opportunity to collaborate with Brandcraft, a consumer-centric product development company focused on ideas that benefit the health of our communities and individualsā well-being.
The collaboration was a perfect match for Young, who wasnāt interested in health-washing. He wanted to focus on making a health-food product thatās actually, well, healthy.
āWhen youāre developing food and beverage products, I think the tide is turning,ā says Young. āThroughout the last 15 years, the focus hasnāt been on health. Itās been on how cheap you can make a food productā¦. We wanted to make food and beverage products that are truly healthy.ā
In food industry circlesālike the ones Young moved in with his previous jobāconsumersā desires to eat healthier are on every formulatorās mind. Unfortunately, āhealthyā isnāt a clear-cut term, and thereās a lot of confusion about whatās nutritionally beneficial and what simply looks good on a package. Some companies use the āhealthyā term a little too loosely for Youngās liking, touting a productās healthy-seeming qualities to influence buyersā decisions at the grocery check-out.
Working with Brandcraft, Young was able to partner with the best veggie defendersāmomsāto develop a product that was both tasty and healthy. Having parents taste test the product was important because they were going to be the consumers of Vegy Vida.
Itās safe to say Youngās brainchild is a success. Vegy Vida dips are available in five different 100 percent all-natural flavorsāmade especially for kids. They contain absolutely no sugar, GMOs or gluten. Brandcraft is working to get Vegy Vida into as many as 8,000 grocery stores by the end of the year.
Armed with their new āweapon,ā parents will be able to win the dinner battle.Ā
This article will appear in the Fall-Winter 2017 issue of Ā鶹¹ś²ś¾«Ę· Magazine.Ā
