Blog post #1

Describe the idea!

We started Odd Season with the vision that every grown fruit and vegetable will be consumed. Today the wastage level of fruits and vegetables in the food value chain is around 50 % and we want to contribute so that number can be decreased.  

Odd Season sources and purchases fruits and vegetables that companies along the food value chain don’t manage to sell in their regular sales channels. The fruits and vegetables are then transformed into new and innovative frozen food products. The transformed products are sold as input products to other food producers who use fruits and vegetables as ingredients in their products.

We will start working with one fruit and vegetable at a time, and the first product to be released on the market will be a frozen banana purée in pellets format. The banana product is planned to be released during late summer/early fall.

Who are you?

I have always been interested in sales and building new things from scratch. This led me into enrolling in the MSc program in Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Lund University. I graduated from the program last week and have during the year worked on Odd Season together with the team.

I also studied my BSc in Business and Economics at Lund University, including one exchange year in California. Between the BSc and MSc, I worked for Swedish-Vietnamese start-up named Pangara where I worked with sales and business development for the Swedish market.

When being a student in California I started to adapt a vegetarian diet and since then my interest for plant-based food have increased. I believe it’s an industry that faces a lot change and innovation for the upcoming years, which I want to be a part of driving.

What will you do during these 3 months? How will you spend the time?

During these 3 months we will continue to work on contacting new potential customers and sign new customer contracts for our first product.

On the production-side we will try and evaluate machines for the different steps in our production process. We will also continue the dialogue with the different facility options we have for our production.

Finally, we will continue adding new suppliers and start identifying our next type of fruit and vegetable we will take care of.

What do you expect to achieve during Leapfrogs?

Our goal is that we during the summer will figure out what machines we will use in our production process and also find cost-efficient ways to access them. We also hope that we manage to sign a contract with a facility-owner in which facilities we can establish our production. We currently have ongoing dialogues with a couple of facility-owners in which we see great potential. We also expect to attract some new customers for our first product.

Blog post #2

Tell us what you have done on your project so far during the Leapfrogs time. 

In the end of June we tested the different machines we are planning to use in our production process. The results were satisfying and we are now waiting for quotes on the different machines.

We have made the design for our initial website which will be released during August.

We have a dialogue with one potential investor and have created and signed a NDA, and will continue the discussion in mid-August.

We have also signed an agreement with a large supplier and booked one meeting with a potential customer.

Has everything gone according to the plan? Has anything unexpected occurred? Has something been easier/harder than expected?

Almost everything has gone according to the plan. There have been some problems regarding one of the machines that we plan to buy. it is a long delivery time for a new one, and at the same time hard to find a good used one.

The dialogues with both suppliers, customers and other partners have been slower than expected, due to the fact that many are on vacation during this period of the year.

What will you focus on during the remaining time? Will you follow your original plan or has anything changed along the way?

During the upcoming month we will focus on the following things:

- Continue the dialogue with our potential investor and see what opportunities we can find there.

- Continue the dialogue with the production facilities we plan to be in and find a way to collaborate to get our production started.

- Book and conduct more meetings with potential customers.

- Finish our business plan and financial calculations. 

Blog post #3

How did you experience the three months?

It has been three months full of learnings, but also development of the idea that I entered Leapfrogs with. I have expanded my network of other entrepreneurs which hopefully can lead to valuable exchanges in the future.

What has been most difficult and what has been most enjoyable?

The most difficult part has been to balance the progress of the idea, what to focus on and what decisions that are most important. The most enjoyable has been the interaction with potential customers, but also to develop our production line for our first product.

Will you continue working on your project in the future? If so, what is your next step?

Yes, I will continue working with the idea. Our next step is to get out production up and running and start the collaboration with the clients we have a dialogue with right now.

What would you say is the most important lesson learnt while working on your project?

The most important lesson I would say is to have the customers interest at heart in everything you are doing, and focus on creating value for them.

Do you have any tips to other new entrepreneurs?

If you have an idea, just “fake it” and go out and talk with potential stakeholders. That will give you ideas of how it could and work and what should be changed.