Cureate Courses
We partner with businesses, governments and non-profit organizations to cureate location-specific educational programs that take the guesswork out of starting and running a successful business, empowering entrepreneurs to build a solid foundation to grow, scale, and best-serve their customers in the highly-competitive food industry.
The Impact
Join our Cureate Courses alumni, partners, and local communities growing across the Mid-Atlantic & the Heartland. To date, Cureate has graduated over 300 entrepreneurs through its curriculum.
Creating Community & Connection
Cureate Courses participants — ranging from farmers to caterers and bakers — were put to the test while collaborating to put on a sold out, 5-course, farm-to-table dinner in celebration of our NW Arkansas Spring 2023 graduates. (Spoiler alert: It was absolutely delicious.)
Interconnected, Economically-Vibrant Food Supply Systems
When anchor institutions + non-profit lenders + for-profit small business come together, it is truly magical. Don’t take it from us though... check out our impact video from our recent crop of Maryland Courses graduates!
Resilient Public-Private Partnerships
We’re proud, and honored, to build partnerships that are committed to the growth of local, small businesses. Check out our #MadeinMaryland Vendor Fair at the Baltimore Convention Center, showcasing our Cureate Courses 2022-2023 graduates!
On average, our students reported a 25% increase in revenues by the end of our program.
Our Curriculum
Cureate Courses is a tailored business training program with online and in-person elements, including one-on-one assistance, group coaching and interactive study. You tell us about the community of entrepreneurs you’re interested in supporting, and we cureate a customized curriculum and marketing program catered to their needs.
What’s Provided
Curriculum Design & Implementation
Development of curriculum encompassing foundational lessons.
Facilitation of each workshop, including developing and running agendas and activities
Identifying, scheduling and coordinating with industry-expert facilitators to present during each workshop
Securing a workshop locations with appropriate IT capabilities, if needed
Post-workshop prompts to elicit additional topic engagement
Event Programming & Execution
Graduation Capstone Community Event showcasing cohort businesses
Pitch Competition judged by industry leaders & investors, offering a pre-determined monetary award
Vendor Fair featuring cohort products in front of area Buyers
Additional Resources for Enrollees
Shared online folder housing relevant workshop materials
Office hours to provide one-on-one technical business assistance with a local partner
Individualized coaching sessions
Slack channel for group participants to engage and ask questions throughout the program
Sharing of sales opportunities through our Cureate Connect Buyer network
Engagement & Marketing
Application development, submission review, promotion plan and execution, and selection of enrollees with your approval
Media outreach to communicate success stories during the program, and to drive foot traffic to program events
Impact Assessment Report
Bring Cureate Courses to Your Area
Cureate Courses is a tailored business training program with online and in-person elements based on the needs of entrepreneurs, including one-on-one assistance, group coaching and interactive online study. You tell us the community of entrepreneurs you’re interested in supporting and other basic logistical information, and we get to work creating a customized curriculum and marketing program.
Our Partners
Economic Development Agencies
Main Streets Programs
City Governments
Food Industry-Specific Groups
Values-Aligned Private-Sector Businesses
Mission-Driven Institutions
Industries We Support
Consumer Packaged Goods
Value-Add Producers
Prepared Foods
Bakers
Farmers
Caterers
Case Studies
Cureate Courses
University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS); Baltimore Community Lending
Challenge
In the wake of the COVID-19 public health emergency, our systems across the world were rattled and assessed. How might we do business better than we have before? How can we build more resiliency into our supply chains? The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) identified food insecurity and workforce development as two key areas of focus in order to address social determinants of health around wealth and health building in the communities in which they serve.
“We hold seriously the critical role of our hospitals and member organizations as anchor institutions in local communities,” said Mohan Suntha, president and CEO of UMMS, in a statement. “We recognize the importance not only of providing world-class health care but also working beyond the physical walls of our hospitals to serve as an engine to help drive economic and societal change in Maryland’s communities in which we are privileged to serve.”
The Opportunity
Cureate Courses, supported by Baltimore Community Lending with funding from UMMS, is building up an empowered food and beverage supply via technical assistance, education, and capacity building to farmers, growers, bakers, and manufacturers. This valuable training to entrepreneurs to help their businesses thrive, while providing jobs and access to fresh food in the community, is the goal and outcome of this program and public-private partnership.
The Impact
One of the most resounding pieces of feedback we received from the participants of our Maryland cohorts was the gratitude for the community that Cureate Courses surrounded them with. Through our work with UMMS & BCL we have been able to build a resilient community of small business owners who are confident in growing their businesses, but also can rely upon each other for support. We saw a handful of entrepreneurs rally together to do collaborations during and after Cureate Courses, and the UMMS team has welcomed some of the small businesses into their hospital community to do pop-ups and demos onsite.
Cureate Courses
FORGE
Challenge
Our partner, FORGE, was founded in 1988 by a group of organic farmers from throughout the Ozarks bioregion of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. They were concerned that farmers wanting to incorporate sustainable agricultural practices into their farming systems were being hindered by a lack of affordable capital.
One of their solutions was to form a revolving loan fund that would be sensitive to the needs of small farmers. As the years went by the members of FORGE realized that agriculture was only one of the needs of rural communities and that the loan program needed to include businesses that provide services and stable employment opportunities to families living in rural areas.
Cureate and FORGE realized the opportunity to build capacity and entrepreneurial support for food & farm small businesses up and down the value chain from farmer, to manufacturer, to caterer throughout FORGE’s areas of operations.
The Opportunity
Cureate has now been in partnership with FORGE, supported by the US Small Business Administration and the Walton Family Foundation, since 2021 and has seen a 16% conversion from graduate of Cureate Courses to micro loan borrower (at or under $50,000). We have graduated 3 cohorts to-date, and are excited to continue building the rural-urban pipeline of supply and new economic opportunities.
The Impact
The participants of our Arkansas cohorts have seen tremendous growth since we started our partnership with FORGE in 2021. Some of our entrepreneurs have opened brick and mortar locations, while others have increased their distribution from just within their city to state-wide distribution. Throughout the cohorts, Cureate Courses provided additional wrap-around support from our subject matter experts specializing in leadership coaching and unit economics to give our entrepreneurs the tools they need to grow into the next stage of their business journey.
Cureate Courses
Virginia Business Development Center (VASBDC)
Challenge
The Virginia State Business Development Center (VASBDC), and SBDCs at-large, are looking to reach more small business owners in their backyard to provide wrap-around technical support and capacity building. In order to work with and provide more of that training, VASBDC received funding to build that pipeline through unique and innovative programming and establish more lead generation opportunities into the Centers.
The Opportunity
VASBDC partnered with Cureate to facilitate and run 6 cohorts of Cureate Courses throughout the state of Virginia targeting underserved entrepreneurs such as women, people of color, and rural communities.
The Impact
With our Virginia cohorts, we had an incredible opportunity to foster connections throughout the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Our first cohort began in March of 2021, and each of our cohorts met exclusively virtually. Despite the distributed nature of our time together, we saw collaboration emerge between cohort members and even our Cureate Courses Pitch Showcase judges. Together with the VA SBDC regional teams, we organized sample boxes and introduced a wide range of industry experts as our Pitch Showcase panel of judges. In fact, one of our cohort members even secured their co-packer through a connection fostered by Cureate Courses.
Cureate Courses
DC’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED)
Challenge
Cureate won a grant from DC’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) to develop and facilitate a 10-workshop educational program, Cureate Courses, for 15 underrepresented local food & beverage entrepreneurs beginning January 2020. To secure a roster of business owners with the most to gain from this specific curricula (specifically, those bringing in $25,000+ in sales, growing from more than one employee and located in DC), we needed to create an application promotion plan that cut through the holiday buzz and caught the attention of the right people during one of their busiest times of year.
Solution
To get the word out about applications, Cureate created a promotion plan that tapped into our existing network of industry influencers and identified additional targets beyond that network to expand our reach. We also developed a media-directed message demonstrating the importance of the food & beverage industry, specifically in equalizing access to opportunity for all entrepreneurs, regardless of background. And we individually contacted a select group of 50 vendors that we felt were ripe to benefit from the workshop, which culminates in a pitch competition for a total of $20,000 in monetary awards.
Results
Through these efforts, we achieved the following outcomes:
Download our 2020 Impact Report
A segment on Good Morning Washington featuring Cureate CEO Kim Bryden
Contacted all 19 DC Main Street programs and 12 Business Improvement Districts resulting in newsletter mentions, listserv posts and tweets
Outreach to more than 25 food entrepreneurship/young professional organizations, co-working spaces and workshop partners to help get the word out, resulting in various emails to networks, newsletter mentions and Instagram stories
Secured 3 paid Instagram stories and 1 Instagram post from 2 social media influencers with 40.8K followers and 24.1K followers, respectively. The post generated more than 320 likes.
Received 47 applications from local entrepreneurs, with 16 accepted into the Cureate Courses cohort!
Market Readiness
University of the District of Columbia
Challenge
The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is the nation’s only land grant recipient in an urban area. Because of this, UDC has a strong commitment to urban agriculture, urban/rural distribution, and diversification of sales channels. They sought an outside educational workshop series to help grow their entrepreneurs’ skill sets.
Solution
Cureate worked alongside UDC in producing multiple workshop series titled: Tips for Winning Over Retail Buyers, Market Readiness, and Social Media Marketing.
Results
Each program influenced 10-15 entrepreneurs all seeking to increase their revenue at traditional channels, such as farmer’s markets, as well as diversify their revenue through other channels such as wholesale and e-commerce. Participants left each session with the tools needed to understand the full landscape of opportunities.