The third annual Slow Money Pioneer Valley Entrepreneur Showcase was held on October 20th, 2016 at the Smith College Conference Center. Six entrepreneurs shared their vision and plans for the future:
Slow Money Pioneer Valley organizes an Entrepreneur Showcase each year to bring investors together with farm and food businesses interested in their support. The Showcase is an opportunity to forge relationships that will be useful as these businesses grow and need support, including financing.
Thank you to the wonderful entrepreneurs who participated in our Entrepreneur Showcase in the fall 2015!
The PVGrows Investment Fund is another way to invest in building a healthier food system with its community investment vehicle for individuals, institutions and foundations. To learn more about this new way to invest in our local farm and food businesses, click here.
About Slow Money Pioneer Valley:
Slow Money Pioneer Valley (SMPV), a working group of the PVGrows Network, works to catalyze community-based investment in the local food system by connecting individuals, investors, and philanthropists with farmers and local food entrepreneurs in order to strengthen our local and regional food economy.
Slow Money Pioneer Valley works in close collaboration with the PVGrows Investment Fund, which is administered by the FCCDC, and other local food financing programs and organizations. Slow Money Pioneer Valley seeks to complement the existing funding mechanisms available to entrepreneurs, with a focus on direct investments.
Our network also collaborates with other Slow Money networks in Boston, Maine, Vermont, the Hudson Valley and New York City, as well as Slow Money National, to further regional efforts that spur investment into local food economies and share in the best practices being developed across the country. SMPV attended the recent Regional Slow Money Gathering in Vermont, where Pioneer Valley entrepreneur Wellspring Harvest Cooperative presented.
In 2014, SMPV hosted our first Entrepreneur Showcase and co-sponsored a workshop for local food entrepreneurs with Jenny Kassan of Cutting Edge Capital to review the options for raising funds, including through Direct Public Offerings. Several entrepreneurs followed up by participating in a “DPO Boot Camp” in the fall.