Entrepreneur’s Greek almond dip catches consideration of Mission Pitch It moguls
Williams Bay entrepreneur Michael Anagnos has taken a Mediterranean household recipe handed down from his grandmother and used it to begin his personal meals manufacturing enterprise.
His product, Yaya’s Skordalia, is a Greek almond dip made utilizing plant-based merchandise. The startup received this week’s Peg Ann and David Gruber Mission Pitch It Award, price $10,000, on the most recent episode of Mission Pitch It.
“Plant-based consuming shouldn’t be one thing that’s a fad,” mentioned Anagnos. “It’s right here, it’s one thing we’re experiencing. You don’t have to surrender style or texture.”
For the final 5 years, he’s been promoting his Greek almond dip at Milwaukee space farmers markets. Anagnos is now hoping to broaden the retail presence of his merchandise. He manufactures and packages all of his dips – 13 flavors — with the assistance of his spouse and a longtime buddy.
Hartland-based Inclusion Espresso Firm was this week’s winner of the Jerry Jendusa/UWM Lubar Entrepreneurship Award. Proprietor Mackenzie Edinger took dwelling a $5,000 money prize, in addition to assist companies together with funding steerage and mentoring from UW-Milwaukee’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Middle and “BreakthruU.”
Inclusion Espresso Store employs people dwelling with varied disabilities and goals to supply them with a enjoyable but difficult surroundings as they grasp on a regular basis expertise like cooking, dealing with cash and customer support. The store has about 20 workers.
Edinger initially thought she would change into an early schooling/particular schooling trainer, however discovered herself taking a non-traditional path towards serving to others.
“I’m educating, simply differently,” she mentioned. “We do wish to unfold inclusion to extra than simply the Hartland and Lake Nation space.”
Edinger hopes to purchase and renovate a cellular espresso cart to make use of extra folks. Inclusion Espresso Firm has a waitlist of 150 folks in search of a job.
Mequon entrepreneur Kishoree Boegel received the We Energies/DNA Award, which features a $1,500 money prize and at the least one session of mentoring in advertising and marketing from an organization chief.
Boegel opened her store Cocoa Tree Confectionary in March 2020, proper because the COVID-19 pandemic shook up the retail and restaurant industries as we all know them. She believes she’s nonetheless in enterprise for 2 causes: the standard and fantastic thing about her goodies. Boegel makes her merchandise with chocolate by Barry Callebaut, purées and recent fruit from Boiron and native farmers’ markets, and butter, cream, and milk from the dairy farms of Wisconsin.
“Each single recipe, I got here up with these, and so they’re a labor of affection, so I’m actually proud,” mentioned Boegel. “We use solely the most effective of every thing. It’s costly and the prices have gone up.”
She hopes to broaden her bodily footprint in Mequon to extend effectivity, in addition to carry courses to the group.
The following episode of Mission Pitch It airs Saturday at 10:30 p.m. on WISN-TV Channel 12 in Milwaukee. BizTimes Media is a media accomplice for Mission Pitch It.
