Join us for a conversation with three local leaders in food and beverage manufacturing in San Francisco.
In a highly interactive discussion facilitated by SFMade, we will hear how Jane Metcalfe, President of TCHO; Forest Gray, President & CEO of Speakeasy Ales & Lagers; and Cristina Arantes, owner of Kika’s Treats, have grown and developed their companies.
Come network and learn about:
- Best practices and how to apply them to your business operations
- Building your brand
- Getting your product into large retailers and specialty stores
- Managing operations with business growth
- Hiring and retaining employees
- Utilizing online and industry networks
- Key lessons learned
- and more!
Presenter Bios:
Jane Metcalfe, TCHO
Jane is enamored with organizations and industries on the verge of transformation, and on the leading edge of anything—definitely the undisputed reason she's a natural TCHOsen. Jane, pre-TCHO, is perhaps best known as the co-founder, with Louis Rossetto, of Wired magazine (US, UK and Japanese editions), Wired TV, Wired Books, and the Wired Digital suite of websites, though she and Louis have also been involved in real estate development and angel investing. She is a long time supporter of the arts/digital arts, a founding board member of ZeroOne, One Economy and the Expression College for Digital Arts.
Cristina Arantes, Kika's Treats
Cristina Arantes, a.k.a. Kika was born and raised in Brazil, one of the tropical lands of cacao, where she spent her days baking and eating all things chocolate. In 1999 she moved to San Francisco and had the opportunity to work at a variety of wonderful restaurants and bakeries where she refined her skills with some of the finest chefs around. In 2006, she made a list of her favorite treats and decided that it was time to share them with the world. Kika's Treats are sold in over twenty retailers in Northern California, and in Dean and Deluca in new York. Cristina's caramels won Best Caramels in the 2011 San Francisco Chocolate Salon, and received a shout out as one of San Francisco's best cookies from SFWeekly in 2009.
Forest Gray, Speakeasy
Forest Founded Speakeasy Ales And Lagers in 1997, and has grown the company to become a multimillion dollar per year business that sells artisan beers in the US urban markets from California to New York, as well as some limited international sales. Speakeasy employs 19 people in the Bayview/ Hunters Point district of
San Francisco. Their flagship products include Big Daddy IPA and Prohibition Ale. In his prior career, Forest was a published scientist at Roche Palo Alto (formerly Syntex Research).