In The Loop: AB Food & Ag Tech

​In The Loop: AB Food & Ag Tech

​From foodtrepreneur to foodtech founder, sometimes the end user has to become the innovator they need.

​Food and ag tech is bumpin in Alberta but most of it is built by people who have never had the problem they're solving.

​Michelle Frechette started her foodtrepreneur journey in 2018 with Veg Head Killer Food, a 100% plant-based and gluten-free, Latin-inspired food truck. Right away she hit the same wall most food businesses do — no affordable commercial kitchen space to scale in sustainably. So she founded The Connected Kitchen Project Foundation and started drawing up plans for a communal food processing kitchen built around supporting the aspiring and early-stage foodtrepreneurs inside it.

​Many attempts and iterations later, that kitchen finally opened in Edmonton in fall 2024, alongside its sister organization, Connected Kitchen Management Inc. It became clear early on that the systems and software needed to run a first-of-its-kind 4,800 sq ft social enterprise space like that in the heart of downtown simply did not exist.

​A “strategic retreat” and a lil menty B later (if you know you know) a realization came that resiliency is a decision you make to act regardless of the disappointment, not a feeling you get when the momentum is already behind you.

​With a new lease signed and a big win at the Recycling Council of Alberta's first annual Big Shot: Circular Economy Pitch Competition under her belt, preparations for another act in a new space began while waiting for an occupancy permit to materialize. Determined to learn from the very expensive lessons on the last go around and knowing the software that was still needed still didn't exist - building it became the priority.

​The next hurdle: finding the funding and the right team for a dopamine chasing, neurospicy having, non-technical founder of a foodtech saas company… … … It was even harder than it sounds.

​In this interactive workshop Michelle and Eduardo walk through what they're building - a platform to connect the foodtrepreneurs and food security groups who need a commercial kitchen with the community spaces already paying for theirs whether or not anyone uses it. Governance, compliance, safety, and scheduling are just the tip of the iceberg as to what has kept those spaces inaccessible to the people who need them most… until now. They'll cover what's actually built, what is on deck, what they're still working out as well as the part nobody warns you about: how a non-technical founder finds the right CTO.

​Attendees will leave understanding how shared infrastructure gets coordinated at scale, why the hard part is rarely the software, and how sometimes the end user has to become the innovator to build the business that will raise the tide for all boats.

​For anyone interested in food and ag tech or already building it, anyone sitting on a problem they think somebody else should solve, and anyone in the food system wondering whether any of it applies to them. No technical background needed.

​This breakout runs inside In The Loop: Circular Food Economy.