The Bears’ Lair Entrepreneurial Competition can help you reach your business goals and put you and your business on the map. But don’t take our word for it, take the past winners and finalist word for it. Below is a Bears’ Lair winner who worked hard and believed in their business enough to enter our competition. Now they are well known and reputable businesses that are willing to share their experiences with others with the same entrepreneurial spirit. Check out what Entomo Farms (Our 2015 Innovation Winner) had to say to anyone entering the Bears’ Lair this year!

Entomo Farms – 2015 Innovation Winner

Brief Business Background:
Entomo Farms raises and harvest crickets and mealworms for human food and animal feed. Insects as food and feed are not only delicious and nutritious, but sustainable too. We began our journey in 2014, and are amazed and pleased with the growth of the adoption of insects on our plates. We produce whole roasted insects, both plain and flavoured, and offer a gluten-free and gluten-free organic option as well. We also produce both cricket powder and mealworm powder, which makes it super simple and fun to incorporate insects into virtually anything you bake or cook.

What advice would you give to young, up and coming entrepreneurs?
If you were blessed with the entrepreneurial spirit then you know that no matter what, you are always thinking about new ideas. Always keep dreaming, always keep thinking, always share your ideas with those you trust, and keep brainstorming. Once you have your plan set, keep your eye on the goal; this is sometimes easier said than done! Being an entrepreneur is probably one of the most challenging characteristics a person can have. Challenges and doubts will come up, but your passion, perseverance and keeping your eye on the goal, will help you get through the hard times.

What is your favourite business quote?
Steve Jobs’ Commencement Speech for Stanford in 2015 https://youtu.be/D1R-jKKp3NA
The entire speech is inspiring and incredible, and I listen to it often and recommend others to listen to it.
And of course Jobs’ famous line, “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

What was your favourite part of the Bears’ Lair competition?
The energy in the room at the Bear’s Lair competition was unlike anything we had ever experienced before. The excitement and passion of the competitors was tangible and contagious. It is an amazing experience to listen to others talk about something that moves and drives them to evoke change and disrupt the norm.

Who was your inspiration when starting your business?
Back in 2013, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations put out a white paper entitled: Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Feed and Food Security. We had already been farming insects for reptile food and after reading this paper, we knew what we had to do. We started researching what we needed to change in our farms to start producing human-grade insects for people to start eating. This paper outlined a need, and we knew that we could help fulfill that need. The timing was perfect.

Where do you see your business in 5 years?
We know how easy it is to incorporate the healthy goodness of insects into your daily diet- we’ve been doing it for years now, and continue to experiment in the kitchen. We can envision a time in the not-so-far future, when everyone has a little shaker of cricket powder next to the stove, to add into whatever they are cooking, a bag of powder in the fridge or pantry to add into that batch of cookies, or mix into that pasta sauce, and snack bags of whole roasted seasoned insects to pop into the kids’ lunches. Imagine heading into your local grocery store, and being able to select cereal, bread, pasta etc. that is enriched with cricket powder. Change is coming, and it’s coming soon!

Visit http://entomofarms.com/ to learn more about their business!