Maddie Purcell, owner of Fyood Kitchen in Portland, is the Southern Region winner of New Ventures Maine’s Marketing Mini-Grant Pitch Competition. Fyood Kitchen is where cooks transform their mystery ingredients into delicious dishes, using a fully-stocked pantry and the beautiful professional kitchen at Fork Food Lab in Portland. Judges provide feedback based on presentation, taste and creativity, and cooks have the opportunity to try everyone else’s dishes, too. As Purcell describes it, Fyood Kitchen puts on Iron Chef-meets-Paint Nite events for Maine’s fun-loving, adventurous foodies.
“The Marketing Mini-Grant will provide funds for Fyood’s first paid marketing venture and will be invaluable in terms of increasing buzz about the company and narrowing down the ideal target audience,” said Purcell. “I’m so excited to receive the New Ventures Maine Mini-Marketing Grant and look forward to seeing how much it enables me to grow my business and enhance my collaborations with local food producers.”
With the $400 Marketing Mini-Grant, Purcell’s goals are to add 800 people to her email newsletter list, and to identify one single highest performing demographic to target with future offers.
The Southern Region (Cumberland and York County) judges were: Peter Godsoe, of Norway Savings Bank; Sarah Hutchins, of New Ventures Maine; Kate Manahan, of New Mainers Speak; and Dan Philbrick, University College-Saco.
New Ventures Maine (NVME)’s marketing mini-grant program aims to strengthen access to markets for micro-businesses by supporting the development of marketing tools, materials, and activities. The mini- grants are funded in part by Norway Savings Bank.