Arkansas Inc. Podcast: Arkansas Food and Beverage Entrepreneurs: Kim Bryden

In this episode of the Arkansas Inc. Podcast, Kim Bryden discusses her company Cureate, how Cureate helps food entrepreneurs, and why she chooses to do business in the Natural State.

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TRANSCRIPT

KIM BRYDEN: Hi, I'm Kim Bryden. I'm the CEO and founder of Cureate, and you're listening to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Welcome to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast. My name is Esperanza Massana Crane. I serve as the director of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development Division for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Today, I am joined by Kim Bryden, founder and CEO of Cureate, a woman-owned food tech company dedicated to strengthening local food systems and helping food and farm entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Originally from Washington, D.C. area, Kim relocated to Northwest Arkansas and has built a nationally recognized organization that connects local producers with new market opportunities while creating more resilient supply chains. Through Cureate, she has helped hundreds of small businesses expand and thrive.

Kim, it is such a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

KIM BRYDEN: Oh, thank you so much for having me.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: So, I had really the pleasure of meeting you, what, three years ago, give or take? And I was so impressed by you and I still am. I mean, it's such an amazing Number one, you're such an amazing woman, and you're doing amazing things for the state, and you have grown so much. So, tell us a little bit about your journey um and for those that are not familiar with Cureate, what is Cureate and who is Kim?

KIM BRYDEN: Oh, wow. Thank you. And big question. Uh but when I started Cureate 12 years ago, it was from this place that I saw many farm, food, and beverage entrepreneurs creating quality goods and services but didn't always have access to the business side of running their farm, food, and beverage operation.

And then, simultaneously, without that business knowledge, people would come to me and say, "I'm at the farmers market, and now what? Where do I go from here?"

And that sort of sparked this uh fire in my belly because I wanted to work with people who are community-based businesses, creating jobs, creating economic impact, creating legacy in their communities. And I saw this influx of capital going into more venture-backed entities, and I didn't see as much investment at that time—and this is, again, 12 years ago—into that community-based entrepreneur that was really the fabric of our communities.

And that's what lit the fire in my belly to start Cureate. And so what we do programmatically now is we have these two verticals: Cureate Courses and Cureate Connect.

Cureate Courses is our 10-week farm, food, and beverage entrepreneurship program where we're teaching the business side of running that operation. We've now graduated over 400 entrepreneurs nationwide and growing.

And on the Cureate Connect side, we work with institutions—universities, hospitals, corporate cafeterias—to buy from those local farm, food, and beverage entrepreneurs, creating access to these new market channels that were not previously accessible.

And so, the two are intended to work together in this sort of flywheel effect that we are understanding the supply side through our education, and we're building up more of this empowered supply chain, to be honest, both locally and regionally. And then the demand side, we really understand what people want to buy at what case sizes, at what flavors, at what price points that influences the education. But also, we are really tapped into the marketplace as of now, today, of 2026, or, you know, in the future, because we see transactionally, week over week, what people want to buy in these larger settings that often are just slightly behind where say retail consumers are at.

And so, we're seeing really the people of the community what people are tapped into and willing to try. And to just give an example, the end customer of the buyers we work with are students, nurses, uh someone in their workplace. It is not say grocery retail where it's all of us consumers, you know, of a total variety of people. These are really place-based, specific locations that we're sourcing for, and because of that, the institution wants to be reflective of the community they're serving. So if you're sourcing for a university, there's pride in sourcing from an alumni. Or if it's a hospital, they want to put dollars into the community they're serving because it's generating economic impact for the people beyond their four walls, which ultimately is a social determinant of poor health outcomes if you can, say, teach a man to fish instead of giving him the fish.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yes.

KIM BRYDEN: And so, hospitals even see this as an opportunity to increase their impact because it's really through that economic development lens.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: That's amazing. So, all these institutions also have that um mission-driven aspect or within them that they want to support, you know, local entrepreneurs. So, tell us, can you give us an example uh or a story of one of an entrepreneur that you've worked with and how you have helped them grow and transition into being at a particular institution or so we can visualize the process a little bit better?

KIM BRYDEN: Yeah, definitely. And I think to make a really fine point of where we fit in this food supply chain distribution ecosystem, I want to sort of paint the picture of business as usual right now. And typically, in the food system, there's food that goes into retail channels, our grocery stores and things like that, or there's food service, and typically, people think food service of restaurants. But there's also food service that I'm speaking of in these institutions. So, just there's these two different pathways and there's different ways of accessing them, and the and, frankly, it costs different amounts of money to play the game of each of those systems.

(Laughter)

And so, I'm speaking specifically about the food service piece of this puzzle just to make that clear.

So, when we are getting into these food service channels, often times the barrier to entry is that entrepreneurs need to work with distributors who have a product warehoused in their one of many warehouses across the United States that are then direct shipped or delivered to those locations. And why buyers really like that is because they have a one-stop shop. They have one catalog, one person to talk to, one person to pay, it's one point of a contract. It's just easy.

But as the entrepreneur, getting into that distributor or that distribution system means now you're giving up a sizable part of your margin because now the distributor's taking that margin to warehouse and deliver your product. So, that's not often a  cut or a hit that an entrepreneur can always make.

And the person who's your sort of sales rep of that distributor has such a wide variety of product. I mean, it is conventional through to local. Right? There's so many different products. So, that sales rep doesn't really care about you. I mean, they're just they're just trying to maintain the reputation with that buyer, but the products, you know, it's like buy that soda, don't buy that soda. Who cares? You know? So, then there's the individual who might be on the team of that small business or any sort of business size that is a broker, and that broker is the person you have on your team that is trying to then elevate you into the market even more. But then that entrepreneur also has to give that person a cut of the sales that they move. So, do you see what I'm saying? There's all of these layers of individuals who are supposedly trying to give you access to new market opportunities, but it's just cutting you down step-by-step in this very not transparent, very opaque, you know, like who's really involved here? What are these hands really helping or not helping me in this situation?

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yes, and especially for an entrepreneur that already is struggling to make ends meet, the I mean, the idea of giving so much of their margin is not feasible going this route.

KIM BRYDEN: Exactly. And so, I got to this place where why do we have to do it this way? And that's maybe the core reason I exist and the core motto of Cureate is why do we have to do things the way they've always been done? And so, I took that core reason from the buyer perspective, "Oh, you like this because it's a one-stop shop." Well, could we just be that one-stop shop for local businesses? And then you have that really that you have that focus, you know everything that has come through us is a local business. So you know, when you're looking at our order guides or product catalogs, like it already has that filter on it, if you will.

And then, at the same time, we're providing the service for the buyer. So, think of us more as the local purchasing agent for the buyer. So, they're the one paying our service. So, any of the small businesses that we work with, we are not warehousing or distributing them. We're placing the orders, we're handling payments on behalf of the buyer. And because we don't warehouse or distribute anything, that small business is still direct delivering or direct shipping to that location, which means we don't take a cut from them.

And that keeps more money in that entrepreneur's pocket. And we're trying to incentivize and align those incentives to be win-win-win, because if the buyer's selling more product, we're selling more product, which means the small business is selling more product. So we're just trying to reimagine does it always have to be the way it's been, and if not, how can we mimic that user experience they're used to while also putting our own more economic local economic impact strategy lens on it?

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Right. So, I know when I talked to you a while back, you were working with the University of Central Arkansas on supporting them um trying to get some local vendors um for their food service. Can you tell us a little bit of how that originated, how that's going, and because I think that's a perfect example of, you know, a local institution with local vendors.

KIM BRYDEN: Yeah. Whether it's universities or local hospitals or corporate cafeterias, one of the things we immediately look for is what is the buyer really asking for? And that is something very different than a broker, because a broker has signed up to specifically represent one product or one brand. So, we're actually coming from the demand side first and trying to understand from the buyer's perspective, what do you even want to buy?

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

KIM BRYDEN: So, I'm not trying to sell them anything that they're, frankly, not very interested in. So, that is one thing that we often have to coach our entrepreneurs, is we would love to onboard you and work with you, but ultimately, it is the buyer's decision if you fit within their portfolio of what they're looking for. And so, you know, universities have a different customer base than a hospital does, than a corporate cafeteria does. They have different socioeconomics statuses that they need to address, they have different populations they need to be sourcing for.

And so, then the stories of those local small businesses really matter depending on how is that small business sort of reflected in the population that is being served. And one really tangible example I have is uh we actually operate from Pennsylvania through to Virginia and then Arkansas up to Kansas City, down to Dallas. So, I have a lot of examples here. But this one is actually from a hospital we work with in Maryland to prove this point.

The population that this hospital serves is so drastically different than the staff of the hospital. And the staff of the hospital is who is eating in the cafeteria the most. And the staff of the hospital is predominantly Caribbean. But that is not the population that this hospital is primarily serving. Of course they may, but just from a percentage breakdown. And we actually bring in local food businesses to pop up inside of the hospital and sort of be the featured local business of that lunch service, and Caribbean food flies. Everyone loves it. It is sold out before the lunch service is even over. So, these are the things we're constantly working on with the buyer, is to determine is there sort of a cultural movement or or trend or product set that you think your customer's really latching on to? A bunch of people asking for gluten-free? Are people asking for organic? Whatever it might be, and then we look in the market to see who might be the best fit to service that demand.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Wow, that's amazing. So, you know, we talked with Geovanni Leiva, founder of Leiva's Coffee, and so how, for example, would it work for you to work with someone like him? Like say he approaches you and says, "Hey, Kim, I heard about what you do, how could you help a business like mine?" And you would say:

KIM BRYDEN: Oh, well, Geovanni, what an incredible individual, entrepreneur, business. I have loved learning everything about your story. And what I think is so remarkable about your moment of growth is that you are I mean, yes, you're a startup, but you're also an established business that has scale and capacity to meet demand. And I think that's what's really often challenging for buyers, is that being deemed a small business or a startup actually means everyone from cottage food maker through to Geovanni’s size. And that's really hard for them to always distinguish because they're just like, "Oh, small business. I tried that once. It didn't work." And now they're sort of painting this broad brush stroke of like, "Oh, that's not going to work again because I had that experience this one time."

And so, what I think is so amazing about Giovanni and his operations is that there's so many proof points of how it is working and has the capacity to really meet the demand that's in front of in front of your operation. You're there. You're ready to meet it. And that de-risks the choice for the buyer because they're like, "Oh, I can consistently show up, provide that consistent product." And anytime there's a possibility of inconsistency, a risk flag goes off. So, those are some of the things we're listening for and trying to wear our buyer hat in those conversations, is what is the opportunity, how consistent does that entrepreneur need to be? Sometimes there are opportunities that are more one-off, like maybe it's Valentine's Day and you just need chocolate-covered strawberries once.

(Laughter)

So, there are these moments where just a cottage maker might be a good fit, but if you want to really be in a sales channel routinely, having that capacity and knowledge is really a critical part of the program.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Kim, you have a very unique story, clearly. Um one thing that impressed me is that you moved from D.C. to Arkansas because you're not originally from Arkansas. So, tell us a little bit about that—how that happened, how you came to Arkansas. Where are you originally from, and how you landed here?

KIM BRYDEN: Oh, yeah. I'm a Jersey girl. And all of my family is in New Jersey, New York area. Oh, wow. And I started my business, like I mentioned, 12 years ago in D.C. and grew it across the D.C. metro area down to Richmond, now up through Pennsylvania. And during COVID, you can imagine the fact that we work with institutions like universities and convention centers—they were shut down. And I had this moment of what is happening to my business? Like, is this the end of my operations?

And I just had this moment of, "No, we are in um a complete economic change, and I had this mantra that I am going to plant seeds in the ashes of destruction to grow a new economic order."

(Laughter)

And I decided to rent a car—I didn't even own a car at the time—and drive across the country and start planting those seeds. This was my vision. And so, I cold emailed economic development departments, small town mayors, small business owners. I met the mayor of Cynthia in Kentucky, which is the home of The Walking Dead writers and a 3M Post-it note factory. And then I met a brewery in southern Illinois. Anyway, I'm bop bopping all along.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Wow. Road trip.

KIM BRYDEN: Yeah. The head of economic development for Bardstown, the bourbon capital of America. And so, I was talking to all these individuals about how COVID had impacted their towns, their economies, their small businesses, because I saw on the East Coast the amount of funding that was going to keep small businesses afloat. So, I was curious what if that was happening in other parts of the country. And everyone I spoke to, more or less, I'm paraphrasing, was "Big business has always existed in our backyards, you know, here in the heartland, and I, small business or small town, like, I will stay open and keep my identity like in defiance. Like, I'm going to keep on keeping on."

And I was so inspired by that innovation and ability to adapt to a very challenging moment. And so, just continuing on this uh road trip of mine, I landed in Northwest Arkansas, and I saw all the plans to get um Walmart Global Campus online and the like master economic development strategy of attracting people to the state, and moreover specifically to Northwest Arkansas. And I just had this hunch, I suppose. I said, "I see how this region and state is also planting seeds."

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yes.

KIM BRYDEN: "To really foster this new economic order and this new way of doing business and cultivating businesses in the region and across the state." And I kept on with my road trip, and immediately once I got home, I was sending materials about our programs, Cureate Courses and Cureate Connect, to specifically the Northwest Arkansas Council at that time.

(Laughter)

To be like, "Hey, I'm here. I'm ready. I see this as the next hub of Cureate." Uh I see this as the next region that I want to open the business in. And through a variety of connections, and this is one of the things I love so much about the community, which I can share more about in a moment, I was able to find a really beautiful partnership with a CDFI, a Community Development Financial Institution, Forge. They work across the state providing lo- microloans to underrepresented entrepreneurs. And part of their mission is to really build this pipeline of farm and food businesses to make sure that they are capitalized and ready to grow. And so, in partnership with them, we run Cureate Courses, and we've now graduated over 100 businesses across the state through our partnership together. And that has been over the past five years.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: It was just meant to be, Kim. I mean, what are the odds that that Forge was specifically working right, you know, within your lane? Amazing. And that is something that I have admired so much of you. You have been so involved in the community and I, honestly, don't even know that I had I ever saw you as someone from D.C. because you from the moment that I met you, it was like you are an Arkansan, because you just know everything about the state pretty much.

And that said, you are one of our members of our 75 Strong program, which is a program that is designed to build capacity around the state uh for entrepreneurship and small business development. And so we the program trains community developers, community leaders, economic developers around the state that have been selected, and the objective is for all these leaders to deploy economic development strategies for small businesses and entrepreneurs in their community. If you could please share with us your experience with 75 Strong and how that program is supporting you and the vision that you have with your business and how, you know, how does a how has that program impacted you?

KIM BRYDEN: Oh, wow. It has been a remarkable experience. I'll just start with that. One of the things that I really valued in what I was just sharing previously is I could see within Northwest Arkansas, specifically like I mentioned, these seeds that were being planted to foster an entrepreneurship ecosystem. And what I so value about 75 Strong is that of the 50 individuals that are have had the honor of being selected to be a part of the program, there's only three of us from Northwest Arkansas.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Mm-hmm.

KIM BRYDEN: And the rest are across the state.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Mm-hmm.

KIM BRYDEN: And I cannot emphasize enough how much I have valued hearing the perspectives, lived experiences, challenges, opportunities of all of my other cohort members and the way they view entrepreneurship in both urban and very rural settings. And I think that makes me a more well-rounded entrepreneurship development professional because I'm in a room with so many different lived experiences. And I could not express enough how much that's been very deeply impactful for me.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Well, that's wonderful to hear. And I know also, as you work with um businesses and farmers from all over the state and, of course, all over the country, it just it gives you a better point of reference too of, you know, the challenges that they face, that kind of thing. And speaking of challenges, what are some of the challenges that you face as a business owner in general?

KIM BRYDEN: Ooh. Okay. How to enumerate them?

(Laughter)

Well, I think what's really important about the juncture Cureate is at in our in our growth, and it's not dissimilar to uh some of the lessons that we were hearing from Giovanni, is that we aren't a a startup in what you would traditionally maybe consider a startup anymore. We don't have just an idea. We have very much an active proof of concept in the market working. Same with Giovanni's coffee business, he has been here what was it over 12 years, similarly to myself. Now we're figuring out the ways in which we need to systematize and scale, and that means you have to wear multiple hats of staff training, leadership, operational weeds, um and that code switching between multiple different hats you have to wear is both energizing and exhausting. And probably the same within an hour.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Right. And how many how many employees do you have? How many employees does Cureate have, Kim?

KIM BRYDEN: There's 12 of us, but that we're very from full-time to contractor.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Oh, wow.

KIM BRYDEN: So, different size of head count than a manufacturing business.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yes, but like you said, you have to wear so many different hats, and I can't imagine your day-to-day how challenging it must be, how different it must be. But on that note, tell us how Arkansas has been good to you. Um, why does Arkansas make sense for Cureate? And we are so honored and so proud that you chose Arkansas on your road trip adventure. And one of the most unusual and unique stories that I I love telling. And especially because you are a young female entrepreneur, and I think that is just so wonderful that you landed here. So, so tell us why Arkansas makes sense for Cureate.

KIM BRYDEN: Oh, well, I'll just give a very concrete example that I was at an event two nights ago, and I had the opportunity of speaking directly to a state legislative, a mayor of a city, a council member, an economic developer,

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Wow.

KIM BRYDEN: in one room. At the same time. And the ability to be one person removed from such important voices, mover and shakers, influencers, I have found the state really opens up opportunities to have those conversations. And as I mentioned at the sort of fire in my belly of why I started Cureate in the first place, is that I saw that talent is evenly distributed. There's a lot of amazing people creating, again, valuable goods and services, but access is not evenly distributed.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Mm-hmm.

KIM BRYDEN: And I have found in these conversations and being in this community that breaking down barriers to access, I thought was something that was a priority, and I've seen it being an active part of what the Arkansas community does. People always want to open that door for you, and that's been really remarkable.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Oh, that is so good to hear, Kim. And you are correct. And I think that happens at any corner in any corner of the state. You have that ability to have that level of connection with community leaders and leaders in general. So, Kim, for the listeners of the podcast, and say they are an institution that want to do a better job at sourcing their products from locally owned vendors, what is the process like? What is the best way for them to reach you or learn more about what you're doing? Um yeah. Sell them how you do the business.

KIM BRYDEN: Yes, of course. Well, we've actually made the process, ideally, as smooth as possible for both buyer and vendor. Um we have an intake form for both sides of the marketplace to validate whatever requirements that you need in order to do business with the other person in the marketplace. So if you're a vendor, there are certain requirements we need to talk about and just understand your ways of working in order to do business with buyers that we work with. And vice versa, buyers, we need to know your terms and your ways of working in order to make sure you're a good fit for working with local small businesses. I often joke with my team that our website should read, "Managing expectations since 2014."

(Laughter)

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yeah, because you really have basically, it's a matchmaking tool, right? What you have developed.

KIM BRYDEN: Yes.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Dare I say, Cureating the connection between big and small?

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Absolutely. No, so I think it's a great name. Um Kim, we're so proud of what you're doing. I would love to know what the future holds for Cureate. What is Kim's vision, and where do you see yourself down the road?

KIM BRYDEN: Well, the Mid-Atlantic, as I've mentioned, was our first region, and then Arkansas is the hub of this second region that is emerging. And one of the things that I find so powerful about Arkansas is—and this has been mentioned before—is it being this central location that growing north, south, east, west, there are so many metropolitan statistical areas that you can hit while still maintaining this sort of regional economy. And I think that's really cool for even a three-hour driving radius, what type of economic outcomes and impact you can have, as opposed to thinking, "Oh, I need to open up an entire new branch of operations in California," or whatever it might be. So, I have been looking at what is now our third region, um could it be the Carolinas? Could it be Indianapolis? Could it be Florida? I don't so (laughter) we're really exploring what is this third region. And then once we have this activity in three different regions that house multiple cities or MSAs within the region, we have access to a lot of proprietary data, to be honest, about what people want to buy, at what location, at what volumes. I think there's so many opportunity in us providing that market intelligence both to our entrepreneur community, but also people who want to invest in entrepreneurship at large in their region, like what sort of things are maybe gaps in their marketplace that they might want to put an RFP out for or design programs around.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Absolutely. Yeah, you have so much potential with all that data and just your ability to maneuver and to be so flexible and the vision that you have in general is just amazing, and I have no doubt that you'll have a lot of success moving forward. You already do. So, Kim, what a pleasure and what an honor to have you on our podcast. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being in Arkansas. Thank you for choosing this state down your road trip adventure. And we can't wait to stay in touch and just learn more about what you're doing. And so, for anybody that is interested, how can they um connect with you, what's your website, and um yeah.

KIM BRYDEN: Oh, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, you can find us at cureate.co, that's c-u-r-e-a-t-e.co, and the same goes for Instagram, we're @cureateco. And then you can always reach us at [email protected].

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Love it. So, there you have it. If if you are also a vendor that is interest that is in the food business and beverage business, you know, feel free to reach out to Kim that way. And thank you all for listening.

You've been listening to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast. I'm Esperanza Massana Crane, director of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development Division for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

You can subscribe to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. For more information about the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and to sign up for the AEDC monthly newsletter, visit arkansasedc.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and YouTube. As always, thanks for listening.