What is Yum Village?
Yum Village is a platform for restaurateurs and chefs to connect and collaborate to provide engaging pop-up dining experiences. Last year I started a vegan, gluten-free pop-up restaurant and going through that process I realized there were ton of barriers that prevent food entrepreneurs from entering the market. My business partner and I came up with an idea to streamline the entire process so that all the entrepreneur has to focus on is the food. The whole idea is to promote a community around up and coming foodpreneurs by allowing chefs and restaurateurs to have direct feedback and grow their business. Delicious takes a village!
What was your experience in Build Institute?
Build helped me fine-tune my idea and focus on my business foundation. The biggest highlight was making sure my idea had a beginning, middle, and end and that every aspect of what I wanted to accomplish had a focus. I also fleshed out the social aspect of my business more – my business model helps create a system for entrepreneurs to contribute to the local food economy by connecting restaurateurs, chefs, and foodies on one platform.
What are your most recent developments?
I’ve been focusing on our offline operations. We are coordinating weekly pop-ups at Techtown’s coworking space Junction 440, and I’m hoping to be selected for the Downtown Eats program at Campus Martius downtown. We’ll also have pop-ups at the African World Festival taking place August 15th – 17th. We’re excited to launch a food competition in July to help connect local catering chefs to office managers. All food entrepreneurs can apply to participate before May 31st and can contact me directly at yumvillage@gmail.com to apply.
What’s in the future for Yum Village?
I see Yum Village as a tool that will allow anyone who aspires to be a food entrepreneur to start and finish their business online through our interactive community portal. The longstanding barriers of entry to the restaurant industry have remained the same for too long. We hope to break down those barriers with a bit of innovation and at the end of the day see ourselves as a partner in enterprise with all Foodprenuers in any capacity.