Two Northwestern University female founders just received a round of major venture capital funding to take their ‘Food Network‘ for millenials content platform to the next level.
In 2012, founders Mackenzie Barth and Sarah Adler, then college coeds, launched the website called Spoon University and filled with crowd-sourced content about food created by and that targeted the college to young adult population of foodies.
Recently, SoftTech VC provided initial funding and was later joined by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Box Group, VaynerRSE, BBG Ventures, MATH fund, Joanne Wilson, Howard Morgan, Project Mayhem Ventures, Kosinski Ventures and RuggedVC.
“We’re building it from within the community,” Barth, who is the company’s Chief Executive told TechCrunch. “We have 3,000 college students around the country who are building up content. They all volunteer. What motivates them is this whole food movement.”
The duo, who also just graduated from Techstars program in New York this past April, do not let just anyone contribute content. Authors and creators must apply, be vetted and go through a writing and training program built on a proprietary system.
“The magic behind Spoon University and the engine with which we run our business is ‘Secret Sauce’”, said Adler, the company’s Chief Technology Officer in a statement. “Our proprietary on boarding, training, and analytics system has enabled us to expand from one chapter at Northwestern in 2013 to over 100 university chapters in the US, Canada, and India.”
The site now averages 1.5mm monthly unique visitors and Barth and Adler hope to offer packages to court brands who may be interested in using Spoon University’s on campus presence for purposes of marketing to the millennial demographic.
The founders plan to use the funding to expand their conrtibutor network and create more video content.
