This Spring 2025 our bootcamp will be focused on entrepreneurs looking to start a food service or restaurant business. Start a food truck open a full service restaurant, or side gig a new catering business. This is the two-day intensive for F&B entrepreneurs.
This workshop series was designed to get you up and running and ready to go into F&B entrepreneurship with your eyes open. Learn about food safety, permitting, legal requirements and more. Cost out your first recipes, learn about how food delivery systems work, build a restaurant or food budget, learn about how to evaluate a commercial lease and meet other like-minded foodie entrepreneurs.
As part of this boot camp, I&E will cover the cost for you to get your California Food Handler's card, and to get ServSafe certified - both are necessary first steps to owning and operating any food business.
Come join us and other foodie entrepreneurs for a weekend of networking and development!
Day 1 - Friday March 14, 2025
Restaurant Entrepreneurship BootCamp Schedule (Tentative)
Please note that the order of sessions will be updated and change.
| Time | Session | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. | Welcome Breakfast & Networking | Continental breakfast, coffee, teas |
| 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. | Market Segmentation & Customer Values | Knowing what you're selling goes hand-in-hand with who you are selling to. This session will help you determine who you are selling to, how to reach them, and how to position your product to them. |
| 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. | Break & Networking | |
| 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | The Legalities of Food Retail and Service | The legalities of the food business are arguably more intricate than those of many other businesses. |
| 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. | Lunch (Vista Room - Burk Hall 401) | Self-serve lunch provided in the SFSU Vista Room on the 4th floor of Burk Hall. |
| 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | Food & Beverage and Restaurant Entrepreneur Conversations | Meet fellow SFSU alumni food entrepreneur who started a food service business after graduation. Learn about what he did right or wrong to get to where he is today. Q&A and networking to follow! |
| 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. | Break | |
| 2:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. | Human Resources - Hiring, Labor Practices | People are at the core of every food and service business. So how do you recruit, hire, train, and motivate employees in the food service business? How do you build a robust system so that your employees perform, and where you minimize risk? |
| 4:15 p.m - 5:00 p.m. | Wrap-up, networking |
Day 2 - Saturday March 15, 2025
Restaurant Entrepreneurship BootCamp Schedule (Tentative)
Please note that the order of sessions will be updated and change.
| Time | Session | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. | Welcome Breakfast & Networking | Continental breakfast, coffee, teas |
| 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. | Food & Beverage Spaces, Leases and Facilities | Where are you going to serve your food? Where are you going to make it? Truck? Store? Farmers Market table? How much space do I need, and how much should it cost? What should you look out for when choosing a location, and how do you evaluate a lease? |
| 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. | Break & Networking | |
| 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | Recipe Costing & Pricing | There's no way around it. Food is a business, and you have to know your food costs. This session will teach you how to estimate your recipe and food costs, and then move into how food products are priced for the consumer market. |
| 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. | Lunch (Vista Room - Burk Hall 401) | Hot, self-serve lunch provided in the SFSU Vista Room on the 4th floor of Burk Hall. |
| 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | Food & Beverage and Restaurant Entrepreneur Conversations | Meet fellow SFSU alumni food entrepreneur who started a food service business after graduation. Learn about what she did right or wrong to get to where she is today. Q&A and networking to follow! |
| 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. | Break | |
| 2:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. | Food Safety | All food and beverage must be made, handled and transported in a manner that is safe to consume. This session gets you ready to for the ServSafe food safety and California Food Handlers certifications. |
| 4:15 p.m - 5:00 p.m. | Wrap-up, networking |
Day 1 - March 14, 2025 (Tentative)
- Market Segmentation & Customer Values (Sybil Yang)
- The Legalities of Food Retail and Service (Mark Ciotola)
- Food & Beverage and Restaurant Entrepreneur Conversations
- Recipe & Menu Development
Day 2 - March 15, 2025 (Tentative)
- Food & Beverage Spaces, Leases and Facilities
- Human Resources - Hiring, Labor Practices
- Recipe Costing & Pricing
- Food Safety & ServSafe Certification
Next Step Resources:
- Take your ServSafe California Food Handlers exams! Save your receipt, and we will reimburse you (instructions below).
- Apply for a free mailbox in the HUB (HUM125) for your SFSU start-up
- If your startup is ready to take the next step, apply for the IncuGator
- If you need help with business, legal or technical consulting, visit us during open consulting hours!
- Are your ready to pitch your business idea? Think about pitching at the SFSU Innovation Pitch Competition!
- Feel like you need to learn more about entrepreneurship? There's a minor program for that: Entrepreneurship Minor.
Reimbursement Forms:
If you signed up for a ServSafe California (and/or San Diego County) Food Handlers' Certification course and exam within three months of attending the micro-entrepreneurship workshop, we will reimburse you for the cost of your certification. Email: incugator@sfsu.edu.