Naturally Chicago’s Associate Board is a Boon to Brands

Members of Naturally Chicago’s Associate Board at its January 2024 meeting at which they provided business advice to the principals at Windy City Mushroom, a Chicago producer and participant in Naturally Chicago’s Locally Made program. Associate Board Co-Chair Adam Falkof is at the far left. Photo by Jim Slama.

Like the Associate Boards at many non-profit organizations, Naturally Chicago’s Associate Board is made up of young professionals from a wide range of disciplines. But as Co-Chair Adam Falkof explained, the Naturally Chicago board’s role in mentoring early-stage natural product businesses is its defining difference.

“Most Associate Boards only handle fundraising,” Adam said. “This Board is much more than that. This board specifically exists to provide advice and perspective and experience to companies that are affiliated with Naturally Chicago’s Locally Made program.” 

It was something of a family reunion when the Associate Board joined Naturally Chicago late last year.

Adam had previously chaired the Associate Board at the nonprofit then known as FamilyFarmed when Jim Slama — now Managing Director at Naturally Chicago — was CEO there. Adam reached out last summer to see if Naturally Chicago could utilize an Associate Board to assist Locally Made brands, and Jim enthusiastically agreed. 

The Board’s members represent a variety of backgrounds. Adam is a partner at the law firm of Quarles & Brady. Co-Chair Sarah McCarron is a Vice President at JP Morgan Chase. Others include leading service providers for food and beverage startups, venture capital and debt firms, food and beverage producers, retailers and grocers, and food and beverage startup leaders, among others. 

According to Adam, the Board breaks down into three broad groups: venture capital/technology/corporate marketing; food production; and commercial food buyers. “It works really well, because those are very different perspectives for almost any question that comes up,” he said.

[To get the full picture of the Associate Board membership, click the button below to visit the Board page on the Naturally Chicago website; click on members’ photos to visit their LinkedIn profiles.] 

 For each of its monthly meetings (which began in January), the Associate Board invites one Locally Made business in to share their issues, ask questions and solicit advice. “The board meetings are about finding the existential question facing the company, and then we try to find ways to solve that,” Adam said. 

So far this year, the Board has worked with Windy City Mushroom, a Chicago-based company that markets fresh artisan varieties of mushrooms and frozen mushroom recipes in a variety of international flavors; and heywell, based in the Chicago suburb of Hinsdale, which produces sparkling adaptogenic beverages.  

We reached out to founders in both companies and, as you will see in their comments below, they were very pleased with the experience. 

Adam shared an example of how the range of expertise in the room is so beneficial to the participating entrepreneurs. “One person knew of a special kind of SBA loan that was a perfect fit for the company, and the company wasn't aware of it. And so that was a huge win,” Adam related. “And there was a banker in the room who said, ‘Yeah, we do these loans, we should talk.’” 

Adam continued, “Another big conversation we had, and this is a super common one, is, ‘You have 10 roads that are available to you. What are you going to spend your next dollar on?’...  It's really trying to figure out, where is your next dollar spent? Where is your best margin? Where are your best revenue opportunities?” 

Principals of Windy City Mushroom (at far end of table) at the January 2024 Naturally Chicago Associate Board meeting. Guy Furman, the company’s founder and CEO, is on the right (wearing a jacket). Photo by Jim Slama.

Windy City Mushroom 

The Good Food qualities of mushrooms — healthy, delicious and versatile — have made them a rising consumer category.

Windy City Mushroom, founded by food entrepreneur Guy Furman on Chicago’s Southwest Side in 2020, leans heavily on consumers’ concerns about health and wellness, which have grown enormously since the rise of the COVID pandemic. The company’s collateral cites the nutrition, digestion, protein, antioxidant, performance and sustainability qualities of its certified organic mushrooms. 

The company describes its philosophy as Fungitarian, “a lifestyle centered around our mission to unite people through the joy of eating healthy, sustainable, and irresistably delicious mushrooms.” 

Guy represented Windy City Mushroom in his meeting with Naturally Chicago’s Associate Board. He said his expectations were vague going in, but they “were easily exceeded.” 

He continued: “Everyone was from a broad variety of fields that were relevant to our business and highly accomplished in those fields.  We did significantly more Q&A than we did a formal presentation and it was extremely valuable getting the feedback and hearing the different thought processes from differing backgrounds.” 

The varieties of Board member backgrounds made for a fast-moving conversation.

“One minute we'd have a few people talking about marketing and product development, and then somebody would bring up how that connects to fundraising and potential investment,” Guy said. “We touched on everything going on in the company, as everyone asked questions to learn about what we were doing and then contributed to ways we could look to improve those activities.” 

He concluded, “It was nice to hear generally positive feedback on most things we'd been doing, at least at this stage in our company. We left with plans and ideas for continued improvement in those areas, and a whole new game plan for the areas we needed the most help. All in all, extremely useful takeaways.” 

 heywell 

Ashley Selman, who represented heywell at the February Associate Board meeting, co-founded the company with Britt Dougherty in 2019. Here’s how the company positions its products: 

“We all lead busy lives, and when we’re stretched thin, we need wellness the most. High fives for the days you have time for your wellness routines and rituals. We’re here for the days you want a little extra help. Made with adaptogens, antioxidants and organic caffeine, our delicious sparkling waters help you meet the demands of modern life. Low in calories and sugar, they are a refreshing balance of tart and sweet.” 

Ashley’s enthusiastic reflections on how the Board meeting went are in step with those of Guy Furman of Windy City Mushroom.  

“heywell was looking forward to leveraging the Board's varying backgrounds for a fresh perspective on some of the opportunities heywell is considering as a part of our strategic planning for 2024 and 2025,” she said. “Our expectations were exceeded in that the team gave thoughtful consideration to our questions and shared lots of opinions, both reinforcing and challenging our thinking regarding some key next steps for our brand.” 

Again, the Board’s expansive expertise helped heywell in seeing the big picture. “From finance to brand management, the Associate Board is well-rounded and came at our questions from different perspectives, which helped create a 360-degree point of view on heywell's opportunities,” she said. 

And though the meeting was very recent, the heywell team came away with some immediately actionable advice. “We have been able to impact some packaging suggestions already,” Ashley said.