Hope and Main Founder Raiola Talks Growth Opportunities at 5 Year Mark on LIVE
Hope and Main Founder Raiola Talks Growth Opportunities at 5 Year Mark on LIVE
“I was intending to start my own food business — but this has been a pleasant surprise and a great journey for over 200 small food businesses in Rhode Island who have benefitted from the project,” said Raiola. “I think people who had food ideas that might have never thought of starting their own business, because we can make it very accessible and affordable, came to Hope and Main — I think it inspired a lot of new food businesses.”
Raiola featured some of the products that have come out of Hope and Main — including ones that have one awards on the national level.
“I feel like we’re always learning,” said Raiola. “One of the big trends I see is actually coming from the state with supply and wanting to buy locally whenever they can — state institutions, the universities, the hospitals — and I think that means instead of putting things into [smaller] containers, you would package them for institutional use, which is not a place where many of our businesses are now -- but could be.”
Raiola also spoke to partnering with Hudson News at T.F. Green Airport, to submit a bid to provide locally-made products from Hope and Main for the travel consumer.
“It makes perfect sense,” Raiola told GoLocal after the show. “You have people just waiting — and shopping — at the airport, and we can help supply the locally made goods for travelers to pick up.”