Boomtown Accelerator, Whole Foods form alliance
BOULDER — The Boomtown Accelerator announced this week that it has struck a deal with Whole Foods Market that could lead to collaboration between startups going through the accelerator and innovative employees within the natural-foods grocer.
At its start, the new relationship hinges primarily on Whole Foods providing sponsorship of Boomtown whereby the accelerator will be able to stock its kitchen with food from the store, with the idea of fueling Boomtown startup founders with healthy food options to get them through their entrepreneurial grind.
But Boomtown executive director Toby Krout said Friday that the relationship could end up going much deeper. While nothing has been formalized around the notion yet, one aspect that could sprout from the deal is that Whole Foods stores could serve as a testing ground for different innovations being developed by entrepreneurs as they go through the 12-week Boomtown program.
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“That’s definitely in line with the spirit of this partnership,” Krout said.
He added that it could be a two-way street, with employees of Whole Foods who have ideas about how to improve various functions or processes at the store potentially being able to push those through the accelerator.
One major common focus between Whole Foods and Boomtown, Krout said, would be to develop scalable technologies that remedy pain points in the area of health and wellness.
“It’s hard to speak specifically about what those things are yet,” Krout said.
