What They Do
Brisky is developing a line of functional snacks made from dehydrated fruits and vegetable blends, using new and innovative drying technology that preserves 97% of nutrients, flavor and color. The startup is committed to sourcing high-quality produce from sustainable agriculture from local farmers struggling to market their excess production.
One of the things that sets Brisky apart is its focus on fun and uniqueness. The founders believe that eating healthy should be enjoyable and not a chore, and they strive to create snack options that are both tasty and unexpected whether you are a busy professional, a parent on the go, or just someone who values their health.
Startup Experience
Brisky co-founder, Sirene Radwan, states:
“Two years prior to the creation of Brisky, I became aware of Berytech through my position at Robinson Agri, and since that day I admired this organization and the support it offers to emerging entrepreneurs. Once Brisky was born, we were on the lookout for the best accelerator programs in the country, and it was well-known that Berytech’s programs were at the top of this list.
After graduating from the Startup Seeds accelerator powered by Tripoli Entrepreneurs Club, we knew we were ready for our next milestone, which was to apply to the Agrytech Accelerator Program. Despite not being accepted, we did not give up, we evolved our business model and applied again to the special edition version of Agrytech and indeed it was really special.
We insisted on re-applying to this program because we knew how valuable this experience would be for Brisky’s growth to be surrounded and supported by a top-notch team, mentors and peers.
Through this program, we hoped to gain access to funding, validate our concept, and reach an initial MVP that could be tested by early adopters.
We’re proud to say, the support that the program provided paired with hard work and constant iteration, we were able to accomplish the following:
- Successfully implement dehydration trials of various food samples (soups, stews, cereals, beans, fruits and vegetables) that have never been done before using this new dehydration technology.
- Understand the market dynamics of the F&B sector: What drives it, who are the key players and what are the emerging trends.
- Mapping direct and indirect competitors, learning from their business model, marketing strategies, failures and success stories.
- Acquiring precise knowledge on how to validate any idea or assumption to mitigate risks.
- Purchasing all needed appliances and tools for our first production line.
- Establishing strong connections with key players in the industry and potential investors.
- Building a business collaboration with Kenza Kitchen for recipe development.
I would say that the key success factor behind Brisky is its team and the values we’ve built. Persistency, flexibility and passion are words that we not only take to heart, but also to work.
What we consider to be the highlight of this journey was our ability to make a major pivot and shift our business model to a more feasible and valid one. The reason we consider this to be an achievement is because it took great courage and strength on our part to realign and come up with a creative solution. We learned to trust the process of learning, growing and making mistakes before launching our products.
Some of the challenges we faced were: Product validation considering the complexity of our product, finding a space with consistent access to electricity, high production cost, and finally the ability to implement a sound market analysis due to limited industry data in the Lebanon.
Fortunately, we were able to overcome the complexity of product validation by simplifying our solution. We used our newly built connections to find a production location with access to electricity. We collected the missing data from potential consumers using multiple surveys. And when it came to production costs, changing our solution helped us lower production cost and increase our capacity.
Our long-term goals moving forward is growing personally and professionally by staying true to our values and principles, revolutionizing the healthy food industry by making the concept of health younger and livelier, reserving the value of our culinary heritage and national fresh produce,
Creating different lines of Brisky’s products, growing our team, and exporting to external markets. We hope to achieve all of this while maintaining our commitment to sustainability in all aspects of our business.”
To get in contact with Brisky, click here.
About Agrytech
Berytech designed and developed the Agrytech program to make sure Lebanon has the most competitive companies that are sourcing, solving, growing, and transforming food, as well as feeding the world from Lebanon. The Agrytech Accelerator Program is under the ACT Smart Innovation Hub, a new out-of-the-box approach by Berytech, co-funded by the Kingdom of The Netherlands, which aims at strengthening business advancement and job creation in the Agri-food and Cleantech sectors in Lebanon. Berytech supports innovations across these sectors by offering startups the resources, knowledge, support, and funding worth around $35K, necessary to scale their ideas and grow them to penetrate international markets.
