Designation Detr@it
—
Delivered
Healthy Food
Stacy Goldberg's latest venture,
Savorfull, is emerging from Detroit's
new business incubator.
Allan Nahajewski I Contributing Writer
n the third floor of
the newly refur-
bished M@dison
building in Down-
town Detroit, a variety of new
businesses are emerging —
finance, green energy, food
services, communications,
wedding planning. There are
no walls in this office setting
— just people with big ideas.
"It's fun working in a collab-
orative space," says Stacy Gold-
berg, a registered nurse and
nutritional consultant. "You can
bounce ideas off people and
get fresh input. It's a creative
environment."
This is the birthplace of
Goldberg's latest venture — Sa-
vorfull, a subscription service
providing people with special
dietary needs a sampler box of
nutrient-dense, allergen-free
food each month.
Savorfull already has 500
subscribers and is still in a
pre-launch phase. This is Gold-
berg's third company, and she says a
story in the _Jewish News played a part
in its development.
"Everyone had an idea for me," she
says. "People told me I should develop
an app or that I should be the next
Florine Mark, which is a great compli-
ment, but figuring out how to scale my
business in a way that made sense was
a challenge for me.
"I happened to be reading the Jewish
News and I saw a page about Bizdom,
a new business incubator. I knew I
wanted to be part of something big-
ger than myself, and I knew that the
revitalization of Detroit was happening
in a big way."
A creation of Quicken CEO Dan
Gilbert, Bizdom provides support and
resources to help entrepreneurs get
their businesses off the ground.
"I needed a team behind me," says
Goldberg. "I went to school to become
a health care practitioner. I was never
taught to be an entrepreneur. Bizdom
was a great opportunity, because it of-
fered funding and mentorship."
Goldberg has been a practicing
nutritional consultant since 1999. She
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tacy Goldberg in the MOdison Bnildin
grew up in Oak Park and West Bloom-
field, and went to West Bloomfield High
School before attending the University
of Michigan, where she has a master's
degree in public health and nutrition.
Even before graduating, she was of-
fered a position with a team of Detroit
Medical Center physicians who were
forming the Birmingham Menopause
Institute, where she worked as a nutri-
tion nurse/educator. She later was a
pharmaceutical sales representative,
then took some time off for her chil-
dren: daughter Sloan, now 9, and son
Spencer, 6.
In 2007, she decided she wanted to
go into private practice as a nutrition-
ist.
"A colleague of mine, Dr. Seth Faber,
a pediatrician at Orchard Pediatrics,
approached me because there was an
increasing prevalence of childhood
obesity in his practice," she says.
The next step in her career path was
to step out of a clinical setting and into
the real world.
"I wanted to take people into a
real-life environment, so I started do-
ing grocery store tours to show how
to read a label, what to look for in a
product, how to find the right cereal,
yogurt, pasta that was right for ome-
one's lifestyle," she says.
"There were so many disease states
and lifestyles we were addressing —
vegan, kosher, diabetic. I taught people
how to apply nutritional information to
real life, what to pack for lunch, what
to make for dinner. That's when my
second company, What's in Your Cart,
was born."
For three years, Goldberg offered her
program through the Healthy Choices
program at Plum Market.
"Simultaneously, I was growing my
business. I opened satellite offices in
Franklin Athletic Club in Southfield,
Liberty Athletic Club in Ann Arbor and
Equilibrium Pilates Studio in Bloomfield
Hills," she says.
Goldberg is a member of the alumni
association board for the University
of Michigan School of Public Health
and trained and mentored nutrition
students from the college through an
internship program. "We've grown our
business in that way," she said.
Last summer, she applied for Bizdom
Detroit and was
accepted into the Biz-
dom Idea Generator, a
development process
enabling promising
new entrepreneurs to
become a part of the
Quicken Loans family
of companies. She was
accepted in January.
"It's been great,"
she says. "I've had
access to execu-
tives at 40 different
companies to get
expert advice about
PR, marketing, sales,
my email campaign,
blog and Google
paid search training.
They've helped me
discover what I love to
do every day and how
to turn that into a suc-
cessful business.
"I'm a product
fanatic, so I search
the globe for products
that would benefit people with spe-
cific dietary needs. There are so many
people with specific dietary lifestyles.
This is a $26 billion market.
"We're working with small, local,
niche food producers — some from De-
troit you've never heard of," she says. "I
find some of them at farmers' markets.
I also deal with bigger brands that are
on the shelves at Whole Foods, Plum
Market or Meijer."
Each week, subscribers receive a
unique URL where they can learn more
about the products, including nutri-
tional recipes and food pairings.
"Many people assume that allergen-
free foods are tasteless. Actually, they
can be quite savory," she says. "They
don't have to taste like cardboard.
Nutrient-dense food can be very satis-
fying."
Goldberg is a member of Temple
Beth El in Bloomfield Township and is
active in the Jewish community.
For more about Savorfull, visit
www.savorfull.com . The site will be
enhanced June 1 to coincide with the
launch of the company. Goldberg also
writes a blog, which is available at
www.stacygoldberg.com .
SPONSORED SECTION BY: Quicken'Loans
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