Entrepreneur Plans To Launch Insect-Food Startup After Grenoble MBA

BY: Seb Murray

Oliver John Rivera has left management consulting to become an entrepreneur. After studying an MBA at Grenoble, he plans to launch an insect-food start-up business.

This time last week, Oliver John Rivera was presenting to a panel of three ladies who would make or break his chances of getting onto IncubaGEM, the Incubator of Grenoble Ecole de Management.

He had to present his entrepreneurial idea to secure six month's of support to launch his start-up business.

You can imagine their surprise when he handed them a plate of "insect sushi" made from worms and grasshoppers.

"They had to wash their mouths afterwards," Oliver tells me. "It was a bit of a show and I made quite an impression. Sometimes a serious business presentation is not best way to go."

He must have done something right. Oliver, who graduated from the full-time MBA program last year, will join the 40 other start-ups supported by IncubaGEM when he launches his business later this year.

MBA entrepreneurs will know that finding a unique business idea is a challenge. In the start-up scene, competitive is fierce. But Oliver may be onto something new.

Two month's ago he found a United Nations report online that proposed using bugs as food to fight hunger in third-world countries. He was inspired and jumped at the opportunity - although more for business purposes than curing world hunger. 

I ask what any MBA would: surely it's difficult to get people to eat bugs?

"What grosses people out is what they see," he snaps back. "Once you have an insect in your mouth your other senses kick in: taste, texture, smell; all of that is strong enough in most cases to get the image away from your mind.

"I have been running tests on volunteers, or victims, studying how they react to seeing a grasshopper in their hands."

Has he tried them himself?

"Yes; I broke a bit of a mental barrier," says Oliver. "You can play with the interaction. It's more like I am selling 'courage-food' rather than insects."

When Oliver first thought of beginning an MBA from his home in Mexico, he couldn't have been further from this business plan. He didn't want to be an entrepreneur, let alone an insect-marketing specialist.

He wanted to become a management consultant - one of the most traditional MBA Jobs you can take. After studying a BA in Mexico and then a BSc in the United States, he wanted to experience the culture in Europe. 

Oliver specialized in the function at Grenoble during the two-year course. "After my BA I was absolutely gagging to become a consultant," he says. "I wanted to be the go-to person for when organizations had trouble, and the one that finds solutions.

"But during the MBA I had time for reflection and I discovered that entrepreneurship is much more my way of doing things."

Oliver got as far as applying to consulting firms from Grenoble's base in France - this venture was more of a "plan B". "For some time I've worked on this business plan and applied to consulting companies. 

"But I've had more positive feedback on launching this venture; more positive responses from people from incubators, angel investors and other entrepreneurs. At some point I decided plan B should become plan A."

He plans to package the insects in popular foods such as ravioli and sushi and sell them to big supermarket chains in France. 

But this is not Oliver's first venture into the food industry. After finishing his MBA program in 2012 he went to work for his family's business in the Puebla de Zaragoza Area region of Mexico.

He set up a new branch of the business producing European chocolates for the Mexican market - an idea that turned out to be a turnkey project. He says that the project helped him a "huge" and made him become more resourceful.

He later returned to France and, if all goes well, he plans to launch his new start-up in spring this year. 

His family may be entrepreneurs, but when Oliver grew up in Mexico, his path was not always so easy to plot. The country's economy may have avoided falling into recession this year, but growth is far from booming.

Economists predict the economy will grow 1.3 per cent in 2013, considerably slower than in 2010 to 2012 when growth was at almost 4 per cent. 

Oliver admits that if he had not moved abroad to study business, it might have been tough to cope. His aptitude tests suggest he should have gone into philosophy, physics or literature. But he had a different plan.

"In Mexico, where income disparities are large, you need to study something to make a living with or you will be a really poor man," he says. "There are no jobs in philosophy and physics is the same [in Mexico].

"That nudged me towards business. It was never really my calling from early on but I've learned to enjoy it and its changed my life.

"It's an empowering experience when you realize what you can achieve."

An MBA has been essential to him making that transition. B-school has taught Oliver to assess opportunities and discover his self-worth. Many MBAs become management consultants, but Grenoble opened his eyes to the possibilities of entrepreneurship. 

The incubator will provide him with a free office, access to consultants and legal help. Oliver says Grenoble has given him the network to develop new contacts for his start-up.

Just being around like-minded people is a boost. "No one wants to be the first one on the dance floor," he says. "If you see or hear other entrepreneurs on a daily basis, its easier to join in."

The IncubaGEM judging panel may have been squeamish, but Oliver is confident his venture will succeed. After a Grenoble MBA, he truly is an entrepreneur.

Look out for Oliver's insect range - coming to a French supermarket near you soon. He hopes. 

SOURCE: http://www.businessbecause.com