Entrepreneurs / Small Business  November 17, 2015

Learning incubator acquires spice manufacturer

BOULDER — A Boulder-based startup incubator that pairs young companies and young entrepreneurs with business-school students has acquired an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of food seasonings.

Boulderpreneurs, a division of Ignyte Lab LLC, purchased 5-year-old Spice It Up LLC, doing business as Outer Spice. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

According to Ryan Ferrero, founder and chief executive of Ignyte, the acquisition of a company that makes seasonings was a good fit for Boulderpreneurs’ crop of not-as-seasoned students at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, which get to work alongside experienced business people on real-life, real-time projects.

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“We tasted the flavors, and then we studied the company,” Ferrero said. “I tried the gluten-free spicy no-salt shaker on some grilled salmon. Really good!”

According to its website at outerspiceit.com, Outer Spice was founded in 2010 by Ben Stevens, who traveled to the Caribbean to seek a natural remedy for a severe case of food poisoning that Western medicine couldn’t cure. As he researched the healing powers of herbs and spices, he also studied their flavors and nutritional value. Back home in the States, he started making seasoning blends as gifts for friends and family, then started selling them out of the back of his truck at farmers’ markets. Thus was born Outer Spice, which markets low-salt and no-salt original and spicy seasonings.

Stevens will remain as a consultant, and manufacturing will be in Austin, Ferrero said, while operations of the company will shift to Boulderpreneurs at the  home of Ignyte in Learning incubator acquires spice manufacturer, which shares space at advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

Spreading the word about Outer Spice products will get into full swing this week, Ferrero said, because “we wanted to get this done in advance of the holidays. It’ll be through social media at first, but then by next year, we want to expand into the natural- and organic-foods community and with retail partners.”

U.S. consumption of spices has grown three times as fast as the population of the country, Ferrero said. McCormick, the leader in the category, produces more than 1 billion bottles of spices each year.

BOULDER — A Boulder-based startup incubator that pairs young companies and young entrepreneurs with business-school students has acquired an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of food seasonings.

Boulderpreneurs, a division of Ignyte Lab LLC, purchased 5-year-old Spice It Up LLC, doing business as Outer Spice. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

According to Ryan Ferrero, founder and chief executive of Ignyte, the acquisition of a company that makes seasonings was a good fit for Boulderpreneurs’ crop of not-as-seasoned students at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, which get to work alongside experienced business people on real-life, real-time projects.

“We tasted…

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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