6 brands tap the hive mind for small business solutions at The Fix

Within the natural products industry, there exists a new breed of entrepreneurs—ones with daunting challenges, disruptive attitudes and a passion to grow, create and provide healthy, nutritious food.

Six of those entrepreneurs shared some of their roadblocks with attendees at New Hope Network's Esca Bona conference last week, like how to scale authentically, how to build and manage an authentic supply chain, and how to tell a compelling brand story. With the help of six seasoned natural products experts, they also opened themselves and their companies to feedback from those outside of their inner circles through a brainstorming process we like to call The Fix. Esca Bona participants broke into small groups to talk through ideas about one of the six entrepreneurs' challenges and presented their top two ideas to the larger group.

The lesson? Leveraging collective talent can help entrepreneurs find new solutions and ideas to help grow their businesses. Here's who participated:

Entrepreneur: Max Rivest, Wize Monkey; All-Star Advocate: Jim Slama, FamilyFarmed

Entrepreneur: August Vega, MALK Organics; All-Star Advocate: Bill Shen, Encore Consumer Capital

Entrepreneur: Jon Mills, Seal the Seasons; All-Star Advocate: Janica Lane, Piper Jaffray

Entrepreneur: George Milton, Yellowbird Foods; All-Star Advocate: Tom McDougall, 4P Foods

Entrepreneur: Morgan Woolf, Turtle Haus; All-Star Advocate: Genevieve Gilbreath, SKU

Entrepreneur: Serafina Palandech, Hip Chick Farms; All-Star Advocate: Emma Andrews, Pineapple Collective

Click through the slideshow to see collaboration in action.