Operations
23 May 2022
Surefront puts product data and collaboration tools in one place
The platform helps brands, retailers and manufacturers take an item from ideation to store.

A screenshot of Surefront's product. (Courtesy photo)
The platform helps brands, retailers and manufacturers take an item from ideation to store.
A screenshot of Surefront's product. (Courtesy photo)
To Michael Forrest, retail is all about the interactions between people.
“The cornerstone of successful retail is relationships and how well you can foster those relationships, both between a retailer and consumer and a retailer and supplier,” Forrest said. “Ultimately, how you deliver products to your consumer, whether that’s online or in-store, is a representation of who you are.”
That insight has plenty of learning behind it. Forrest is a self-described “student of retail” has 30 years of experience in the industry. Along the way, he played a key role on the team that launched the Apple Store, served as global head of customer experience at Microsoft and led retail operations at Samsung, among other roles.
Now, Forrest is the CEO of Surefront. The company makes software that’s designed to streamline the process that brings those products to market. The Surefront team saw a retail space where lots of information needs to come together to develop, list and ultimately sell a new product. This disparate information, in turn, is often recorded and shared using disparate tools like email and spreadsheets, with lots of data entry involved. There are tools to share information internally, and others to share it with outside partners.
Surefront’s system, in turn, sits between brands, retailers, suppliers and manufacturing partners.
“They have one shared, collaborative space to go from new product ideation all the way through to an ecommerce listing or B2B sale for brick and mortar,” said Doug Heckmann, Surefront’s chief solutions officer.
Surefront's team. (Courtesy photo)
This involves bringing together familiar tools for product lifecycle management, product information management and merchandising into one platform. A soon-to-launch feature will add product data syndication.
With the information that is presented, stakeholders can collaborate on ideas, view updates with visual workflows, manage price quotes and export listings to ecommerce platforms. These capabilities exist alongside tools that enable communication between the different stakeholders. So the product’s data and imagery lives in the same space as the chat that takes place around its development. Plus, it's in a space where it can be revisited at a later date.
“We contextualize all of the communication to the product and to the quotations,” Heckmann said. This means "it’s always easy to have a shared history that you can quickly reference and leverage for insight for growth.”
The collaboration and communication helps speed up the time to market for a product, Forrest said. When companies with a large number of SKUs are working to meet demand or get products out in time for a new season, that’s valuable.
At the end of the day, brands, retailers and manufacturers are all working to get the right product to customers at the right time, and at the right price.
Surefront wants to help make it easier for these groups to work together to reach that goal, and in turn delight both customers and partners. That sounds like the basis for stronger relationships.
Meet the latest cohort of SnackFutures' CoLab.
Mondelēz CoLab. (Courtesy photo)
Mondelēz International is taking the wrapper off its latest cohort of startups.
SnackFutures, which is the Ritz and Oreo maker’s innovation and venture hub, announced nine companies that will take part in the latest edition of CoLab. It’s the third cohort of the startup engagement program, which launched in 2021 to help build out a portfolio of up-and-coming brands, as well as increase the venture pipeline.
This year’s cohort focused on innovation in taste. Mondelēz put out a call for startups that “are doing disruptive things to make snacks delicious.”
Participants in the cohort take part in a 12-week curriculum, and get access to Mondelēz International’s experts, global network and a $20,000 grant.
“SnackFutures’ focus is to curate a portfolio of disruptive brands that can give Mondelēz International first-mover advantage on snack innovation, get us even closer to the consumer, and accelerate our financial, reputational, and cultural growth,” said Jackie Haney, head of CoLab. “CoLab is pivotal to that because it allows us to work with, learn from and nurture early-stage brands that have the potential to scale.”
Here’s a look at the full cohort, with descriptions provided by a press release from Mondelēz.
CocoTerra is an entrepreneurial personal chocolate maker. The CocoTerra machine enables chocolate lovers to simply and easily create their own dark, milk and white chocolate right in their own kitchens.
DreamPops was created by ice cream & confection lovers who dreamed of enjoying iconic flavors in simple, non-dairy treats but couldn’t find any that satisfied their standards or sweet tooths. Their aim is for everyone to be able to enjoy plant-based, clean label frozen pops, bites and shelf stable candy crunch.
Freezcake delivers small bites of fresh and creamy cheesecake that can be enjoyed with a cup of coffee or in the car. Crafted by a skilled pastry chef, every batch is prepared from scratch and ultra-dried at the height of its freshness.
Incredible Eats allows consumers to treat themselves just a little longer with edible spoons and straws, which provide an alternative to single-use plastic utensils. They come in sweet and savory options, function for about an hour in cold foods and replace the use of single use plastics and dirty silverware.
Legally Addictivegives consumers a sweet and salty experience all-in-one bite with its cracker-based cookies. The cracker base is topped with chocolate, handmade salted toffee and comes in a variety of flavors.
Mezcla delivers a delightful combination of PUFF-CRISPY texture and plant protein in a crunchy snack bar experience. Each bar contains plant protein in unique flavor profiles.
New Gem aims to make wrapping a serving of fruit/vegetable into your daily routine as easy as making a sandwich wrap or sushi. These plant-based wraps use innovative technology that makes them alternatives to bread, tortillas and seaweed.
Steiner’s Coffee Cake of New York prides itself on bringing fresh ideas to coffee cake – using ingredients that make it so delicious and yet gluten free. Created by a New York grandmother who was diagnosed celiac, Steiner’s still uses its original family recipe.
Whoa Dough is a shelf-stable cookie dough bar created for health-conscious consumers. This ‘on-the-go’ version of the iconic kid bowl-licking experience is plant-based, gluten free and vegan.The new cohort arrived just a few days after Mondelēz cut the ribbon on a new R&D facility n Whippany, New Jersey. The $50 million Global Research & Development (R&D) Innovation Center has pilot and scale-up capabilities for cookies, crackers and candy.
“This strategic investment in our new Global Innovation Center will enable us to pilot exciting new snacking breakthroughs and bring about the next generation of innovation for Mondelēz snacks around the world,” said Daniel Ramos, EVP and Chief Research & Development Officer at Mondelēz International, in a statement. “We’re proud to bring together industry-leading talent and capabilities in this facility to create new products, packaging and process developments across our portfolio of beloved snacks.”