But Chipotle, the multinational bowl-or-burrito behemoth with a , is taking a more down-to-earth approach.

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Its accelerator for food startups, , has a cohort of focused on sustainable food and development. The 7-month program is run by the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation and Uncharted, a third-party non-profit foundation.

Startups will get some of the works: a bootcamp, mentor sessions, headshots, a group message, free burritos for a year and Chipotle catering on demand. But they鈥檙e not expecting any cash.

Since the foundation is running the accelerator, it limits it from investing directly in the companies, said .

鈥淏y making this a foundation effort, we鈥檙e making it clear that we鈥檙e focusing on the greater good,鈥� Leibert told me. How that jives with the traditional definitions of an accelerator is debatable.

That said, startups in the cohort just finished up a 5-day boot camp hosted at Newport Beach last week, with Chipotle executives and mentors such as Kimbal Musk (brother of that Musk) and Richard Blais.

We caught up with a few of them below.

Tinder For Cows, Ostrich Burgers, And More

Alexander McCoy, founder of , said on the first day of the bootcamp he directly approached Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol, and spoke to him about ostrich. Ostrich is the future of livestock, McCoy believes, claiming it has the same taste as red meat, but is better for the environment.Chipotle鈥檚 First 鈥楢ccelerator鈥� Is Serving Credibility Over Cash

McCoy said he鈥檚 focused on credibility, over cash, right now.

鈥淎t the end of the day, if Chipotle says ostrich is a good idea, maybe you should too,鈥� he told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News. He鈥檚 also participating in another accelerator at the same time, , that will help him focus on perfecting his product offerings.

We also caught up with , founded by chemist . The company wants to support animal health, and help farmers breed animals with favorable characteristics, for better meat or dairy. It鈥檚 been lovingly called 鈥淭inder for Cows鈥� by customers.

Guloy explained that the agtech space moves at a different pace than other startup industries, so when he saw that Chipotle was taking zero percent equity, it was a 鈥渘o-brainer.鈥�

鈥淥ur customers are typically slow adopters, we have really long enterprise sales cycles, there are regulatory challenges,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t takes a bit longer to find that product market fit.鈥� When organizations want to help with no equity, there鈥檚 no risk, he said.

Another interesting startup in the batch is , which helps recycle food waste into affordable animal food. They have over 200 customers, including Facebook in Austin, said founder .

The lack of the classic elements of an accelerator was part of the appeal, especially when it comes to startups that aren鈥檛 looking to scale fast – but instead, sustainably, Olivier said. Chipotle gave startups a 鈥渓ook into their excel sheet鈥� on how it managed this. When investing is taken out of the criteria for a group of people to meet together, special things happen, he said.

鈥淚n a normal VC accelerator, you鈥檇 be talking about unicorn status, scaling, and growth – here there is no unicorn crystal ball,鈥� he told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News.

Slow but steady

We understand the agtech industry moves at a different pace for a variety of reasons, and is not necessarily tied to fast funding. Still, some accelerators are finding ways to invest in these companies early on.

, for example, is a 3-month program that provides seed funding for all entrepreneurs in its cohort, and a demo day, . Recently, Cornell鈥檚 AgriTech community launched the Center of Excellence For Food and Agriculture to help promote entrepreneurship. the executive director of this center appointed earlier this month, said it plans to work with venture capitalists as part of its plans.

Bottomline: 鈥淵ou cannot take the Silicon Valley ethos of 鈥榙o things fast, fail fast, and break things鈥� and apply it to food and agriculture,鈥� Rex鈥檚 Guloy said.

The Chipotle accelerator was just renewed for a second class, and it will begin looking for applicants for its new batch shortly. It plans to keep this endeavor a foundation project to propel the idea that it鈥檚 for the greater good, avoiding some of the criticism corporations get on being self-serving when investing in startups.

As for why Chipotle鈥檚 corporate side didn鈥檛 eye this as an investment opportunity? For now, that鈥檚 not on the menu.

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