Successful entrepreneurs exploit entrepreneurial opportunities to establish their enterprises. The food industry is a setting in which many such opportunities exist. To shed light on those specific entrepreneurial opportunities, we combine a five-step model of the food value chain ranging from agriculture to consumption with classic economic sources of entrepreneurial opportunities, that is, changes in supply, changes in demand, exogenous shocks, or informational asymmetries prevalent in the market. We proxy for entrepreneurial opportunities by shedding light on where start-up investors assign their capital in the food value chain. Data drawn from the Dow Jones VentureSource database is recoded to illustrate this investment behavior. Consequently, we are able to (a) illustrate where in the food value chain in particular investors perceive the most upside potential and (b) construct a map of the entrepreneurial opportunity space in the food industry. The results are informative, particularly for aspiring food entrepreneurs searching for entrepreneurial opportunities and aiming to raise funding for their entrepreneurial endeavors.

成功的企业家利用创业机会建立自己的企业。食品工业是存在许多此类机会的环境。为了阐明这些特定的创业机会，我们结合了从农业到消费的食品价值链的五步模型，结合了经典的创业机会的经济来源，即供应变化，需求变化，外来冲击或信息性变化。市场上普遍存在不对称现象。我们通过阐明初创投资者在食品价值链中的资本分配位置来代表企业家的机会。从道琼斯VentureSource数据库中提取的数据经过重新编码以说明这种投资行为。所以，我们能够（a）说明在食品价值链中的哪些地方，尤其是投资者认为最大的上升潜力，以及（b）绘制食品行业创业机会空间的地图。结果是有益的，特别是对于有抱负的食品企业家来说，他们寻找创业机会并旨在为其创业努力筹集资金。