In conversation with Mississauga entrepreneur, Sylvia Bennett, owner of Surch Foods.

 1. What does your company provide/do?

Surch Foods provides an avenue for food service buyers to quickly search the industry for the ingredient or product that they need. It starts a conversation between a buyer and a seller that would not otherwise happen. It gives suppliers the opportunity to showcase their products in a very visible and uniform way. It creates efficiency, effectiveness and relevancy for the buyers as well as the sellers of the B2B food industry. Surch Foods will soon be the B2B Food industry destination for finished goods, ingredients, packaging, machinery and sanitation chemicals. There is nothing right now for buyers and sellers and it is much needed.

2. What inspired you to start your company?

Back in 2018, I was looking for angel food cakes, working for a grocery retailer in product development. When I asked my sourcing manager where to look. They shrugged their shoulders and said there wasn’t anywhere. I was shocked. I had just bought my car on kijiji. We are trained to comparison shop across sites in every other aspect of our lives from houses to cars to clothing. Why wasn’t there something for the food industry? Now fast forward to 2023 and I'm watching my procurement team call 6 suppliers to find out what they had. Instead of simply logging on to Surch Foods quickly and running a search using their criteria. Now ironically, the finished products sold by retailers are sold online after the supplier follows the usual old routine of finding customers for their products.

3. What's been the most impactful lesson you've learned being an entrepreneur?

That this is not easy but it's rewarding, far more rewarding than any job working for someone else. This is our baby. No one else is going to care about it more than we are. Also, this is a gift to be given an idea. Many want an idea but nothing comes to them. Many will find a reason or excuse not to do it. Many good ideas never come to fruition because of fear. An idea we can’t get out of our heads is there for a reason, pursue it and see where it goes. Be the rare idea that succeeds.

4. How do you unwind?

Hiking, laughing with friends and eating new foods.

5. What succinct advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurs are some of the most passionate, driven, powerful, positive, welcoming and helpful people. Don’t be afraid, you can be too.

6. What are your goals for 2025?

To launch Surch Foods, to be financially stable, building the 2nd and 3rd phase and have several full time employees. To crack the code on SEO and get into the first 3 pages of google.

7. How did the Mississauga Starter Company Plus program help you start or expand your business?

They have been amazing. They are very intentional in their approach, bringing in many passionate experts to guide us from having no knowledge on how to start a business to starting a business in just a few months. They provided resources, guidance, classes, mentoring, videos, webinars, anything and everything that is needed they helped us with. If there was something they didn’t cover, they still went out of their way to find us contacts or provide a way. They have been amazing to us and I can’t say enough good about them and their program. I feel so lucky to have been accepted.