Free tools
Free tools for food entrepreneurs
Practical tools I built for the questions founders ask me most, from whether you can sell from home to whether your shelf-life date will hold up. All free, no sign-up.
Starting out
Cottage Food Law Map
Can you sell it from home? Sales caps, online sales and refrigerated foods for all 50 states and DC.
Open the map →Food Product Idea Check
See your likely regulatory path, your top hurdles and the road to a prototype.
Check your idea →Pricing and Sales Cap Calculator
Find your cost per item, a price that covers your time and fees, and how much you can sell under your state's cap.
Run the numbers →Growing past your kitchen
Outgrowing Cottage Food
What changes when you move to a commercial kitchen: Licensing, registration, labels and scale-up.
Read the guide →Co-Packer Readiness Checklist
Check whether your formula, specs, paperwork and numbers are ready for a co-manufacturer.
Start the checklist →What Does a Food Scientist Cost?
Pick the help you need and get a ballpark budget and timeline.
Estimate your budget →Shelf-life testing
One study, three ways in: Check your own test, read the plain-language guide, or dig into the full research.
ASLT Extrapolation Check
Enter your test and storage temperatures and see how far your shelf-life prediction reaches, and how often predictions at that distance hold up.
Check your test →When Can You Trust Your Shelf-Life Test?
The plain-language whitepaper: What 113 studies show, five questions to ask, and how to design a better test.
Read the guide →How Well Does Arrhenius Extrapolation Predict Food Shelf Life?
The technical report: A hold-out test of 409 series from 113 studies, with methods, risk of bias and limitations.
Read the study →Learn the science
When you're ready for more than a tool
Get a plan for launching your food product
The Product Launch Roadmap is one 90-minute call and a written plan for your product: Your path to market, a realistic budget, the regulatory flags that apply to you and the landmines to avoid. $950, credited toward formulation if you move forward.