Earlier this fall, six dairy product innovators were selected to join the 2026 Dairy Runway cohort. Through this program, food entrepreneurs participate in a free Cornell-hosted course focused on customer discovery and using the business model canvas as a strategic framework for testing assumptions. Funded by the USDA’s Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NEDBIC), the current cohort comprises entrepreneurs from across the 11-state region, developing a range of value-added dairy products that use cow, goat, or sheep milk.
The virtual course runs October through December, and teams that participate fully in the fall portion of the program advance into the Kitchen Incubator phase, which consists of prototyping training in Cornell’s Food Processing and Development Laboratory or the Seneca Foods Foundation Pilot Plant with support from the university’s product development experts. During this phase, which runs January through May 2027, participating teams are paired with a business coach who guides their mentee in the development of a customizable pitch deck presented at a virtual pitch session at the conclusion of the program in May.
These legend-dairy teams are developing value-added dairy products with a vision to scale their businesses and strengthen the region’s dairy ecosystem.
Mountain Dairy Creamery’s Shep Stearns is “looking forward to building new relationships with other entrepreneurs from the Northeast dairy industry and getting the opportunity to challenge, refine, and reformulate our ideas for new products with the help of seasoned experts from Cornell.”
Since 1871, his family’s dairy farm has been producing fresh milk and cream products for his community in Storrs, CT, and they are “looking forward to getting support for branching out to produce a higher value farmstead flavored coffee creamer highlighting local flavors.”
Introducing the Fall 2026 Dairy Runway cohort:
Avgala, LLC: Nicholas Hanges is developing a high-protein beverage using real-food ingredients.
CreamKeeper: Christina Johantgen and Matt Gelbwaks are creating sheep’s milk popsicles.
Kelp & Cream Co: Mingyu Qiao and Siman Liu are combining kelp with yogurt to develop a functional food.
Mountain Dairy Creamery: Shepherd Stearns is creating a clean-label coffee creamer.
REVVED: Sean Patrick Harrington, Rachel Verne, and Thoren Bradley are developing an electrolyte product with dairy whey.
Round Table Farm: Marlo Stein is developing a goat milk kefir.
Christina Johantgen and the CreamKeeper team came to Dairy Runway for the chance to work in Cornell’s pilot plant after Johantgen toured the facility years ago while working in the cider industry.
Johantgen said the team is “excited to get coaching from the program’s faculty and from other entrepreneurs in Northeast dairy. Farms often launch products out of necessity – yogurt to get a better return on milk, cheese to extend shelf life, even vodka to make use of leftover whey. This program flips that model and starts with a deep understanding of the market. Our team has talked about our idea for so long that ‘yogurt popsicles’ became our code for any far-off, optimistic plan. Our goal is to come out of the program with a market-tested product and recipes ready for small-batch production.”
This Dairy Runway cohort is redefining what is possible in the dairy industry as they scale their businesses and advance their innovative products closer to commercialization.