Life after Panel Day: How McCain Streets Ahead founders are turning investment into real street food businesses

Three months after securing investment at Panel Day, Cohort 7 of the McCain Streets Ahead Programme, powered by KERB, have been trading live at InKERBator in London.

The Staff Canteen went along to find out how their food and businesses have moved on, and met a returning alumni business whose story shows where the journey can lead.

Every Wednesday for six weeks this autumn, a corner of Cowcross Yards in Farringdon has been where Cohort 7 of the McCain Streets Ahead Programme, powered by KERB put a year's work in front of paying customers.

This is InKERBator, the live-trading stage of the programme. After months of online learning, food development and the pressure of Panel Day, it is where founders find out how their menus, pricing and set-ups hold up in the real world, whatever the weather. Lucy Smith, product manager at McCain and lead for Streets Ahead, said: "Here is where it really comes to life."

The Staff Canteen visited on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, when the Cohort 7 founders were trading alongside returning alumni from an earlier cohort.

What is the McCain Streets Ahead Programme, powered by KERB?

Now in its fourth year, Streets Ahead supports people facing barriers to work in hospitality, including refugees, prison leavers, people experiencing homelessness and people with disabilities, to start their own street food businesses.

Natalie, business coach at KERB, said: "It's a really long process. These guys would have interviewed about this time last year to be on the programme for a February start date."

From there, participants work through a largely online course with one-to-one support, alongside in-person days including food development in a commercial kitchen and an immersion day with KERB's current traders. Those selected for Panel Day present a pitch deck, effectively their full business plan, and a hero dish refined over six months.

At Panel Day in July, all five Cohort 7 founders secured the maximum £10,000 investment from McCain.

What is InKERBator?

Introduced this year, InKERBator sees founders trade once a week for six weeks at Cowcross Yards, a couple of months after investment, testing their menus, pricing and operations on real customers.

Lucy said: "We give them all the tools and resources to go out there into the big world and do what they're setting out to achieve, and the strength in InKERBator is making that happen for them right after investment."

Natalie said: "Money pays for all of the things you can see. All of their signage, their gazebo, their equipment, their tables. It's quite expensive, more so than it seems."

Beyond the investment, McCain facilitated the founders' logos, stall design and banner printing, and what each founder spends the money on is mapped out well in advance, as part of their pitch deck.

For KERB, InKERBator's value is the safety net it offers. Natalie said: "They've got the freedom to make mistakes and make changes with a bit of a softer touch than they would going elsewhere. Lots of second chances, a chance to get feedback from customers, work out what's working with their menu, what's selling. Is it priced too high, priced too low?"

Gambino Cheesesteaks: "We're inspired by our heritage"

Avalon and his business partner Harrison, friends for more than 35 years, named Gambino Cheesesteaks after their shared love of hip-hop and Italian gangster films.

He said: "We've decided that we're going to use our heritage, my Caribbean background and his African background, to season our food. We're not going to call it a fusion. We're inspired by our heritage."

The meat is seasoned for at least 24 hours before being cooked down with peppers and onions, and the pair have developed their own sauces.

Avalon said: "He's made an African spicy, which is quite hot, but at the same time it's very tasty. And then I've made my take on a Caribbean sauce, but I've had to bring it down. That one's mango based."

At Panel Day, Avalon said the plan was to be up and running by September, with the investment going on equipment, certificates, health and safety and licences. Five weeks in, the menu is close to where they want it. He said: "We're still finding our formula. I'd say we're 90 per cent there."

Addis Eats: Ethiopian flavour for everyone

Eyob, founder of Addis Eats, has built his menu around Ethiopian spicing, and around making it accessible. At Panel Day, he explained that he had dialled back the spice of his mum's cooking for a British market. Trading has taken that a step further.

He said: "We focus on giving them vegan, vegetarian options, and we have meat and skewers. Basically, for everyone."

As a new business, he has kept his prices low to win customers over, and said the investment has made the difference: "It's helping a lot. Everything is covered by McCain."

When the costs get real

The lesson both Cohort 7 founders shared was that a costings sheet looks very different once you're on the road.

Avalon said: "When we first did the costings, it was like, oh yeah, it doesn't cost that much to make a sandwich. But then we hadn't factored in costing of travel, parking, petrol, congestion charge, all of these things."

Within three weeks, they had cut those travel costs to just under half.

Eyob said: "Before starting, I didn't quite calculate the travel costs and expenses, but now I'm learning as a new business."

Avalon is clear the investment is there to be used, not hoarded.

He said: "It's not about scrimping and scraping, oh, let's save some of this money. We know that this money is invested for us to invest in ourselves."

Why the support doesn't stop at the investment

For Natalie, the structure around the money matters as much as the money itself.

She said: "If you're from a background where you've had a very difficult life and you've maybe had a history of issues with finances, to just put £10,000 in someone's bank account and then dip out would be quite an irresponsible thing to do. This is a hard industry and requires that support."

Avalon said access to people has been the most valuable part: "If we found anything difficult, anything we didn't understand, we were able to access the team to get the answers that we needed to move forward. They're not just leaving you. If you want it, they're there to help."

The alumni view: Corn & Crunch

Trading alongside Cohort 7 were a couple of returning Streets Ahead alumni, there to share their experience with the newer founders and a reminder of what the programme can lead to.

Corn & Crunch, from an earlier Streets Ahead cohort, launched in 2024 and has been trading successfully in Devon, with ambitions for a second and third site. Arian and his business partner, Atrisa, both originally from Iran, built the business around a childhood memory.

Arian said: "Corn dogs were basically a childhood snack for me and my partner, because we are both from Iran. All the kids really loved it, especially with a spiral potato. In Iran we call it tornado potato."

Kimchi fried rice and a "rainbow" fried rice have since joined the menu, and the pair, who have built the business while studying medicine, now employ up to ten people at a time at festivals.

Arian said: "We had an idea and it was solely an idea. We didn't have any gazebo, we had a lack of funding. We reached a point where we started employing people and then people are relying on us, and this is really satisfying."

Their return to InKERBator came through that ongoing relationship, with McCain and KERB pointing them towards the market as a chance to test London.

Arian said: "It wasn't like a one-off support where they give you the funding or they give you support in the beginning and then they just leave you alone. It's ongoing. They will check up on you, give you further opportunities."

Lucy said: "McCain are allies to the industry, and we really mean it when we say we back these entrepreneurs and we want them to succeed. We love it when they stay in touch with us."

Why street food is where the trends start

The breadth of food is one of Streets Ahead's defining features, from Caribbean and African-inspired cheesesteaks and Ethiopian skewers to Azerbaijani qutab, Welsh lamb and pav bhaji elsewhere in Cohort 7. At Panel Day, Jordana Bowman, product marketing director at McCain Foods, admitted she had never tried Azerbaijani food before, and suggested it could be the next big global flavour trend.

Lucy said: "We're really tuned in to trends that are up and coming, and they do start on the streets. We're very fortunate in the Streets Ahead programme that we get a full range of cultural influences and dishes coming through, and you'll see them on menus tomorrow.

"They can afford to be a little bit more innovative than your regular restaurant or pub, and if something doesn't work today, they can change it for tomorrow."

What comes next?

With InKERBator drawing to a close for the latest cohort, the founders are looking ahead to other markets, events and pitches.

Avalon said: "The idea is to ideally be set up in a place where we're popular, trending. Being able to offer job opportunities to somebody, I would love to be able to do that."

Streets Ahead, meanwhile, is on to its next group of founders.

Lucy said: "We're now in year four of Streets Ahead, in Cohort 8, and to be able to start seeing some real success stories come through from previous years is fantastic."

Natalie said the weather on the day was part of the lesson: "It's much more rewarding on a lovely sunny day, but these are the realities of trading. This is England at the end of the day, but they still turn up early first thing and get set up and crack on."

Read more about the McCain Streets Ahead Programme, powered by KERB, here.