
FarmLogs (YC W12) Is Going To Change The Way That Farmers Manage Their Business - vollmarj
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2013/02/14/farmlogs-is-going-to-change-the-way-farmers-manage-their-business/
======
gaius
Let me tell you a story: just over 10 years ago, I worked on a project to
create a foreign exchange trading tool for small and medium sized businesses
in Europe. My company (well the company that employed me, you know what I
mean) had been commissioned to write a custom version of our existing trading
software for it, and some other company (a big consultancy) was doing the,
err, consulting bit of it, systems integration, branding, whatever you want to
call it. The technology was great, worked perfectly, easy to use, got the best
quotes from major banks, yadda yadda.

The project was a complete, utter, dismal failure. Why? Because when these
companies wanted to do a deal, old Uncle Otto from the back office at company
A would go and have a nice long lunch with cousin Beppe from company B, then
they would shake hands, and that was that. They weren't interested, and they
were getting great rates anyway, because these were long-term business
relationships, some had been going on for generations!

So I am a bit leery of young hip geeks with soft hands telling honest sons of
toil how to improve their businesses...

~~~
caublestone
The founders are farmers. Their families have ties to many other farmers in
the Midwest. The company is based in Ann Harbor to leverage this legacy
network. During YC, they made deals with farms in California and expanded
their network.

It's 2013. Are 20 something year old farmers supposed to be wearing
suspenders, sucking on wheat, and carrying pitch forks?

Let's be a little more supportive. Advice on how you think a young company can
get around these legacy relationships would be more helpful.

~~~
jpdoctor
> _The founders are farmers._

Then how do they have time for starting a company?

~~~
kochb
My grandpa was a farmer, and my co-founder Jesse's dad and brother are
farmers. Our first office was here: <http://goo.gl/maps/oAOk4>

------
bluetidepro
I wonder how well they can actually get farmers online. I grew up with lots
[of farmers], and most of them would hate this only because it's on the
internet. Most farmers are not that [internet] tech savvy. Also, the pricing
structure seems like a farmer would look at this and be like "Uhh..? Why?" I
wish them luck, but I grew up with that culture and still know a lot of them,
and I just can't see this taking off by the way their mindset is.

~~~
polemic
_> Most farmers are not that tech savvy._

This is just not true, or, at least, it's only true where inefficient farming
practises are propped up by subsidies and protectionism.

A modern farm is a hot-bed of innovation and my initial thoughts about FarmLog
is that they're far far too late to the game. This was already discussed at
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5118984> but I'll duplicate my comment
here:

 _"So, the problem with the SaaS model is that selling to farmers is a lot
like selling to a demanding enterprise customer. They know what they want,
they have specific requirements and the benefits of a well-matched solution
will pay for itself. That isn't, generally, where you want to be if you're
looking to scale out a SaaS platform."_

~~~
bluetidepro
As mentioned below, I rephrased it. They are not internet tech savvy, in my
experience.

~~~
polemic
Hang on.

You're saying they _are_ tech savvy, but not _internet_ savvy. If you are
right (and I disagree that they're 'not internet savvy') then you've
identified an _opportunity_ , not a blocker.

~~~
bluetidepro
The point _gaius_ is saying above is exactly what I'm trying to bring across,
but in a different phrasing. I just don't think it [Farmlogs] will be
something they want/like to use.

------
frankydp
I have a hard time replacing or adding another layer of data input on top of
(insert accounting software i.e. quickbooks) especially with an established
system in place.

Farm accounting is not something I would delineate across more than one
system, and it seems the remake is far more profit focused, which is good, but
it still does not support a disconnected workflow afaik.

Still think the real money to be made is in the weekend gardener/farmer not
the big guys, for a project like this. There is no way to have a partial farm
management tool that does not go from nut to bolt, and still convince someone
to break an incumbent process.

~~~
randomdata
> Still think the real money to be made is in the weekend gardener/farmer not
> the big guys

Funny, I had the opposite reaction. We currently run 350 acres and it really
doesn't seem like enough land to lose track of. I could see the farmer with a
few thousand acres benefiting from this though. Large enough where accounting
for the details starts to become a problem, but small enough to not have all
the latest gadgets that automatically record all of the details for you.

With that said, I like the idea of having the data. I'm just not sure I could
see myself recording everything. Now, if my cell phone would use its sensors
to determine what I'm doing in the field and record the information
automatically, that might be rather interesting.

~~~
frankydp
Agree completely, and think the same thing that would keep you from using FL
prevents a 1k+ farm from picking it up, which is the action of usage itself is
a barrier. An idea would be to track you through the day and create a log that
you could then markup/import into FL at night.

As for the weekend users, I was talking more about a well executed "garden
planner" with lots of learning and reference information. The look and feel on
farmlogs is already in that space sorta, with the trendy ui. Before I had
grown for a couple years, and then moved out to 50 acres, I would have payed
and did pay for tools, but they all failed pretty hard below the some form of
row crop range.

I did have a look at <http://www.growveg.com> which was surprisingly good, but
still does not tie in the fact that most of the users are going to be novices,
that need education with the tools. The suggestion/education/local tie in for
a garden planner is a space that is as of yet untapped, and there are a lot
more weekend warriors to pay monthly or annual fees than farmers.

~~~
randomdata
I guess my thinking on thousands of acres is that management of people starts
to become an issue. Keeping track of what your employees have done, and should
do next, is something that needs to be communicated anyway. Whether FarmLogs
beats the two-way radio remains to be seen, but I think there is potential
there.

Of course there is competition in that space too. John Deere has an integrated
management solution on this level built right into their equipment from the
factory. It actually looks very slick, reporting all kinds of data that
FarmLogs will struggle to access without the same level of integration. I
expect it is a little too costly for the average sized farm though, which is
where FarmLogs may fit in.

I do think they have hit the mark on grain storage management. While that is
not a big problem on my farm, as we send all our grain straight to the
elevator, it is a real problem other farms have. It is a request I have heard
many farmers make. That is data that is easy to lose track of and one you want
to have at your fingertips.

I'm quite keen to watch where they take the company. I think they could use
what they have as a good starting point to solve some of the deeper problems
in the industry.

------
obviouslygreen
My anecdotal evidence, from probably about as much experience as that of the
rest presented here, is that (midwestern US) farmers "manage their business"
by working hard and being in debt until they decide to retire and sell their
farm equipment to get out of debt far enough to fund said retirement...

... _or_ selling to a conglomerate, said conglomerate being the only
consistently viable target for "hi we're revolutionary" software like this.

------
mikecane
I'm a bit surprised to see a startup addressing the farm market. Back in the
1980s, there was software from Pro Farmer that was used with the Radio Shack
Color Computer(!). All this time I figured Pro Farmer had a lock on things,
with that early start. I see I was wrong to think that. Good luck.

------
rikacomet
it speaks of multiple continents, can Indian farmers use it too? maybe I can
have some people try it out.

~~~
vollmarj
Yes, we have farms all around the world using FarmLogs. I actually had a video
chat with some farmers in India today! We are working on making it even better
for our international customers by learning their specific needs.

~~~
randomdata
Do you have any plans to integrate with grain elevators? That is the biggest
pain point on my farm. Being able to sell and manage inventory stored on
someone else's site would make this worth every penny.

~~~
vollmarj
Awesome request. We have talked about that in the past. Hearing that it is a
problem for you will bump it up in our priorities.

------
lipeno
Sounds like Farmeron.

~~~
vollmarj
Actually we are quite different since they only work with dairy farms. Cool to
see other startups helping farmers though!

