Making The World’s Farmland Accessible
“If [more] information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.” – Derek Sivers
We have become increasingly skilled at collecting data. However, all the data in the world does us no good if it’s not aggregated and organized in a digestible and actionable format.
This problem of massive amounts of disorganized data definitely applies to farmland. Data related to farmland transactions is mostly kept at the county level. Also, two counties may maintain this information in totally different formats. So getting a feel for the overall market is quite challenging.
This is a problem for farmers, land owners, investors, bankers, and brokers to make informed decisions when it comes to buying, selling, or renting farmland.
Enter Steven Brockshus and his startup Terva.
“Terva is an online database of farmland sale records. We are working to make the ideal way to buy, sell, and rent farmland…Our vision is to make the world’s farmland accessible” — Steven Brockshus, Founder and CEO of Terva
We are seeing this trend of startups helping agricultural clients leverage data in a smart way. Recently, you may have heard our interviews with companis such as DecisionNext and Farmer’s Business Network.
Essentially the problem they are solving is similar to the Derek Sivers quote at the top of the article. More information is only the answer IF that information comes in a usable format.
Sometimes, data-related companies can seem abstract and confusing. But, if you’ve ever used Zillow, you will instantly understand the value of what Terva could do for farmland.
Consider the amount of money that is spent on farmland every year. I have to think that before Terva, a lot of this money was being spent without very good information.
Listen to the entire interview with Steven here:
