A Tech Concept Becomes a Working Social Enterprise
Krishi Janani crossed a big milestone recently. On April 27, 2018 to be precise. We turned two — Yay, happy birthday! Hard to believe it has been two years.
Krishi Janani is now a full-fledged farmers’ network. 3,500+ members. 60% are small farmers. Two rural retail outlets. One mobile popup shop. Team has grown from 4 to 12. Aggregation on the buy side, with inputs such as cattle feed, is now an established revenue stream. Moving 5–6 tonnes of cattle feed a month. Sell side aggregation just starting with outputs such as harvests & value added products. Margins are thin. However, we are witnessing an organic growth that has slowly revealed Krishi Janani’s path to profitability in a few years. This has given us the confidence to launch a fundraising round. And, dream of scaling scenarios.
The journey to arrive at this point has been tough, both personally and professionally. And, many more miles yet to go. However, this is a short break / celebration to acknowledge a milestone — turning a tech concept into a working social enterprise. This has been possible only because we were enthusiastic learners, open to learning from failures, successes, and everything in between. The Universe (a.k.a ground realities) always provides plenty of opportunities to learn. Of the many lessons in the last two years, here are a few that may be of interest. [Advance warning: Long Read]
Choose Your Location Wisely
As we were deciding on where we would base our operations, it was easy to pick a region that I was deeply familiar with. However, the choice of where Krishi Janani’s head office would be located was a tough one. Do we go with the closest metropolitan city — Coimbatore? Or, at least a town nearby? Eventually we decided that we were better off on a working farm. This was our own version of the Silicon Valley startup garage.
Being headquartered in a rural area, especially when you are trying to build a (agri) tech startup, comes with its own infrastructural challenges. (See a more detailed version of that at the end of this article.) However, that is only one side of the story.
The other, more valuable, part of the story is how our location helped us become an integral part of the community that we seek to serve. Last year, there was a historic drought in this region. There were everyday signs of water crisis all around us. Farmers were buying water for their cattle. Crops withered. Coconut trees started dying by the dozens every day. Community celebrations became small and finally stopped altogether. Krishi Janani announced a massive sale to help our farmer-members through the drought. This was but a band aid on a massive wound. Nothing but rain would help. Soon, cattle markets started witnessing distress sales. When minor rains finally arrived this year, we could have jumped with joy or done a filmy rain dance. (note: we still await the major monsoon.) Living through a drought made us even more passionate about Krishi Janani’s mission of empowering small farmers in their battle against environmental disasters, climate change, and agrarian crisis.
This is just one instance. There are many more.
Our physical presence facilitated the discovery of Watermelon Seeds with Expiration Dates, emphasizing the need for a transparent and trusted supply chain to farmers. I can go on. Our location has made Krishi Janani a better company, more in tune with the seasonal and value chain patterns in rural Tamil Nadu.
Build Community Presence, Relationships, and Trust
When Krishi Janani launched two years ago, we were an unknown startup, trying to become a membership network. What can we aggregate if we don’t have a large number of members? But, why would a farmer want to join an unknown network? This catch 22 was solved by a few farmer advisors. These well-known, local community members opened their doors, farms, and contacts to us. They helped us figure out critical elements a farmer would look for when they buy a product or service. They referred trusted vendors to us. In short, thanks to these advisors Krishi Janani got a running start.
If advisors were the first element of building relationships, creating a dedicated field team to build the network was also critical. We envisioned young women from local farming communities as the lynchpins of our growth. When we crossed our 1,000-member mark, the celebration was for the magic number as well as our team. We want to create an organizational culture that models personal responsibility, integrity, leadership, and shared purpose. It is a matter of pride that many of our staff members’ families are part of this network and are frequent buyers. Our field staff are our eyes and ears into the farming communities. We get accurate information and honest feedback, thanks to their everyday connections.
The idea of customer engagement is not something new. Getting out into the field and listening to “customers” is a prerequisite for the lean startup methodology that we follow. It helped pull us out of “we have a wonderful idea but no one seems to want to pay for it” doldrums once already. Now that we have established many connections within the community, we have a large and informal farmer advisory group that we call upon frequently. This group has brainstormed ideas for Krishi Janani’s mobile app, suggested services that they would like, products that we should carry.
Our deep roots within these communities creates an invaluable network of relationships and trust. However, we don’t take it for granted. We believe in showing up every day, trying to solve complex problems faced by our farming communities. Whether it is agroforestry, Eco Fiesta, or demo farms, all of Krishi Janani’s activities for work and play have only one mission — transforming agriculture and agribusiness into mutually beneficial agroecology.
Data as Mission Critical Asset
Krishi Janani aspires to make thoughtful decisions based on reliable data. That means that we have to a) collect a lot of data, b) become smart data analysts, c) understand the point of maximum impact, and d) create a profitable business around that.
Some of this data is publicly available — take a look at the “Data” category in our Field Notes. Our data helps us make business decisions and seek out partnership opportunities. For example, our members control 22,000 acres and own 9000+ dairy cows. Based on this, we are looking for farmer-friendly cattle insurance. Another example — there are 2,300+ members who DO NOT have drip irrigation. Given how important this technology is in combating water scarcity, there is a potential vendor partnership here that can be a win-win for all.
Data is collected at an individual level, but can be aggregated, sliced, and diced in many ways. There are 900+ coconut farmers in our network. This can be grouped by different districts if needed. A lot of effort also goes into creating models where we can collect a diversity of data, including a mix of different farming conditions and farm types. Our two initial prototype centers were setup in different agro-climatic regions — one in a dry and predominantly rain-fed region, another in a fertile and well-irrigated region. Data tells us that onion, tomato, and corn are the frequent crops in the dry region. In the fertile region, it is banana, sugarcane, and turmeric. Now, we are able to create services that can work across multiple regions and assist a lot more farmers.
We love data. We find beauty in it. Call us data geeks or visualization nerds or whatever. It is a badge we will wear proudly (wait, is my personal bias showing here? ;))
Tech PLUS Everything Else
It is really easy to imagine a great technology concept. Utilizing text messages to aggregate small farmers’ buying power seemed like an elegant, workable solution. The Excel sheet that contained our forecasts and growth calculations was near-perfect. The Powerpoint presentation laid out our planning and potential opportunities beautifully. However, there is one element that makes a world of difference in converting a tech concept into a working social enterprise — infrastructure. In other words, everything around technology.
Let me use one of the most recognizable tech company in the world to illustrate this. When Amazon started its corporate life in the US in 1995, its promise was ‘easy delivery of deeply discounted books at our doorstep.’ However, that undertaking was made standing on the shoulders of giants. Delivery services such as UPS and USPS crisscrossed the country, connecting consumers in an intricate logistics network. Amex, Master Card, and Visa had already done the heavy lifting in order to make credit cards an acceptable electronic payment instrument. All Amazon needed to do was work on the “deeply discounted books” part of that promise. This is a luxury. I wish our life was that easy.
You can get a glimpse of our early broadband struggles in Building a Tech Platform for Aggregating Farm Purchases in India. Logistics is another example. Things have not gotten any less complex in these two years. However, what has changed is our attitude. We have become less afraid of creating the missing infrastructure on our own if needed. Take logistics — it would have been so much better if we could find reliable partners for rural logistics. There is none. After trying various avenues such as manufacturer recommended logistics and rentals, we finally bought our own truck. And, in a burst of creativity, we even modified the truck to be an all-in-one — a goods carrier, moving billboard, and mobile popup shop. This experiment has been so successful that we are looking at buying a second truck soon.
This is an insane amount of work (logistics, ERP, and so on) for a bootstrapped tech startup. However, there seems to be no other way. Initially, I was convinced that we are crazy to be doing so much. Thankfully, a recent article in Stanford Social Innovation Review aptly titled “In Defense of “Doing Too Much” made me rethink that notion. It looks like we are not alone (yeah, even crazy likes company ;)). In fact, Krishi Janani may have become a working social enterprise only because we did too much!
Thus, Krishi Janani completes two years. With many ups and downs. And, a successful prototype, business model, and traction. The next two years will bring a fresh, new set of challenges — growth and scaling.
We are convinced that scaling as it is currently understood does not work for us. So… we are imagining and planning to execute an alternate scaling universe (I told you we are crazy! :-D). More on this soon.
