6 ms·

Farming Startup FarmLogs (YC W12) Triples Market Share in Last Six Months

58 points by vollmarj 12y ago

terravion 12y ago
That is a really impressive milestone. Best of luck in continued growth.
mikelbring 12y ago
15% of farms are using their service. That is incredible.
- ams6110 12y ago
  Indeed. But that's their own claim, not supported by any cited independent source. They may be at 15% of some undefined subset of farms (e.g. wheat, corn, or soybean farms larger than n acres) or something like that.
  - kochb 12y ago
    You're correct, it's 15% of row crop farms (corn, soy, wheat, etc).
    - keithwarren 12y ago
      How do you quantify that (is there really an accurate count of how many of those farms exist?)
  - vram22 12y ago
    Good point. Also, "15% of the total number of farms in the US" is not the same as "15% of the total farmed area of the US", since farms can obviously have widely varying acreage.
- gammarator 12y ago
  I am somewhat skeptical of that number, but users seem to have good things to say about it: http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=423941&mid=3386621#M3386621 http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=423941&... (Now you know where the farmer message board is...)
programminggeek 12y ago
This is not a huge accomplishment, they've become a totally free app and are VC backed, so basically instead of having real paying customers, they are getting farmers onboard by not charging anything. Basically, I'm guessing they are hoping that Monsanto or John Deere or some other giant AG company buys them for however many millions of dollars. This might be a valid strategy, but it sucks for the farmer because they don't have an incentive to build a truly valuable product that people will pay for. There is a huge difference when you build something people pay for vs something they use because it's free. When you build a free product, the end user is not a customer, they are the product. I wonder how many farmers like being the product and not the customer.
- incredulousdis 12y ago
  They are used by _15%_ of farms. That is an incredible accomplishment. When was the last time you wrote software that was used by that many people? Just because its free doesn't mean people will use it regularly...
  - ams6110 12y ago
    It could mean that if there's no other viable choice. How many software shops build mobile apps for farming. I would guess not many. Yet.
    - randomdata 12y ago
      As a farmer myself, I've come across a handful of apps trying to similar things. FarmLogs seems to be the most successful on the marketing side of things though.
  - programminggeek 12y ago
    I'm curious how they are counting 15% of farms. If they have $11 billion worth of crops under management, I'm not sure how that is 15% of the market. According to the USDA, the total US crop value is like $166 billion in 2013. Simple math would indicate that they have closer to 6% of the market under management. That's assuming 2013 numbers, 2011 and 2012 numbers were higher and I don't know what 2014 were. I'm not sure that 15% number adds up. If the 15% number is real, that would mean they have 330,000 farms under management by the 2.2 million farms number. Otherwise, if you take the 187,000 that account for 60% of crop sales, then 15% of that number is A LOT lower in terms of user count, more like 30,000 farms. I've totally written software that was used by that many people. I've also written software that is as complicated as Farm Logs. My point was not to get in a pissing contest over who has the most users or who writes the most complicated software. My point is they are giving away their software in a market where farmers routinely spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment, seed, land, rent, fuel, etc. and they are charging $0 for it. It's sort of the equivalent of giving away enterprise software. I'm not sure what the long term vision is, but I don't think free is going to be great for the farmers long term and I don't think their free sales model aligns FarmLog's goals with the farmers' goals.
mikelbring 12y ago
As a programmer that lives in the middle of Nebraska. I am really intrigued by this company.
YokoZar 12y ago
FarmLogs is in the right market. Agriculture is a growth industry.
- qu1mby 12y ago
  well done.
shanacarp 12y ago
What about non classic commodity crops, like spinach? How does it work with scaling alternative farming, such as organic?
jqm 12y ago
The thing I wonder about is their rainfall accumulation feature (I haven't tried it so don't know the details). They say you don't have to go check rain gauges. That using government weather station data and some sort of calculations, it is possible to show how much rain fell on a field. Now this may very well be possible. But if it is I wonder how it's done (yes, I know they explain it...but I still wonder). And I wonder how accurate it is. Maybe it's accurate enough. But I'd love to see some side by sides with actual rain gauges. Government weather stations are not that close together and rainfall can vary even hundreds of yards apart. It would really suck to claim X inches of rain fell on a field so no water is necessary, when in reality it didn't happen. It seems like this could cause claims of reduced crop yields for which the provider is responsible. But maybe this works exactly as claimed. I don't know. If it does work as claimed it's an amazing feature. It's a cool project for sure. One downside I see is that they are basically asking farmers to hand over their budgetary and production data (to be fair, Farmlogs says this data won't be sold). Having known some farmers, I see this being an issue with many and there will be a significant portion that will never use the product for this reason. On the other hand, many apparently will, so good for Farmlogs.
kfcm 12y ago
The problem with the 15% number is how many are actually using it to manage their farm versus just on checking it out or using the weather/markets features? The guys (dozen or so) I've spoken to about it are just using it for weather/markets. A second problem is web-/app-based farm management solutions place at loggerheads two qualities of good farmers: 1) progressive use of technology to increase profitability; and 2)the natural resistance to tell anyone what they've paid for inputs (land, machinery, seed, fertilizer) and what they're being paid for outputs. Farming is a business, and by giving out too much information, farmers risk being out-maneuvered by their competition. Whether the competition be another farmer discovering what's being paid for cash rent and offering $5/acre more, or a hedge-fund gathering up real-time planting and yield information to play the CBOT/CME. On a personal note, I've been involved in farming for 45+ years. My dad 80+ years. When explaining taking the information about the farm and crops and giving it to a company, my dad--who's never used a computer in his life--just stopped me and said: "That information is a new commodity they'd be getting for free to take and sell, and we'll never see a penny of it. " Something for farmers to consider.
- gumballhead 12y ago
  Agriculture is a practice affected by loads of variables that are often not well understood. Farmers could definitely benefit from products that could be created by applying data science to all the information collected from other farmers, the government, remote sensing, etc.
  - kfcm 12y ago
    The problem is, ag data is a commodity. People/organizations can gather, mine, and create new products with it. It's always been that way, except the past few years have seen the types and amount of data being gathered, and the speed at which it can be analyzed growing rapidly. And farmers just are supposed to give this commodity away for free? An action which--whether done for free or for profit--might have some short-term benefits, but may run counter to their interests in the long-term? Yeah, right.

58 points by vollmarj 12y ago

terravion 12y ago

That is a really impressive milestone. Best of luck in continued growth.

mikelbring 12y ago

15% of farms are using their service. That is incredible.

ams6110 12y ago
Indeed. But that's their own claim, not supported by any cited independent source. They may be at 15% of some undefined subset of farms (e.g. wheat, corn, or soybean farms larger than n acres) or something like that.
- kochb 12y ago
  You're correct, it's 15% of row crop farms (corn, soy, wheat, etc).
  - keithwarren 12y ago
    How do you quantify that (is there really an accurate count of how many of those farms exist?)
- vram22 12y ago
  Good point. Also, "15% of the total number of farms in the US" is not the same as "15% of the total farmed area of the US", since farms can obviously have widely varying acreage.
gammarator 12y ago
I am somewhat skeptical of that number, but users seem to have good things to say about it: http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=423941&mid=3386621#M3386621 http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=423941&... (Now you know where the farmer message board is...)

programminggeek 12y ago

This is not a huge accomplishment, they've become a totally free app and are VC backed, so basically instead of having real paying customers, they are getting farmers onboard by not charging anything. Basically, I'm guessing they are hoping that Monsanto or John Deere or some other giant AG company buys them for however many millions of dollars. This might be a valid strategy, but it sucks for the farmer because they don't have an incentive to build a truly valuable product that people will pay for. There is a huge difference when you build something people pay for vs something they use because it's free. When you build a free product, the end user is not a customer, they are the product. I wonder how many farmers like being the product and not the customer.

incredulousdis 12y ago
They are used by _15%_ of farms. That is an incredible accomplishment. When was the last time you wrote software that was used by that many people? Just because its free doesn't mean people will use it regularly...
- ams6110 12y ago
  It could mean that if there's no other viable choice. How many software shops build mobile apps for farming. I would guess not many. Yet.
  - randomdata 12y ago
    As a farmer myself, I've come across a handful of apps trying to similar things. FarmLogs seems to be the most successful on the marketing side of things though.
- programminggeek 12y ago
  I'm curious how they are counting 15% of farms. If they have $11 billion worth of crops under management, I'm not sure how that is 15% of the market. According to the USDA, the total US crop value is like $166 billion in 2013. Simple math would indicate that they have closer to 6% of the market under management. That's assuming 2013 numbers, 2011 and 2012 numbers were higher and I don't know what 2014 were. I'm not sure that 15% number adds up. If the 15% number is real, that would mean they have 330,000 farms under management by the 2.2 million farms number. Otherwise, if you take the 187,000 that account for 60% of crop sales, then 15% of that number is A LOT lower in terms of user count, more like 30,000 farms. I've totally written software that was used by that many people. I've also written software that is as complicated as Farm Logs. My point was not to get in a pissing contest over who has the most users or who writes the most complicated software. My point is they are giving away their software in a market where farmers routinely spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment, seed, land, rent, fuel, etc. and they are charging $0 for it. It's sort of the equivalent of giving away enterprise software. I'm not sure what the long term vision is, but I don't think free is going to be great for the farmers long term and I don't think their free sales model aligns FarmLog's goals with the farmers' goals.

mikelbring 12y ago

As a programmer that lives in the middle of Nebraska. I am really intrigued by this company.

YokoZar 12y ago

FarmLogs is in the right market. Agriculture is a growth industry.

qu1mby 12y ago
well done.

shanacarp 12y ago

What about non classic commodity crops, like spinach? How does it work with scaling alternative farming, such as organic?

jqm 12y ago

The thing I wonder about is their rainfall accumulation feature (I haven't tried it so don't know the details). They say you don't have to go check rain gauges. That using government weather station data and some sort of calculations, it is possible to show how much rain fell on a field. Now this may very well be possible. But if it is I wonder how it's done (yes, I know they explain it...but I still wonder). And I wonder how accurate it is. Maybe it's accurate enough. But I'd love to see some side by sides with actual rain gauges. Government weather stations are not that close together and rainfall can vary even hundreds of yards apart. It would really suck to claim X inches of rain fell on a field so no water is necessary, when in reality it didn't happen. It seems like this could cause claims of reduced crop yields for which the provider is responsible. But maybe this works exactly as claimed. I don't know. If it does work as claimed it's an amazing feature. It's a cool project for sure. One downside I see is that they are basically asking farmers to hand over their budgetary and production data (to be fair, Farmlogs says this data won't be sold). Having known some farmers, I see this being an issue with many and there will be a significant portion that will never use the product for this reason. On the other hand, many apparently will, so good for Farmlogs.

kfcm 12y ago

The problem with the 15% number is how many are actually using it to manage their farm versus just on checking it out or using the weather/markets features? The guys (dozen or so) I've spoken to about it are just using it for weather/markets. A second problem is web-/app-based farm management solutions place at loggerheads two qualities of good farmers: 1) progressive use of technology to increase profitability; and 2)the natural resistance to tell anyone what they've paid for inputs (land, machinery, seed, fertilizer) and what they're being paid for outputs. Farming is a business, and by giving out too much information, farmers risk being out-maneuvered by their competition. Whether the competition be another farmer discovering what's being paid for cash rent and offering $5/acre more, or a hedge-fund gathering up real-time planting and yield information to play the CBOT/CME. On a personal note, I've been involved in farming for 45+ years. My dad 80+ years. When explaining taking the information about the farm and crops and giving it to a company, my dad--who's never used a computer in his life--just stopped me and said: "That information is a new commodity they'd be getting for free to take and sell, and we'll never see a penny of it. " Something for farmers to consider.

gumballhead 12y ago
Agriculture is a practice affected by loads of variables that are often not well understood. Farmers could definitely benefit from products that could be created by applying data science to all the information collected from other farmers, the government, remote sensing, etc.
- kfcm 12y ago
  The problem is, ag data is a commodity. People/organizations can gather, mine, and create new products with it. It's always been that way, except the past few years have seen the types and amount of data being gathered, and the speed at which it can be analyzed growing rapidly. And farmers just are supposed to give this commodity away for free? An action which--whether done for free or for profit--might have some short-term benefits, but may run counter to their interests in the long-term? Yeah, right.