3. Problem/Opportunity
Problem
• You can’t get produce this good from far away
• Distribution companies ship from far away
• Bypassing the distributor is expensive and annoying
Opportunity
• Crowd-Source supply and demand
• Make the process painless
4. Strategic Advantages
Farmers…
• Earn higher margin
• May increase production by up to 50%
• Gain access to aggregated local demand
Retailers…
• Gain access to aggregated local supply
• Enjoy painless e-commerce procurement
5.
6.
7. How we will use your funding
VeggieAuction will…
• Create a minimum viable product within 2 weeks of funding
• Create a system of “wrap around supports,” replacing distributor
• Build a streamlined and intuitive system that makes f2b accessible
• Open new markets for CT farmers and gardeners
• Improve the quality and price of wholesale food
9. Business Model
VA provides e-commerce
solutions
Farmers list
produce
Retailers
purchase
produce
VA takes a
4.5% fee per
transaction
10. Status and Milestones
VeggieAuction currently…
• Is finishing “front end development”
• Has managed dozens of local interviews and years of research
• Has 3 MA/CT farms ready to upload production(including my own)
• Won $2500 in seed funding through the Thomas J. & Bette Wolff
Family Program in Entrepreneurship
14. Macro Market Opportunity
“Local food is a rapidly growing market opportunity for
American agriculture…Local food is a multibillion-dollar
market and growing” -USDA
15. Retailers
– “Local procurement is a fast-growing category with
tremendous promise, and marketers that are aware of
the many dynamics at play can generate significant
revenues” Mintel Reports
– Barriers to entry include capacity constraints, lack of
reliable distribution
18. Producers
Sales Channels Small (sub 50 in sales) Medium (50 to 250
in sales)
Large (250k or
more)
All
Number of Farms with Local
Food Sales
86,728 15,202 5,301 107,229
Share of all farms with local
sales
80.90% 14.20% 4.90% 100.00%
Local Food Sales
Marketed Through All
Channels
11.10% 19.10% 69.80% $4.8billion
Direct to consumer only 33.70% 38.90% 27.40% $.9billion
Intermediated Only 3.50% 3.60% 92.90% $2.7billion
Both 11.70% 39.50% 48.80% $1.2 billion
19. Forecast
Notes Numbers
Growers Recruited 300
Sales potential per grower 25000
% of grower’s vegetables listed 0.075
% of listed vegetables sold 0.85
Sales transacted 478125
VeggieAuction Fee 0.06
VeggieAuction Revenue 28687
Less Fixed Costs (@3000) 25687
VeggieAuction Operating Revenue 25687
20. Legal Risk
• Gardeners, farmers, and meat producers self regulate.
• Government momentum behind local food, stemming
USDA and other agencies, as well as provisions from the
2008 farm bill, etc.
• A change in the regulatory or governmental climate could
significantly impact VM partnering opportunities and
funding sources.
21. Innovation Touch Points
• Cutting out the distributor is called “wholesale bypass,” and
according to IbisWorld, wholesale bypass represents the #1 threat to
distributor revenue in 2014
• This food distribution system is significantly more efficient than a
traditional “centralized system” with a wholesale distributor
• Putting retailers and producers in the same space will lead to
reduced spoilage on both sides, and reduced lead-times, resulting in
a better bottom line, and better produce for the end consumer
• This system favors small farms and large gardens with nearby urban-centers.
This system opens up the f2b marketing channel to CT and
MA farms and gardens with few sales options
Editor's Notes
When was the last time you saw this at the grocery store? When was the last time you could order this at a restaurant? Should we as consumers be relegated to buying these once or twice a year at the farmers market? Or do we wish there were a way to have this all the time? Wouldn’t it be great if this was just normal? Shouldn’t these just be “the case?”
Whether you’re a mom and pop pizzeria, a 5-star hotel restaurant, a grocery store, or an everyday consumer, VeggieMarket wants your tomatoes (and lettuce, and carrots, and meat) to look and taste this good all the time.
The REI award would pay for the back-end development of the website. The goal is to solve operations issues with local food via “crowdsourcing” local supply and local demand, while providing ecommerce solutions such as scheduling, escrow, a ratings system, et cetera.
Restaurants and farmers are currently making direct connections, but the process is difficult. There is no obvious billing or operations system that works. Lately restaurants have taken to growing their own food instead of making direct farmer connections. VeggieMarket seeks to make the farm-to-business direct connection easier by providing e-commerce marketing, billing, and operations solutions to both sides of the farm-to-business transaction.
Increased production figures came from various client interviews, where the seasonality of demand was hypothetically leveled due to VeggieMarket offering pre-orders months in advance
This a conceptual example of what the uploading process might look like when completed.
This a conceptual example of what the “delivery” screen would look like for the producer or the retailer.
Karp Resources
CT Grown
Master Gardeners Association
FoodShedExchange is managed my a Michelin chef, and the former CEO if Aetna. They are a friendly competitor, and we are on a “first name basis.”
The farm to consumer marketing channel has matured, and has entered the mass market.
*Of those who report purchasing locally produced food, these are the reasons
