1) Interviews with large farms and organic farmers found that weeding is a huge problem, costing between $250-3,500 per acre and accounting for 50-75% of production costs. Manual weeding requires large crews of hundreds to thousands of workers and is a back-breaking task. 2) The organic weeding market represents a large total addressable market of $2.5 billion that is growing as organic acreage doubles every 4 years. An autonomous weeding solution could solve the major problem of distinguishing plants from weeds without using traditional chemical herbicides. 3) Initial interviews about large-scale mowing found that labor is also a large cost, though the market may be more fragmented

1. Autonomous Large-Scale Mowingand Agricultural WeedingIntelligenceGPSLaser

2. Need to decide between mowing and weedingUsed framework from class #3 and 12 tips for customer interviews

3. Weeding – 6 interviewsBolthouse Farms, Large Agri-Industry in BakersfieldRincon Farms, large grower in Salinas ValleyREFCO Farms, large grower in Salinas ValleyWhite Farms, Large Peanut farmer in Georgia2 Small organic farmers at farmers market

4. Found weeding in organic crops is HUGE problem; 50 - 75% of costsCrews of 100s-1000Back-breaking task(Ilegal) labor harder to get 1-5 weedings per year/field$250-3,500 per acre and increasingFood contamination risk

5. Organic Weeding Value propositionLabor costs are significant YES!; $250-3,500/ac each year; Weeding is 75% of cost of producing the crop!Traditional weed solutions can’t be used in Organic Duh!Only solution today is manual labor Crews of 100s-1000 are issue Market is very large 2.6 M organic acres in US. TAM $2.5B, Initial target market is $150M (veggies & specialty), size doubling every 4 yrs.Combination of Autonomous vehicles and video weed recognition would solve problem Problem is plant vs. weed recognition. No real need for autonomous vehicle, but real need for a solution

6. Mowing – 6 interviewsStanford GroundsSupervisor Maintenance Lead operator (has crew of 6)Stanford Golf curse Toro (large mower manufacturer) dealer User of back-yard mowing systemMore lined-up for later in the week

7. Labor is large part of ground maintenance Three segments:Golf courses Stadiums Parks Each has 2-3 sub types (eg greens, fairways, rough in golf) uses different machines,

8. Weeding Value propositionAre Labor costs are significant? For 100 acres in Stanford, crew of 6, $43 - $63/hrWork in progress…

9. Decision to make – mowing vs weeding