I was recently asked for my opinion on “why businesses like Producers Market will thrive in the post-Great Lockdown world.”
It was a helpful exercise to take a moment to reflect on this question, and I felt compelled to share my thoughts with our community at large. I’d be interested to hear from other entrepreneurs in our industry what their response would be.
Here are some of the main reasons why I believe businesses like Producers Market will thrive post-Great Lockdown world.
We are blessed to work at the nexus of three resilient industries: food, agriculture, and digital technology.
We are working directly to solve critical issues facing humanity, including farmer and soil well-being, food security, and value chain efficiency. Having an “essential” focus will be at the center of economic and social survival in the next 25 years, and will provide us with industry longevity.
We have a decentralized and digitally-empowered team. With a team that works at a high level across continents, we have a strong advantage in the industry, as we are able to maintain productivity regardless of pandemics or other obstacles. Having already integrated digital communication and project management tools into our company workflow, we have had an easy transition into the “new normal.”
4. Our entrepreneurial-minded team members are agile. An entrepreneurial mindset means that teammates take initiative and are constantly looking to solve problems with limited resources. We can adapt well to volatile outside events. Teammates’ ability to wear multiple hats and play multiple roles allows for us to quickly react to market conditions and pivot into new lucrative lines of business at a faster speed than larger, less agile organizations.
5. We have already invested the in-person energy to build a global ecosystem of partnerships. With like-minded partners in the public and private sector, we can pursue a diversity of developments, thereby decreasing geographic and regional risk. Like a strong root system reaching for nutrients from many sources, we are constantly in communication with other groups who bring us into projects to solve great challenges together. Thus we benefit from a dynamic network in which we are plugged in globally.
6. We are committed to technology agnosticism. By focusing on a zero-marginal cost model that leverages third party infrastructure technologies (4G/5G, smartphones, internet, blockchain, distributed ledgers, etc), we keep our costs low and stay focused on the highest returns. For us this means building the best possible user design and user experience, as well as growing our community of users. In addition, since we don’t force our technology on “clients,” we can participate in many more potential projects at a very low cost to support scalability even during tough economic times.
7. Our investors are passionate about our company and the problems we are working to solve. Having aligned investors allows us to be patient and make decisions based upon what is best for our long-term success—rather than short-term valuation boosts.
8. Scrutiny of food systems is good for transparency initiatives. Our mission to empower farmers by answering the growing consumer demand for transparency and authenticity is only bolstered by current trends toward direct to consumer sales.
We are glad to share our journey with you as Producers Market continues to develop. Thank you for your continued trust and interest in our growth.
