Image via CrunchBase
The best startups begin because the founders see a big problem for which they want to find a disruptive solution. They don’t begin because the founder wants to make money; they are a response to a founder’s desire to change the world. If they make money, so be it. Starbucks began as an effort to create a “third place” that wasn’t home or the office. Facebook began as a way to make meeting women easier for nerdy men. Southwest Airlines began as a way to make it cost-effective for Americans to fly short distances.
Part of changing the world should involve finding others who share your convictions, and getting them on your team so the change can happen swiftly. But what often happens is that individual startups work in their little corners of the world, without knowing that they share the same vision, or in the words of my long-time and revered business partner, they have different pieces of the same puzzle.
And so it went with ChowLocally, one of the startups in our summer Gangplank Roadmap to Launch program. ChowLocally’s founders want people to buy food from local farmers and ranchers so we can 1)eat food that doesn’t cost scarce resources to transport 2)build a more vibrant economy 3) develop a closer relationship to the people who grow our food. ChowLocally launched about five weeks into the program, and was an immediate local “success.”
In Lean Startup terms, that means it acquired customers who came to its web site, ordered food, and picked it up. In slightly increasing numbers week-over-week. And, in those terms, it is taking the learning from those customers and iterating (adding more pickup locations, and starting delivery). It is addressing scalability issues as well; the company leased a refrigerated truck recently, and found some warehouse space.
And then, while watching the TechCrunch Disrupt Live stream last week, I encountered Farmigo. It sounded like the founders had a similar vision to ChowLocally’s, and I wondered if they were a potential competitor. Since one of the issues ChowLocally is addressing is how to scale, I suggested Derek Slife, one of the co-founders, do some research. He immediately called the Farmigo founders, and what did he find?
Sure enough. different pieces of the same puzzle. And a shared vision.
Farmigo has spent the last two years developing tools to connect farmers to buyers. ChowLocally has developed a platform that could simplify the process, or perhaps Farmigo can help ChowLocally scale. I haven’t examined Farmigo in detail, but it sure seems that if they partnered strategically, they could achieve their vision–to grow the local food culture–more quickly. At this writing, they’re still talking to each other. I hope they find a way to partner.
Changing the world is not simple. If you don’t have others in your marketplace trying to accomplish the same larger purpose, it’s much more difficult to make that change come about. That’s why both competitors and partners are good, not bad.
If you are interested in the local food movement, check out ChowLocally and Farmigo. If they’re available where you live, try them, and give feedback. They can’t do it without you, the customers.
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Nice! that’s cool he contacted them and are helping each other out… it’s a big job to get all that handled across all the cities/towns so the more that see the same vision the better.
Nice! that’s cool he contacted them and are helping each other out… it’s a big job to get all that handled across all the cities/towns so the more that see the same vision the better.