Servicing, not just selling AgTech

Nathan Faleide: Well, hello everyone. I'm walking the dogs again. Figured I'll just do the podcast from here 'cause haven't had a lot of time to do office time where my nice camera is set up. anyways, today I was trying to think of what to kinda go over in the good old Ag Tech space and I j I was texting Colleague this morning about some stuff and the thought came as someone we know is let's say getting out of the space kind of. I I can't remember all the details about it, but basically Clients aren't paying and he hasn't paid himself for years and you know that just grinds. It's got a good product, it does what it says it does, it's cost effective. it's needs a little more, you know, R and D probably on some things. It it needs a bigger support staff, it needs you know, just like any Product and agriculture needs a lot to make it work. And it's raised some money. And you know, it's it's not that the business is going, he's just like, I can't anymore. And that's okay. I've been there. I I experienced that a little bit with the good old family company back in the day, and yeah. I know that feeling. It is not easy. Sometimes you just have to make a choice. 'Cause you know, you got bills, you got life, you got a family, all that sort of stuff. And so it made me think, all right. What's what's the rest of this year kind of look like? You know, everyone will keep kind of going if they're even on the brink here in the AgTech world. You know, we'll try to the end of the year because that is what people do. And you know, you got end of the year reasoning too. and we're really not that far from the end of the year, which is odd to say. Summer is basically over. But you know, people are trying to get one last hope through You know, this fall and you know, maybe there'll maybe something will work. You know, there's always a little bit of time. You know, I've seen so many yeah, there's been so many new companies, startups through the last years. Of course they make fun of it all, 'cause it's also depressing at the same time. That so many have come in and a lot have have failed or or left or got sold for pennies and you know, whatnot. The whole space, especially in the software world, is like a giant mess. Of course now you got like a new startup I mean for this summer it was literally almost every day. because of plod code and codecs and all that fun vibe coding stuff, which is awesome. it's easier to get a lot of new ideas and things into the world and you know I've I've been doing it myself and trying some stuff. And now it seems like I mean it's it's changes so much. It's crazy. Like even like recently now people are getting like weird results from Claude. And like, well we're gonna go to Codex more and and Chat GPT and we're gonna code through there. And it's like there's this just giant, enormous battle going on. And now Grocks got their new thing out for AI coding, I guess. I haven't even looked into it. And it's just like it's just this enormous battle. And every software group, every Ag tech group 'cause they're all dealing with some version of software. They gotta deal with either with their sensors or hardware or just software itself. And you know, I'm sitting here thinking where I guess where's the value? it's not there's not value in the tools, it's like, you know, where's the where's the money gonna come from when there's so many? And then everyone's rebuilding their things and maybe they maybe they already have established, you know, client motes and everything, which is great. You know, you need that. And some of those groups will be fine. You know, they never really make make money, they make enough to pay. their expenses. Of course, maybe with five coding that they were able to, you know, they're able to cut people that they don't need. They're too expensive or something. Because now we're finding out that that doesn't even really work great because it's in it's imperfect. You still need smart, good people to to build these things. because you can get a lot of junk if you don't. You might get something workable, but scalable to and consistent that, you know, doesn't break and doesn't fall apart. It's got good security, all that. I mean, that that's that's harder. you can maybe make a cool app that does a few normal things that, you know, I've been I and I've seen this more and more. People are like, we can do this now. It's like, we could have always done that. That's been a thing for like twenty plus years. And the GIS world even further. And it's it's crazy that Is still like talked about that way. It's like, please don't do that. Just be like, hey, we we made a nicer way to do this or simpler way. But still, you know, the money side. You know, there's there's some businesses that did raise money. And you know, they're they're still kind of petering around and maybe they got some cool different differentiator to them. and vibe coding is not gonna really save them, which you know. Some people will think that, or they might think that. But you know, that gets tough. And then you got all these new groups that have came in literally in the last year. And I hope for those groups, you know, because of the way they're doing it, they're just smaller teams, they're I can one or two individuals really. And really there's kind of it's seemingly like they're just doing this almost like as a side hustle. It's like, well, I'll just build this thing and see if people buy it, see what happens. Didn't cost a lot, you know, maybe with all the little pieces and you know, cost them a couple grand to put it all together. I mean my My ag un censored new website with the AgTech directory. I would say it's maybe cost me a thousand dollars with paying for basically the subscription needed to actually do the coding you need to do and some other services to run it. Okay. I haven't made anything from it yet. Hopefully will in some capacity. I don't know. I'm trying some stuff out. But it's not gonna break me. Or some of these other, you know, softwares that are maybe, you know. They raise a million dollars or a couple of million dollars and now there's like well, you know, you almost have to like pay yourself. You force yourself to pay yourself back or your investors to that point, and then you think you could you you wanna sell or merge with somebody eventually makes money on these things. They don't actually make enough money to make extra money. It's very rare. Well, some of those groups I don't know where they'll be. I I really don't. I I think some of are gonna end up here having to make some tough decisions, let's just say. Or some of the people will have to leave because, you know, the sales aren't there to support the staff and you know, they kind of become lone wolf shops. You know, maybe one or two. I mean, honestly, it's what my dad does. He's a lone wolf on it. But Got a side guy that helps him a little bit and they do some you know some of the newer coding things that helps make things faster and it works. And he's got his clients and it's consistent, and it's he's always had those people. People trust him, people pay him for the service for the product because it is what it is. It's nothing crazy. It does what it does, it does it kind of uniquely, and you know that's enough. As for And and but that's there's time and history and understanding in that product. It's yeah, he's tied to it in a sense. His brain is. Well a lot of others that are new, they don't they don't have that. So it's just another tool. It's just another procedure that are like, you know, fifty others just like it. Now, if they built it at the right time, did it for cheap, you know, five coding, or maybe you have a you know, maybe it is a guy that's some programming knowledge that's also doing it, that has like a business guy that's helping, you know, they can kind of manage that. But then there's the time to do that. You know, that can take a lot of time is money, you know? And you can get tired of that because you're maybe not paying yourself. You thought, this is gonna pay my life. This is gonna make it all Yeah, make me a bunch of money because people will like it because it's awesome. And then you find out, I've got like five sales and I spent a year on this thing building it, or six months, or whatever it is. Maybe it's a couple years. And you're like, geez, there's there's just kind of like a breaking point. Well, I think that breaking point for a lot is gonna come up here, especially these quick built apps. unless They can find a way to tie a service to it of some sort. And my colleague were texting this morning, it's kind of what he thinks, and and I I do as well. What that is, I don't know. It could be that in essence you turn that little software that you built and it's it's free. But You help another business integrate it to make it kind of their own specialty and they don't have the time and they'll pay you to do that. Now they're not gonna be a lot, but maybe they'll pay you, you know, ten thousand dollars to basically customize it to their business and then kind of run it. but you don't need a giant team to do that. You know, like back in the day, you needed a I mean, one of the groups I worked with Ag integrated weed. Built custom software for groups and you know, we had a team of fifty people. And we had our own products, but then those products always turned into the custom products. They they kind of merged together, which is actually is a really good business model, and then, you know, the god bought. And that custom side kind of went away. and you know, that's a whole nother story, but I mean that can work. That's a service, is custom vibe coding, I suppose, in other businesses. I think there's I think there's something there, or using your knowledge from what you built, maybe pieces of what you did, at least, but at least the process, the knowledge to help others build their own version instead of using yours. So they might say, you know, I like what yours does, but I really want this and I want it to work this way and this way because we're unique and this way and this way, because every ag business is a little unique. And you s because you showcase that you build something. You now can go out and say, Well, I could build something like this for you. It might be totally different. It's your own stuff, it's your own code, but I'm I'm helping you do it because I did it. And if you guys do it, you could do it too. But, you know, then that person is spending a bunch of time doing this and this and that employees doing that. And you can you kind of can get into a death spiral of, you know, employees doing things that you don't want them to do. That always happens. So I think for for those groups that you know you might have to turn your software into just a showcase. It's really your just your marketing tool. It's not something people will subscribe to. It's more it's you showing the world that, hey, I built this, it works, it's cool. Now I'm gonna help build your version. And I might just copy and I might use this code I built as almost like a a template. Or to use it to don't train the AI that, you know, we're gonna build something like this, but it's gonna be different. But use a lot of the work I did. Because now you can kind of roll up things really fast. And I think that's actually I think it's actually a pretty good model. I think that can work. And maybe you can find you know ten good clients, which is not impossible. Not needing a thousand subscriptions to pay for all the stuff all the stuff yourself makes basically and some services that help you do this stuff. It's it's the showcase and you get ten clients, and maybe you can get, you know, who knows? Maybe you get ten thousand dollars to build it and a thousand dollars a month to support it. And you have to spend a ton of time and you can get ten of those clients and they that's pretty good money. Something like that, I think that's very doable. As for some of the groups that have, you know, they built their software expensively, you know, maybe they have a sensor piece of hardware to it. I think that's another model to follow, but it it can be a little bigger because you 'cause when anyone that raised you know a large amount of money, you could almost sell that we coded it the old way, which was more pragmatic and more, you know, hardened almost. Because you would. Versus vibe coding, which like, it's who knows, anthropic or you know, Chat GPT is basically all my lines of code in there because it did it for me. So it's it kind of knows how that stuff works. In that older sense, like, well, this is actually kind of protected IP. But then your your sale is different. It's not maybe a smaller act business or even an individual or some small group, you can start doing that with the large corporate entity or or decent size, you know, business, ag business. Or even some group that just wants to get into ag. It's like, well, we need something. maybe your thing, you can kind of turn it to that, but you still gotta turn like a service to it. It's like, well, we're gonna customize our hardware and white label it to you, but then we're taking like our IP and like licensing it, but then we're customizing all this other stuff. Maybe that's a way. I think there there are paths there. There's only so many paths there. There's only so many that can handle anything. But that's maybe one way to look at it. or maybe, you know, with the megas, the mega groups out there, I don't that's harder. I don't I don't know too many of those that would really work with a service like that. Unless it was I know, very unique and specific to a niche, and they just say, You're handling this area, you know, you do this specialty crop. Great, that's all you're doing. Just we'll help you own that space. And then you know, you get into a unique relationship with we'll end up buying you probably later, like you know, but then you're like you have to go all into like one group and really go for it. And that's a risk in itself. You're trying to sell to other people, but you know, anyways, that's another thought, all in all. It's gonna be interesting the next six months because I think a lot of the people that had hope with the new thing they built, like recently, are gonna get a gut punch and be like, shit, this is a like I ain't making anything from this. I gotta really like rethink everything. Maybe they just scrap it because it's an easy throwaway, really. And they, you know, because they built it, that might actually be their Calling card, that's their resume. It's like, I'm gonna now go work for this group and I'm gonna help them vibe code their internal thing. They're gonna pay me pretty well. Boom, boom, boom. I I think a lot will actually end up doing that because that's the easier path. And it show you have something to prove. You you tried something. You know, some groups like that. I think there'll be a lot of that. The groups that raise money before, like a decent amount. Or way too much in a sense, or they you know, they had to, or they you know, the money was there to get it. So they got it. You know, someone gives you ten million dollars to build a company, you're like, yeah, sure. Now there's no money left, and you're like, I don't do. I don't know. Those one those are really tough because you have these investors and probably more commitments and you maybe have a few employees, and that that's just that's a really tough pl part to be in. Like we were lucky with all of our crazy crap with me and my dad 'cause, you know, we didn't owe investors anything 'cause we I mean except ourselves. We did owe money to ourselves. We you know, we really pay ourselves very well either or at all at times. you know, that's different. When you have a board and a bunch of people that want their money back somehow, that's a It's an emotional quagmire to decide how to do. And as my friend who seemingly is is getting out, I mean, I don't know where that'll go. I'm not gonna say, you know, who that might be, but Yeah, that's those are tougher. It's easier when you just build something quick, five coded, and be like, whatever. I can alternate into this. That's easy. Easier. When you got all this other established stuff, that's a lot harder. And some groups, they're the size that the investors almost have to put more money into to even have the hope of getting any money back. And then you get into that whole quagmire of a situation, and that is hoof. that's a hard one. And I know some that are very actively trying to find and raise money for that exact reason. And yeah, I don't I just I don't see how it'll work. heck, there's even some big groups like that seem are doing fine and well and established and all this great stuff. And I mean they're they're treading and they're trying to sell and they they're maybe or maybe a segment. Of their business and they're a giant business. Like they're a giant corporate business. Or like this area is not making crap. We're gonna try to sell it. You know, it was worth call it fifty million dollars three years ago is worth, you know, couple million, maybe at best. But they still want twenty five million. You know, it's just a that's a tough one. I don't know. very you gotta have really interesting connections or you know. Some really good friends to try to get something done there. You know, the story behind you is something very unique. So they're really buying your brain, investing in your brain, not just like the code and the product. They're investing in the people. That's maybe the best bet for those groups. Is they have a good set of people that have a lot of knowledge, and that's worth more than the actual product within some other team. And that's probably how they have to sell it, not the product. Honestly. But in a sense, with All the vibe coding stuff, that actually it's opened people's eyes to see that there is value there instead of it just being the code. there's actually value in the people. Huh. Who would have thought? One last thought. Gotta get the dogs here. finish here and then I gotta head to the farm to do make sure my combine actually works. That's another story in my other fun little newsletter blog. So That last part, you know, the value of the people. I've often wondered lately is if the real value of all this vibe coding and AI processes and everything, while it seems the inherent value is in it to do something quicker, more efficient, you know, automatic, whatever. I don't think that's really the value at all in it directly. What the value in it is, it's allowed people that really just couldn't be as technical someone like me to really expand their mind and build something that really showcases what they're good at. where they couldn't before without hiring a bunch of people and building this whole new business and all that. Because in reality when someone's trying to create a new idea, in a sense they're really just trying to showcase to the world that they're valuable, that they are smart enough to know how to build something that's sort of unique to them. Of course the old way of doing it was, yeah, raise a bunch of money or, you know, take a bunch of money that you saved or Put it into this thing and and go for it. And for some it's worked really good. And there's a lot of ways to showcase that too. But if anything, I mean, all the AI stuff's not going away. I mean some of it might here soon because something's gonna pop, some bubble's gonna pop in this world around it. But What I think most should really use it for is really showcasing why you're unique, why you have a value, why that value in your head, personality traits, the people you know, the connections you have, the knowledge over time and various aspects. Yeah, build something. But maybe it's less for someone else and it's more for yourself. And I think there are plenty of people starting to see that. Is the real value in it is that. It's for yourself. And then it's also to kinda help and showcase to other people that hey they can do it too. And guess what? Yeah, that could be a service. Because a lot of people are searching for those things. It could be just for an essence of self help to a point. Or it could be to help them, you know, new career path. Or yeah, it could be for a little side hustle or a few of them that help people kinda get what's out of their brain to somebody else that needs it. And maybe that's worth something, maybe it's just doing it out of the kindness of your heart, after some both, hopefully. And that's that's possible. But I think people are willing to pay for that, for a service that helps them see something a little better. And where the actual product isn't whatever is coded. It is what you sh help show people how to, you know, use the free thing. Like, for instance. As as my friend Nick Ouroby said, yeah, he sold Harvest Profit to Deer for a good chunk and doing his things and doing some stuff in the AI coding world and all that. But yeah, as he said to me, you know, I could basically build the first version I had Harvest Profit in like I don't know, like a day now versus you know, a year. Which is crazy to think about. But and not all software's like that, but it's like the current version is like a few months 'cause it's all like, you know, in integral piece or something like that. And that's a guesstimate. I mean, I've even thought on the the Satshot end that me and dad have, it's like I mean, yeah, probably could rebuild it in a month. But that's also like not the value in it anymore. It's kind of Who's behind it? Well, maybe that's more worth a service instead of selling it for you probably have a better bet of going to I'll say for my instance. I'd probably have a better bet on the satellite imagery front, going to an ag business and saying, I'll do it all for you. I'll do all the mapping, I'll get all together, connect whatever you need to get, and I'll do it for, you know. Do it for a thousand bucks. Probably like, Yeah, sounds good. And ship it to them in the unique way they want it because it can do that easier now than finding some programmer to do it. They pay for that, probably. If it's like, hey, here's all the tools that you can do that yourself and it's a thousand dollars a year, you're like, I don't know. I'll think about it. So maybe whatever you build or what you have or the knowledge of what you have building, like I said before, is you just help other people do it. They they it's not like they don't want it. It's the time to deal with it. And some would rather just pay someone to do that that knows it and that they trust. Like that's really what you're selling. You're selling yourself and your knowledge around that thing that they find interesting. So that also doesn't work for everything. Don't get me wrong. It's like the software world I think it can work actually pretty good. you start adding hardware and sensors in there. I mean, maybe still charge for those. It's just someone's still kind of doing the other stuff. I don't know. Depends what you're doing. I I think there's a viable path there. So I guess for anyone that's doing it and actually watching this or reading it, yeah, do some soul searching and seeing if you can do some of that. and if not, you gotta make a tough choice. Then you gotta make a tough choice. Like life will move on, probably. World's kinda crazy, but I think it will. This might look a little differently. Definitely some parts of the world. Other than that. Yeah, maybe it's some balance in between that. And but I think a lot of that's gonna happen here, basic. It's kind of a prediction too. I think a lot of people are gonna start rethinking a lot of everything in the next six months. And of course with a fun election here too, you know, that'll happen as well. But that's a different topic. And for now, like I said, I gotta get to the farm. So if you're listening, thanks for listening. Tell your friends, share, subscribe, all that fun crap. And yeah, we'll check you later. Thanks everyone.