The following blog is based on a presentation given by Keith Wheeler, Chairman and CEO of ZedX Inc., at the AgInvestor Lab hosted by Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation.
ZedX Inc. is a company of technologists, agronomists, and meteorologists that designs, builds, and supports agricultural information technology. They design and implement state-of-the-art technologies and decision support systems to help public and private organizations throughout the world do their work more efficiently, like seed pedigree tracking for the rice industry to improve traceability.
Keith Wheeler, ZedX Inc. CEO, has spent the last 25 years learning what it takes to bring technology to farmers. Keith says, “The rubber meets the road when you’re working with a grower and deciding how to use data to determine what you’re doing on the ground. It’s about thinking differently.” Keith has a set of key questions that he asks about each technology that ZedX develops, that serve as an excellent guide for technology developers that want to make their product commercially available. Keith’s questions:
- Value proposition: How big is the market and how is this product benefit unique?
- Customer segments: Who is the customer and what problem does the product solve for them?
- Channels:How are you going to distribute and sell the product?
- Customer relationships: How are you going to create demand?
- Cost structure: What are the fixed and variable costs required for the business? How will the cost and price vary by market segment and location?
- Key activities: What are the company tasks that you need to complete to be successful?
- Key resources: What suppliers and commodities do you need?
- Key partners: What parts of the business aren’t among your strengths? What other enterprises are essential to business success? Who else is needed to reach the client?
- Revenue streams: What are the revenues and profit sources going to be for this product?
In the video below, Keith shares his core advice for anyone seeking to commercialize a technology to a new audience like smallholder farmers.
