SXSW Startups: Vence
The Forrest Four-Cast: February 27, 2019
Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin.
A finalist in Artificial Intelligence, which pitches at 11 am Sunday, March 10, Vence brings autonomous livestock farm management and reduces the cost of sustainably raised meat by eliminating the needs for infrastructure (fences) and labor on livestock farms while giving customers real-time control of animals at the same time. Livestock farms produce 30 percent of the protein in the global diet and contribute to the jobs of 1.7 billion people. Vence products are helping the industry become more efficient and productive while regenerating the environment at the same time. And its AI/ML also provides farmers with additional insight into animal behavior, health and fertility.
CEO Frank Wooten answered some questions about his company.
What is your competitive advantage?
Our competitive advantage is two-fold: our team and our deep understanding of our customers’ business model and needs.
I would put our engineering team up against anyone in the world working on building applications for LPWA communications networks. They are the reason our product will succeed whereas others won’t, the depth of experience they have in this space can’t be replicated.
Second, we have leveraged (and patented) our understanding of the day-to-day nuances of our customers’ business every step of the way while building out our solution. From our hardware to the software to the delivery of our application, it really permeates our business. For our customers it means that we will be the most cost-effective solution for them as well as the most robust.
What are your goals for Vence in 2019?
The whole team is really amped for 2019. This is our coming out year. We have been jamming on product for a while now and are finally rolling it out to our customers. Our high-level goal this year is to have our customers love the product, if we achieve that everything else will fall into place.
Vence arose as a solution to a problem in agriculture. Can you tell us what it is like to launch a startup in an industry that hasn’t yet been significantly affected by technological advances?
I think the question actually perpetuates a misunderstanding of our customers. Farmers have been affected and are actually readily adoptive of technological advances that create value for them. The reality is that agriculture is not software, it is an industry that operates on low margins and is also subject to the whims of mother nature. This means that customers are generally more conservative (read prudent) in their willingness to change practices unless they have done their homework on both the solutions’ impact on their business and the provider of the service. What this means for us is that we have a longer period of building trust with our customers, but they are extremely loyal after you have won that trust.
Tell us about the features of your solution.
The entire solution is a farm management system, a virtual fence is just critical part of it. We put a collar on an animal, which trains it to respond to sound. Thereafter, from their phone, our users can send down fences and other ‘instructions’ to those collars. This tells the animals where and when to move. The device, in turn, sends back updates to the cloud about the animal’s location, behavior and health that help our customers more efficiently manage their farms.
When the initial research for bringing this technology to innovating the way livestock are handled was found, the costs were too high to implement. How did Vence solve the issue of affordability?
Ha! I think everyone in the IoT space should send Apple a thank you card for helping solve the issue of affordability due to the proliferation of the iPhone. The first device made to prove the efficacy of virtual fencing was developed in 2006 by the USDA and MIT and the collar itself cost over $300,000. Since then the cost of GPS, processing, accelerometers, batteries and pretty much anything you need to build a smart-connected device has been reduced by more than 80 percent. Where we have really spent time and money is on the communications. We built a very high quality of service that doesn’t ruin the economics for our customers.
Tell us about the startup ecosystem in San Diego, where you are based.
There is a really strong startup ecosystem in San Diego that has a bit of a bent towards hardware and communications companies. Part of that is a function of the military presence and part of a function of Linkabit Corp. Linkabit is the San Diego equivalent of Fairchild Semiconductor in the Valley. It has 75 direct or indirect spinoff companies including Qualcomm.
Looking at the entire tech industry, what trend is your team most excited about?
Democratization of education. We are big believers that competition drives everyone to be better and, in the end, it forces the creation of a better product for the end user. In the case of education, the end user is really the planet. Global access to education creates competition to be better humans… which should help us solve some of the world’s largest problems like malnutrition, pollution, disease, climate change, oppression, corruption…
What do you enjoy most and least the startup experience?
I imagine that each person’s experience is framed primarily by the problem they are solving. The best part of my experience is interacting with farmers (our customers). We are solving a real problem for them, they are SUPER honest about their needs as well as what will and won’t work. The least enjoyable part of my experience is that the more time I spend with customers the more I am on the road and away from home.
What has the startup experience taught you about life?
Patience and perspective. The cliché is that all investors know it will take longer and be harder than entrepreneurs expect. The reality is that they are right, but it will likely happen in different ways than you imagined possible. Perspective to me is that our short-term wins and losses are not nearly as important as the overall trend-line.
What’s one piece of advice you wish you’d had that you’d give to others wanting to join the startup journey?
No one understands your business like you do so take advice like salt on your eggs… A little each day is great and adds flavor, too much will make the experience inedible.
Look for more interviews with other SXSW Pitch finalists in this space between now and March.
Click here to see all 50 finalists for SXSW Pitch 2019, along with the links to their interviews on Medium.
Also, if you are an entrepreneur, check out all the cool panels and presentations in the Entrepreneurship and Startups Track, which runs March 8–12 at SXSW.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
