James Diamond
Hatch TEK Program 1
8 Aug 2022
Introduction
James has a unique background having an extensive expertise in digital and data-driven marketing, yet remaining closely associated with his family's third-generation cattle property in Victoria. Recently, James sought to combine these two passions, together with his brother Paul who remains active in their farming operation, to co-found agtech startup, AirAgri. Using his deep exposure to the worlds of digital and data, James was eager to bring farming into the modern age, providing a suite of digital tools to farmers to allow them to be more productive, profitable and have better control of their data. Whilst AirAgri was launched prior to joining the HatchTEK program, James was eager to establish deep industry connections, be exposed to growth opportunities to refine their MVP and continue to validate their learnings as an early startup..
AirAgri is an open platform allowing farmers with farming enterprises of all sizes and shapes to create a digital twin of their property, assets and livestock. The core tenets of the AirAgri platform is allowing farmers to create a digital farm map and then incorporate an extensive suite of tools which respond directly to that farming operation, such as to-do lists, weather updates, property information, safety advice and much more. AirAgri is only in the very early stages of its development, but James believes its potential is limitless, as once farmers are comfortable to start capturing on-farm data and present it in a useful manner, there are endless opportunities for customisation and analysis of that information.
Hatch TEK Journey
Having already built an early MVP and established a core customer base, James was in a slightly more advanced position upon entering the HatchTEK program. However, the program provided a perfect opportunity for James to reflect upon their strategy to date and to reassess their primary markets for initial expansion. James conducted several in-depth customer interviews as part of the discovery process, identifying new customer segments which had not previously been addressed. This process opened up new avenues for AirAgri and allowed James to pivot towards new customer segments with new value propositions. The Hatch program offered James the chance to develop a clear product roadmap for the next few months and to clarify the various strategic opportunities which are available for AirAgri in its early growth.
The Hatch program was what we needed to help refine and target our passion and ideas. Without Hatch, I wonder if we would have ever seen our destination and associated path at all or with such clarity
What's Next
Having clarified the next steps, James is proactively pushing into new customer segments and refining their value proposition. While the AirAgri platform is suitable to a broad variety of users, James has identified three key segments which he is targeting in a nuanced way to deliver more value for those customers. To achieve this, James is undertaking continued customer discovery and iterating on their marketing approach to these customer segments. He is capturing this process in a targeted CRM platform to track responses and engagement with the evolving concept.
Additionally, having specified their core target groups, James is also working to enhance the MVP of AirAgri to provide specific features which relate to the needs and interests of these customer segments.
James is making an application to the HoneTek program to gain further assistance and learning opportunities in this exciting phase of growth for AirAgri.
Program Partners
