Anup
Ganguly, Founder of Farmology
My name
is Anup Ganguly, and I am the founder of Farmology, an Agritech startup. I am a
34-year-old Bengali guy who was not born in Bengal, but here I am running a business
out of Kolkata. I am a mechanical engineer by graduation and have an MBA
specialising in marketing and international business. I have had the
opportunity to accumulate rich experience both in my life and career. I have
travelled a lot since my childhood days, especially during my teens, which got
me really excited about meeting new people and understanding various cultures.
From MP to Chhattisgarh to UP to Karnataka to Gujrat and now West Bengal, it
has been quite a ride. And it has helped shape me into the person I am today.
Professionally, I love working in strategy and marketing, but sales are what
laid the foundation of my professional life.
Farmology
Farmology
is an app-based android platform that provides integrated crop advisory with a
unique combination of data and real-time experience, along with a line of
unique agri-inputs. We are also building our output market linkage model in the
fresh produce segment where we connect farmers to farm-to-forks and organised
retail, thus completing the Agri-value chain and making Farmology a full-stack
solution for farmers.
First
step on the way to harvest
Our
company came into existence after I joined my father in his agri-inputs
business. After working for a couple of years in the industry, I found out some
very surprising facts about how the agriculture industry functions. I was
constantly thinking about how to make things better for farmers and the
stakeholders involved in this industry by introducing technology. We registered
the company in December 2018 and started working on marketing our own line of
organic inputs. Just before the pandemic was about to hit, we started piloting
a model for market validation. Within 3 months, we got the validation we were
looking for and Farmology was born.
Can
you share your first hiring experience?
It was
disastrous. We were struggling to find the right person for a sales position.
And then came this guy, who didn’t ask for a salary and agreed to work on a
commission based on sales. He went on billing to crappy dealers, and we ended
up with a huge pile of receivables that were not coming in. Within 7 months, I
decided to take action and fired the guy, which I should have done on the third
month. I understood that hiring is a learning process and no one can actually
master it in one day. Today we are a lean and strong team of 25, and we take
our time before making a hiring decision, as good hires are assets, but bad
hires can really become a liability.
The
vertical scale up
Since we
are in the field of agriculture, scaling will happen vertically, taking a
particular target geography at a time. When it comes to agriculture, India is
not one country. It is a continent with many countries that have different
cultures, languages, and traditions on a regional level. So, scaling up on a
Pan India level will take some time as it’s the rural customers we are
targeting. We will be adding more products and services to our platform to make
it the go-to place for farmers for any agri-related requirements. In other
words, we have a vision to become the "Amazon of agriculture" or
rather the "WeChat of Agriculture" in India.
Is it
possible to balance a personal life and a professional life for an
entrepreneur?
Yes, but
it’s completely up to the entrepreneur. I personally believe in balancing
things. Being an entrepreneur makes you think 24x7 about your business, but it
can also lead to burnout. I agree that entrepreneurs wear many hats when
starting up, but that should not lead to stress. It is tougher to balance your
personal and professional life when you are young and a bachelor, but founders
should learn to create a balance right from the beginning of their
entrepreneurial journey. So, focus on building a good team first, then share
responsibilities and grow together. That way, things won’t really seem that
hard. And you will be able to create a balance between your personal and
professional life.
Years to
come
We have
setup a milestone to onboard 500,000 farmers on our platform who will be
actively using it to generate more income, and it will also motivate their
coming generations to pursue agriculture and farming as an attractive career
path with the help of companies like ourselves.
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